The city of Orlando has made recent strides in improving biking and pedestrian traffic laws, and the mayor had his planned annual bike ride in the morning to commemorate National Bike to Work Day. The people of our city took this day as an opportunity to thank the mayor in a planned community effort to bring attention to the positive effects of riding a bike to work in lieu of an automobile. The flash mob of 300 commuters was coordinated by Bike/Walk Central Florida, Cycling Savvy, and UCF Bike Bus, and was produced and recorded by Brad Kuhn & Associates and yours truly, Appleton Creative.

While our team at Appleton Creative was happy to see Orlando businesswomen come together for such an empowering event, we were especially thrilled that our Creative Director and Owner  Diana LaRue was asked to participate on a panel to discuss how she became such a successful entrepreneur. The speaker was Cari Coats who moderated the panel  of four women, three of which are part of the Rollins College Athena Powerlink Program. The event was a platform for local women business owners to create new leadership opportunities for up and coming women-run businesses.  LaRue lectured on the tactics and skills she used to grow Appleton Creative into the successful company it is today. Diana’s partner, Video Director Mike Speltz, came along to document the exciting day. Watch the video below to view highlights of the panel!

As 2010 draws to a close, it’s time to look back at some of the most noteworthy events in and around Orlando. Central Florida Lifestyle recently featured a great top ten list of the most interesting happenings this year. How many do you recall?

10. UCF Football Makes the Top 25

On November 7, 2010, the University of Central Florida’s football team entered the BCS Standings for the first time since joining Conference USA in 1997. After winning 5 straight games, and posting an 11-game conference winning streak, the Knights were ranked 25 in the AP Poll, 23 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and 25 in the Harris Poll.

9. A New Life for the Space Shuttle

After 30 years of service, NASA’s space shuttle fleet prepares for retirement. But the shuttles themselves will have a new life of service – this time, as museum exhibit pieces. Discovery, oldest in the fleet, has already been promised by NASA to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Central Florida’s Kennedy Space Center is one of 21 facilities now vying for one of the remaining orbiters, Atlantis and Endeavor.

8. Rollins College Celebrates its 125th Anniversary

Founded in 1885, Florida’s oldest recognized college celebrated its 125th anniversary in November. Celebrations were led by former U.S. Poet Laureate and Rollins professor, Billy Collins.

7. The Return of the Predators

Spring of 2010 marked the return of the Orlando Predators after a year-long hiatus. Part of the 15-team Arena Football League (AFL), the Predators are now under a new head coach: Pat O’Hara, himself a former Predators quarterback.

6. Orlando gets Family Feud

As part of a new strategy to allow Universal guests to see live television, the popular syndicated game show “Family Fued” traded its Los Angeles home for Sound Stage 19 at Universal Orlando Resort. The show tapes 165 episodes from July through September.

5. Seminole Community College now Seminole State College

With a surge in enrollment and the Florida’s legislature’s approval to begin offering four-year degrees, Seminole Community College seized upon the opportunity to rebrand itself. Now Seminole State College, the institution debuted its degree program with a Bachelor of Applied Science in interior design, to be followed in 2011 by a variety of Bachelor of Science degrees.

4. Virgin America Connects to Orlando

Chosen for its convention business and underserved presence, Orlando was linked to Virgin America’s West Coast service. The link now allows for non-stop flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to the City Beautiful.

3. Snowfall in Florida

January of 2010 marked one of the coldest Central Florida winters in years with the National Weather Service reporting a light snowfall at daybreak on January 9th. The unusual weather was part of a seven-day cold spell that sent temperatures into the low 30s. Brrr! The last recorded snowfall for the area was over 30 years earlier, in January 1977.

2. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The fantastic and fanciful new themed area in Universal Orlando opened June 18, with lines forming the night before. A smash-hit in park history, the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride took only a month to surpass a million riders.

1. Amway Center Opens

Featuring eight levels and 1,100 digital monitors, the new Amway Center opened in October. Triple the size of its predecessor, the new center offers a wide range of ticket pricing and seating, from $5 seats to premium Orlando Magic season packages for $13,500. Facing Church Street, the center has high promises to revitalize downtown Orlando’s entertainment presence.

After such an exciting and eventful year, we look forward to what 2011 will bring to our community. Happy New Year!

Client: The Orlando Sentinel

Blast from the Past: Appleton Creative produced this video for The Orlando Sentinel and The Orange County Historical Society.  Many photos were shot on location at the Historical Society in 1994 right before they moved into a larger building in downtown Orlando. The video was meant to educate Central Floridians on the history of the city of Orlando and surrounding communities.

By Jeff Gore

PUBLISHED in Orlando Weekly: NOVEMBER 11, 2010

Central Florida’s first emergency shelter for homeless LGBTQ teens, as well as a 24-hour support hotline, should be up and running before year’s end.

A diverse group of local organizations working together under the name the Zebra Coalition recently acquired a building near downtown Orlando that it hopes to convert into a “central intake facility” for distressed LGBTQ youth. The building’s lease option is being funded by the Zebra Foundation for Youth, a nonprofit headed by Orlando businessman Jeff Voss.

Voss, chairman of the Tavistock Group, a billion-dollar investment firm based in Windermere, is on the board of directors for the Center for Drug Free Living. It was there that the idea to create an alliance to support “youth of a different stripe” came about in 2007; a year later, the formation of the Zebra Coalition was announced.

Today, the coalition includes practically all of Central Florida’s LGBTQ youth support groups, such as the Orlando chapter of Parents, Friends, and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Be Real and the Orlando Youth Alliance. It also includes offices from three local universities (Rollins, Stetson and UCF), two city government departments (Orlando Police, Housing and Community Development), and many local nonprofits (Coalition for the Homeless, Human Services Associates, Hope and Help Center of Central Florida, to name a few).

Organizer Philip Toal – also from the Center for Drug Free Living – says the coalition’s goal is to provide “comprehensive care” to teens who have been rejected because of their sexuality, with the Zebra House acting as a hub. Eventually, Toal says, each young person arriving at the house would be assigned a case manager who could call on different coalition member groups to help, depending on the situation. In the case of a teen being kicked out of his or her home, PFLAG may be tasked with communicating with the youth’s parents to try and help mend the relationship. If it’s a matter of depression over one’s sexuality leading to drug use, then intake staff may refer the young person to support meetings by the Orlando Youth Alliance (held at the new house) and counseling by the Center for Drug Free Living. “We would all bring our own areas of expertise together to do the best job we can,” Toal says.

Toal expects the hotline to be up and running within weeks – he says he recently trained 43 volunteers to work the phones – but is quick to warn that the house’s services will not be robust at first. “We’re going to pull things together one at a time,” he says.

Toal says that so far, the coalition has been contacted for help by only four young people, all of them already out of high school. But he expects that once the hotline and house are operational, the coalition will receive more calls.

Keith Theriot, program manager at Orlando’s Housing and Community Development Department, agrees. “Once word gets out, I think it’ll take off very quickly,” he says. “But hopefully we won’t have very many people. It would be nice to know that the service isn’t needed.”

Approximately 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. As the most common cancer among women in America, breast cancer is an increasing heath threat and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women 35-50. However, it is estimated that this mortality rate could decrease by 30% if every woman over the age of 50 was able to have a mammogram. Increasing awareness can change the life of someone you know.

Appleton is proud to support this cause, and looked good doing it!

http://orangeappeal.com/

Diana Simaan, Principal of Baker Barrios Architects, has been succesfully launching her own couture line of clothing and was the winner of the Emerging Designer of the Year Award. Her design graces this month’s cover. Please stay tuned for more or her great designs and our launch of her couture web site.

Work it, girl.

With so many social networking sites available and so much marketing buzz, where do you begin? Give some consideration to the type of social networking community that has the most potential customers before you design your marketing plan. At Appleton, we work with you to think of innovative ways to interact with interested members of a social network, so you can establish new relationships. Your efforts may result in an increased client base and revenue source.

Here are 3 suggestions from the Appleton Social Media Team that can help you reach out to potential customers on a variety of social media websites:

*Create new social networking connections with professionals, companies, and organizations in your specific industry. Take the first step and join their list of fans or contacts, and hopefully they will return the favor. If they do, you have more contacts listed in your social network.

*Identify other organizations and individuals you can reach out to on social networking sites like LinkedIn and review and respond to their published information. These new contacts may be outside of the defined target market for your company or organization. One example is to join a literacy group in the Facebook community if you are in the publishing business. You can talk up your publishing services with your new contacts.

*Search for special interest forums. We also see the social networking craze includes more people flocking to niche websites to regularly participate in user forums. Join a forum if you have something meaningful to contribute or if you believe you will generate good contacts for your business.

There are infinite ways to use social websites to generate consumer awareness and we’re excited to be a resource. Let Appleton Creative help you develop a marketing campaign using social media outlets according to clearly defined objectives.