More coverage here on The Real Estate Channel.

Did you know that the 8% of Florida companies that considered “second-stage” are generating 36% of Florida jobs? If you are the CEO of one of these companies, you should be aware of the GrowFL initiative. There are a range of business services and even a special low-interest loan fund set up for qualified second-stage companies. More information about required qualifications are visible here.

Cultivating growth companies across the state is the mission of the Florida Economic Gardening Institute, funded by the Florida Legislature at the University of Central Florida and involving a host of partners committed to local delivery of statewide services to help second-stage companies achieve their potential. At no charge, GrowFL will provide a suite of high-end, high-speed technical assistance and business resources to companies that have grown beyond the startup phase and need access to information and decision-making tools typically only available to larger companies.

There are 5,000 companies in Florida that fit the specific criteria of second-stage growth companies.  These for-profit, privately held businesses employ between 10 and 50 people, generate $1 million to $25 million in annual revenue, demonstrate growth in number of employees and gross revenues during three of the past five years, and qualify for the tax refund program for qualified target industry businesses.

Recently I attended a breakfast briefing regarding the program, and here are some of the highlights:

• Funded by the Florida legislature / No cost to companies.
• Focused on job-producing second-stage companies.
• Providing one-on-one technical assistance in growth sectors.
• Giving CEOs powerful new tools & ideas for business, matchmaking, and referrals.
• Community-based CEO networks for growth companies.
• Business loans available up to $250K @ only 2% interest.

Date: August 10, 2010
Time: 6:30-8:30 pm

Address:
“Mucho: Tequila and Tacos”
101 S. Eola
Orlando, FL 32801
407-843-9676

You won’t want to miss the great food, drinks, and intelligent conversation — and best of all, admission is FREE, courtesy of DMAF.
Don’t forget to bring a stack of business cards!
…and a friend
…and tell your colleagues!
See You There!!

View it here: Texture Vol 7 Issue 1 2010

Subscribe to Texture Magazine here

Planet Digital Education is hosting a special event: a development class for creating iPhone applications, and we’d like to see if you or someone you know would like to attend.

You will learn:

• How to plan and build iPhone apps from concept to completion
• Get in-depth knowledge of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK)
• Use Objective C to create a real application for the iPhone
• Master the production lifecycle: prototyping, programing, testing, debugging, deploying a fully functional application
• Understanding the iPhone marketplace – gaining developer-level insight into getting your applications approved, sold and updated
• Hands on experience – create an intermediate-level application from start to finish

This class is meant for developers looking to begin developing for the iPhone, technical staff who need more information in order to manage their own iPhone application development, and web developers looking to expand their skill set into this rapidly emerging market.

Date and Time: June 28th – 30th from 9am to 4pm in our facility in Thornton Park.

Seating is limited and the class is already filling up, so register as soon as possible to reserve your place.

Class Description, click the link below to attend:

MOB201 Intermediate iPhone Application Development (3 Days)
Description: Building on a foundation of the basic understanding of how iPhone applications are structured, this course strengthens your knowledge of Objective C and iPhone application development best practices. In this course you will further your understanding of the iPhone software development platform and create an intermediate-level application from scratch. From concept to final build, you will gain an understanding of the phases of the application production cycle and what is involved in the process, so that you can effectively create mobile software for the iPhone platform, gaining a complete understanding of the production cycle from planning your application to coding and implementation. You will learn how the various components work together in order to produce a successful application that will run on a commercial iPhone.

This hands-on class is designed for programmers and developers who want to know the steps necessary to develop a complete and fully functional iPhone application.

Duration: 3 days

Register for the iPhone Development Class at Planet Digital Education

For the past two months, I’ve used my iPad more often than my MacBook or iMac for communication and socialization, primarily web surfing, email and Skype. I can easily get someone else’s creative content: ABC Player, Netflix for Instant Watching, the movies and television shows I subscribe to on iTunes, and more games than I have for my Nintendo DS and of equal (or better) quality. But I haven’t done as much creating on the iPad. Occasionally, I made changes to the DMAF website through the Bluehost Control Panel and via the WordPress engine; but my MacBook and iMac have the programs and workflow I’ve used for years to create new content.

Heading cross-country for a wedding, I decided to leave my MacBook and accessories behind and travel light: iPad and Apple’s small wireless keyboard, Kindle, pocket Nikon and my iPod Nano as my video camera. As an avid photographer, leaving my Nikon DSLR behind was the hardest. Not taking the laptop saved me eight lbs. and a carry-on. Although this was a week-long vacation, it’s hard for me not to bring some work along.

Work-wise, I’m creating a help manual for the DMAF website that includes 60 screenshots, many of them full screen, and decided that this trip would be the perfect opportunity to see how much creative content I could generate with only my iPad and it’s software.

READ MORE HERE

After a year-long campaign by Florida’s Film, Television and Digital/Interactive Media industries, professionals, supporters and associations, the Florida Legislature today passed the forward-looking and comprehensive “Jobs for Florida” bill  (SB 1752, Economic Development).

The bill provides for $242 million in transferable tax credits which will lead to over $1.2 Billion in direct spending in Florida over the next 5 years by digital and interactive media, film and television productions in our state.

The annual allocations of tax credits are: $53.5M in 2010-11; $74.5M in 2011-12; and $38M each year for the subsequent three years (’12-’13,  ’13-’14  and  ’14-’15 ), with base incentives of 20% for major digital and interactive media, film and TV projects over $625K, as well as 20% for Emerging and Independent Media projects of between $100K and $625K in qualified expenditures.

Information about applying for these incentives (starting June 7^th, first come, first served) can be found below in the release issued by the Governor’s Office of Film and Entertainment, and on their website at: www.FilmInFlorida.com

CONGRATULATIONS AND THANKS!

We will spend the next many days reaching out to thank all those that supported and aided in the passage of this momentous and unprecedented bi-partisan legislation.

It is important to note that SB 1752 passed the Senate 39-0, and then passed the House today 115-0!!!

This level of unanimous support would not have been possible without the literally thousands of industry professionals, legislative and executive staff members, association leaders, government relations representatives and of course, legislative leadership that worked together to make this happen.

SB 1752 is the companion bill to the House Entertainment Industry Economic Development Act (HB 697) which Digital Media Alliance Florida and many, many others worked to craft side by side with sponsor Representative Steve Precourt, and prime co-sponsors Kevin Ambler and Jennifer Carroll; Finance & Tax Chair Ellyn Bogdanoff, Governor’s Office of Film & Entertainment Director Lucia Fishburne, and numerous other House co-sponsors, including the significant assitance of Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasalina (D-Tallahassee).

And on the Senate side, we wish to laud the efforts of Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville), who introduced SB 1752 with his key co-sponsor Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Margate) and bi-partisan members of the Senate Select Committee on Florida’s Economy.   We also wish to recognize the key role that Senator Haridopolos and his staff played in introducing and championing his companion SB 1430 which led the Senate charge to match the House HB 697 efforts.   Thanks also to Senators Fasano, Richter, Negron, Bennett, Thrasher, Hill, Sobel, Lynn and Detert.

This has truly been an all out effort by our legislators!!!

And we would be seriously remiss if we did not highlight the vital roles played by: Film Florida, the Florida Film Production Coalition, the Florida Alliance of Media and Entertainment, Women in Film & Television-Florida, the Entertainment Software Association, Florida Film & Entertainment Advisory Council members, local city and county leaders, economic development organizations, educational institutions and many companies including Digital Domain Holdings, Electronic Arts, Telemundo, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and numerous others.

We join Lucia Fishburne in saying what a privilege it’s been to be part of this incredible team effort!

Now all that remains is for Governor Charlie Crist to sign this bill, and Florida’s Entertainment Industries are off to the races!

UPDATE: The Governor signed the bill!

As some of you have no doubt heard, HB 697, the House version of our economic incentive bill, passed late Tuesday afternoon — 117 to 0!!!!

The Bill’s primary co-sponsors (Rep Precourt, Rep Carroll, and Rep Ambler) did an outstanding job of presenting the bill, with Rep Glorioso and Rep Rehwinkel-Vasilinda standing with them in bi-partisan support.

To top it off, all 112 other representatives on the floor signed on as co-sponsors, so the sponsorship was unanimous as well as the vote! A tremendous success, on the heels of the Senate Jobs Bill passage.

One more to go (Senator Haridopolos’  companion bill, SB 1430, which enjoys strong support).   See Lucia Fishburne’s “Film 1” write-up for more details.

ACTION: DMAF asks you to thank the various supporters of the bill from our regions, and rightfully so! Please refer to earlier news posting, find your reprentative in the list, and reach out with your personal message of thanks!

Enjoy this tremendous success!!!  It continues to be a massive team effort. DMAF extends special thanks to Lucia Fishburne, David Caserta, Leah Sokolowski and the many other behind-the-scenes supporters of this legislative effort for their passionate and knowledgeable support and guidance.

Rep Precourt, Rep Carroll, and Rep Ambler eloquently and enthusiastically presented the bill with Rep Glorioso and Rep Rehwinkel-Vasilinda standing with them. Many other members stood up and passionately expressed their support.

After the vote, Rep Precourt asked the Speaker to open up the voting machine so he could invite members to sign on as co-sponsors. All members present – 112 members total – signed on as co-sponsors. This is incredible support indeed! We are so very grateful to the primary sponsors and the many other co-sponsors.

The bill will now go over to the Senate. Rep Precourt and Rep Carroll will be over there today to urge leadership to move along the process. There are several possible scenarios that could develop, but all will involve negotiating the final language and the total amount of tax credits available.

We are hopeful that, at minimum, the Senate will accept the House language and suggested numbers ($55 million the first year, $50 million the second year, and $27 million the following three years).  However, Senator Haridopolos’s companion bill (SB1430) still holds at $75 million a year,  which provides good leveraging room to get the House’s numbers up.  The language in the Gaetz’s “jobs bill” (SB 1752), which already passed the Senate, includes $20 million a year for five years for the part related to the entertainment incentive.

We will keep everyone posted, and as always, you can locate the most recent the legislative updates and links to legislative information on our website at http://www.filminflorida.com/wh/Legislative.asp.

Please thank your area Representative(s) for their support if you see their name in the list of additional co-sponsors for HB697.

HB 697 by Finance & Tax Council and Economic Development Policy Committee and [Primary Sponsors] Precourt and Ambler and Carroll

(CO-SPONSORS) Abruzzo; Adams; Adkins; Anderson; Aubuchon; Bembry; Bernard; Bogdanoff; Bovo; Boyd; Brandenburg; Braynon; Brisé; Bullard; Burgin; Bush; Cannon; Chestnut; Clarke-Reed; Coley; Cretul; Crisafulli; Cruz; Culp; Domino; Dorworth; Drake; Eisnaugle; Evers; Fetterman; Fitzgerald; Flores; Ford; Fresen; Frishe; Galvano; Garcia; Gibbons; Gibson; Glorioso; Gonzalez; Grimsley; Hasner; Hays; Heller; Holder; Homan; Hooper; Horner; Hudson; Hukill; Jenne; Jones; Kelly; Kiar; Kreegel; Kriseman; Llorente; Long; Lopez-Cantera; Mayfield; McBurney; McKeel; Murzin; Nehr; O’Toole; Pafford; Patronis; Patterson; Plakon; Poppell; Porth; Proctor; Rader; Ray; Reagan; Reed; Rehwinkel Vasilinda; Renuart; Rivera; Robaina; Roberson, K.; Roberson, Y.; Rogers; Rouson; Sachs; Sands; Saunders; Schenck; Schwartz; Skidmore; Snyder; Soto; Stargel; Steinberg; Taylor; Thompson, N.; Thurston; Tobia; Troutman; Van Zant; Waldman; Weatherford; Weinstein; Williams, A.; Williams, T.; Wood; Workman; Zapata

Lucia Fishburne
State Film Commissioner
Governor’s Office of Film & Entertainment
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St., Suite 2001
Tallahassee, FL  32399-0001
Phone: 850.410.4765
Fax: 850.410.4770
email: lucia.fishburne@myflorida.com
www.filminflorida.com