The recent Florida Jobs Summit, hosted by Senator Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker-elect Dean Cannon here in Orlando, brought leaders in business, government, education and labor together to focus on ideas to help boost investment, economic growth and job creation in the Sunshine State.

This interactive public forum provided an opportunity for concerned business leaders and citizens from throughout the State of Florida to provide input directly to state legislators as the head into they 2010 Legislative Session. Suggestions for accelerating job creation ranged from short term, such as suspending the increase in Florida's Unemployment Compensation Tax; to the long term, such as developing new, non-tax sources of revenue to invest in development of human capital and infrastructure; to the political, such as a call to defeat the proposed Constitutional Amendment 4 known as Hometown Democracy.

Stakeholder input was also vital to development of Enterprise Florida's (EFI) newly released five year plan "The Roadmap to Florida's Future" In establishing priorities for this plan, Enterprise Florida, our statewide economic development organization, gathered input from citizens and community stakeholders throughout the state over the last year - in both public forums and through an interactive Web site.

The EFI plan includes 24 sets of recommendations to help establish Florida as a leader in the global innovation economy, including strategies for industry cluster development, workforce development, business climate improvement, and expanded global marketing. To view the plan, visit http://www.eflorida.com/roadmap.

Today kicks off the fifth annual OTRONICON - (O)rlando Elec(tron)ic (I)nteractive Entertainment (Con)vention - event at the Orlando Science Center.

A four day event, Otronicon is a celebration of interactive technology using video games to demonstrate the future of how we live, learn, work and play.

Otronicon spotlights Metro Orlando's growing digital media and simulation industries and helps introduce those industries to students throughout the region through several game design workshops taught by Full Sail University.

The 2010 Orlando Filmbook is here! This is the go-to guide for the film industry in Metro Orlando. Everything about filming in Orlando is included - incentives, sales tax, labor laws, locations, permitting, etc. In addition, the Filmbook provides information on all aspects of the film industry - directors, producers and production companies; backlots, stages and locations; crews and technicians; talent services; equipment; production support; and post production.

The Orlando Filmbook is published annually by the Metro Orlando Film & Entertainment Commission - a division of the Metro Orlando EDC. The Film Commission provides the following services:

• 24 hour access to the Orlando Filmbook online at www.filmorlando.com
• One-stop permitting for location filming
• Use of an extensive digital location library...accessible anytime, from anywhere
• Preliminary scouting, evaluation of locations, and familiarization tours
• Assistance with local hotels and accommodations
• Support throughout the entire production schedule

Order your 2010 Orlando Filmbook online today!

And be sure to connect with the Metro Orlando Film & Entertainment Commission via social networking on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube to stay updated on the latest film and digital media news.

It's the first week of a new year, which means many of us have made our "live a healthier lifestyle" new year's resolution. Well, Orlando might be just the place to do it!

As the rest of the world is beginning to discover, Metro Orlando is leading the way in the trendy field of lifestyle and preventive medicine. Our region is already home to several renowned lifestyle fitness facilities - including the National Training Center, led by Central Florida native and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Dr. Dot Richardson; Celebration Health Assessment, a proponent of the CREATION Health lifestyle program; the Rippe Lifestyle Institute; and the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at the University of Central Florida, both of which are led by Dr. James Rippe, one of the leading authorities on preventive cardiology, health and fitness, and healthy weight loss in the United States.

Those are all good starting places for resolution makers.

Scientific leaders in our region are also focused on future advances in this realm. For example, a recent article by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando oncologists, published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, points to lifestyle interventions that can prevent and treat various types of cancer. The article looks at five cancers - lung, colon and rectal, breast, prostate and skin - that have causes that are lifestyle based and controllable through alterations in human behavior.

In addition, the primary focus of research at the new Burnham Institute for Medical Research at Lake Nona is on combating diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease - health problems that are often avoidable or manageable through lifestyle adaptations. To help put these research lessons quickly into practice, Burnham has teamed with Orlando-headquartered Florida Hospital to establish a Clinical Research Institute where the two organizations will work together to conduct translational research, creating a bridge between the lab and the bedside.

Could Metro Orlando one day become the healthiest region in the nation? Dr. Rippe thinks so. "You have to start somewhere... Why not Orlando?" he says. "Orlando has tremendous advantages going for it. There's the year-round warm climate; it has a powerful and large university; it has a new medical city being planned; and it also has a very visionary healthcare community... There are so many things that point to Orlando as being the ideal place for this."

New year, new you, new industry for Metro Orlando. That's a resolution worth keeping!

To read more in the latest issue of the EDC's Texture magazine: click here and here.