A partnership between the local Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Valencia Community College (VCC) and the Department of Homeland Security has formed to provide TSA employees with college level classes about homeland security. The TSA Associates Program premiered last August with 48 students and continued to expand in the spring with 24 new students. The program runs concurrently with the traditional Valencia schedule, but the classes are offered conveniently on airport property.

Currently, 90 percent of the TSA workforce does not have a college degree. The long-term goal for the program is to offer a degree in homeland security, but the next step in the process will likely be a certificate of specialization available to TSA employees and air marshals who complete the required courses. There are many long-term benefits for TSA employees with college experience, including increasing their competiveness for promotions.

For more, read Securing the Homeland from Texture Magazine.

The world's second oldest Airline - Avianca, a member of the Avianca/TACA Alliance - has announced plans to initiate direct, non-stop service between Orlando International Airport (MCO) and Bogota International Airport (BOG). Beginning this summer, the new service will connect the two destinations with service four times per week.

This expanded service is good for both business and tourist travel between our markets. Approximately 70,500 Colombian's live in the Central Florida area. With service now available on Avianca, passengers will have access to numerous Central and South American markets including Caracas, Lima, Quito, Guayaquil, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, Cali, Cartagena, and Medellin.

Avainca is one of four airlines who have recently announced that they will initiate operations at Orlando International Airport this summer. The others are Air France, Caribbean Airlines, and Edelweiss Air. Altogether this increased international traffic brings with it an estimated local economic impact of nearly $90 million.

Orlando International Airport has more non-stop domestic service than any other airport in Florida and offers service to 25 non-stop international destinations.

Who doesn't hate waiting at the doctor's office just to check-in? One downtown Orlando-based IT company is revolutionizing the patient experience to make better use of mobile devices, such as iPads, to speed up patient check-in times by up to 80 percent.

NIIT Healthcare Technologies is introducing the second version of MASH (Manage, Analyze, Sustain, Harness), their innovative collaborative framework that connects patients and healthcare providers. This version of MASH:

• Is smart device-friendly. MASH 2 will allow patients to securely pre-register for doctor or hospital visits from almost any mobile device, including iPhones, iPads, laptops and PCs from home, work or while traveling.

• Offers secure authentication. MASH 2 will include advanced security features that identify patients by fingerprint or palm scanners. Researchers at NIIT Healthcare Technologies are working on non-intrusive methods that can actually read a person's DNA through palm scanning, ensuring the utmost in patient privacy.

• Offers high-end interactivity. MASH 2 will offer interactive tools that include a 3-D image of the human body, allowing patients to point to the areas where they are experiencing pain or injuries. This is especially useful for children or non-English speaking adults who will be able to show where they are in pain.

NIIT Healthcare Technologies, winner of Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission's William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Award, is part of NIIT Technologies, a global IT solutions provider with more than 5,000 employees.

Team Cymru, a specialized Internet security research firm that helps organizations identify and eradicate criminal activity online and in their networks, announced this week that they will relocate their corporate headquarters from Illinois to Metro Orlando.

EDC business development representatives Brian Walters and Tracy Turk were in Chicago late last week, along with EDC board member Bill Vogel, superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools. They met with the company's 25 headquarter employees and their families, most of whom will relocate to Central Florida. Company operations are expected to be up and running here by August 1st, with the move completed by the end of the year. Negotiations are underway for a location in Seminole County.

Relocating with Team Cymru will be a talented team of individuals who have experience in systems development, IP network engineering, security architecture, systems and network administration, network and hard drive forensics, malware analysis, penetration testing, and a variety of other areas.

Together, this Team delivers some of best security insight and services in the industry, including many no-cost services offered for the benefit of the Internet community. In addition to its headquarter employees, the company also has researchers based in the UK; Poland; New Zealand; Australia; Arizona; Washington D.C.; New York; Missouri; and California. The company has announced plans to hire an additional six employees immediately, and expect to make additional hires within the next two years.

In fact, it is the ability to recruit the skilled UNIX system engineering and development talent that attracted Team Cymru to this market. "We've assured our clients of two things," says company CEO Rob Thomas. "In the short term, we can and will accomplish this move with no disruption to their or our business. In the longer term, the move will permit our company to grow. We are confident that the Orlando market gives us access to a plethora of candidates with the skills we need, as well as the ability to recruit and retain the best and brightest talent."

Though Team Cymru specializes in sophisticated computer security applications, they say that the most frequent question they answer is this: "What is Cymru?". Pronounced "kum-ree", it is the Welsh word for the country of Wales. The company name, along with its distinctive dragon logo, is a nod to two of the Team Cymru founders, who have strong ties to Wales.

From Walt Disney to Glen L. Martin, Metro Orlando has a long history of entrepreneurial activity and is among top locations for innovative companies and entrepreneurs.

This week during National Small Business Week, a one-of-a-kind Central Florida resource (and one of only two such centers in the nation) moved into a new 22,000-square-foot home at Orlando Fashion Square Mall, ensuring easy access and plentiful parking for those taking advantage of its services - a one-stop center for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The move also comes with a new name: National Entrepreneur Center (NEC).

Since its start eight years ago, the center and its service providers have been involved in $125 million worth of loans, coached 70,000 businesses and assisted in more than 700 new business launches.

Designed to provide a single location where small businesses can access a variety of business resources, technology, research tools and professional mentors, some of the services available to your business through the NEC include: one-on-one business coaching, low-cost seminars, networking events, access to software and business resources, certification assistance for minority-owned businesses, connections to procurement opportunities, marketing and publicity counseling, and much more.

Former BusinessWeek columnist and author Bill Holstein was the speaker at last week's gathering of the EDC's CEO Roundtable. Holstein was in Orlando to promote his newly-released book, The Next American Economy: Blueprint for a Real Recovery, which profiles communities across the country that, he suggests, will drive future innovation and generate economic growth.

The book features Orlando as one of nine American cities that reflect a critical factor necessary to America's economic recovery: creativity. Launching off of a 2010 IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs from across the globe that cited creativity as the #1 "leadership competency" of the future, Holstein suggests that "idea factories" found in places like Orlando breed new technologies that build up an entrepreneurial ecosystem. The system, in turn, creates clusters. And industry clusters, he contends, are what sets America apart from other countries.

Holstein's book is the result of 30 years of studying how wealth is created and innovation nurtured around the world ... and how nations, states and localities use innovation to generate jobs. The chapter dedicated to Orlando spotlights this region's simulation industry, focusing on the people, companies, organizations, institutions and initiatives driving the industry. He sums up his assessment of Orlando's economy by suggesting that Orlando and its diverse industry base offer "a creative stew" that is "showing the way to the rest of Florida and other Sunbelt states."

This accolade complements several others that Orlando has garnered so far this year, including recognition as a top "comeback city" from Kiplinger.com, a "top location for minority entrepreneurs" by Forbes, a "top business friendly city" by Foreign Direct Investment, and as "the state's fastest growing metropolis" by Reuters.

The Next American Economy, which is available via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, has already received solid reviews, ranking as one of the top 10 business books out this spring by Publishers Weekly. For more on Holstein, go to williamjholstein.com

"Economic development results create jobs, that generate income, that improve the quality of life ... so that people build things, pay taxes, raise families, and invest in a continuous cycle of economic growth."

Economic development matters because its results matter. That is the primary message of a new "digital visualization" created for the EDC through the generosity of the Orlando office of North Highland and their Atlanta-based creative partner Sparks Grove. Long-time EDC supporter North Highland offered to produce the video as a tool to help tell the EDC story in an impactful manner to local audiences of all ages.

Through a combination of video and animation, this new resource explains the process and impact of economic development on the local economy, businesses and citizens. It also answers the question, "Why should I care?", by introducing an emotional, personal connection to that process.

Does it work? See for yourself. Click here to view the newest EDC promotional resource.