Beyond the shadow of the region’s theme parks exists a booming cultural infrastructure, ripe for an ever-growing population of hip millennials, reveling in all that Orlando has to offer while wearing skinny jeans and drinking nitrous coffee. Central Florida is a Golden Girls Narnia no longer and is being embraced as a refreshing new home base for national trendsetters and civic-minded social entrepreneurs itching to make an impact on the place they’ve chosen to make their home.
Learn MoreTopics: Workforce and Talent, Sustainability, Arts and Culture
Social entrepreneurship and innovation is a global movement that applies business principles to solve for the world’s most pressing problems. Orlando is rapidly creating a name for itself in the global social entrepreneurship movement. The region already houses a core hub of social businesses, including Arrow Sky Media, Clean the World, CREDO, Fleet Farming, First Green Bank and Limbitless Solutions.
Learn MoreTopics: Venture Capital, Sustainability, Inclusive, Business Growth Opportunities, Entrepreneurship
Imagine walking into a coffee shop that serves quality, fair trade coffee and ordering a drink, but instead of getting a bill, the cashier asks, “How much would you like to pay?” One might wonder how such a place could exist, but it does - at Downtown CREDO, right here in Orlando. CREDO functions as a donations-only coffee shop, meaning that customers choose their own price. Founded in 2010 by local social entrepreneur, Ben Hoyer, CREDO was created not because of a passion for coffee, but to serve as a vehicle for his purpose: to make his community better.
Learn MoreTopics: Sustainability, Inclusive, iGRO, Entrepreneurship
Ten years ago, Shawn Seipler learned that the barely used bars of hotel soap he left behind during business trips ended up in a landfill. Shawn realized that these products could be recycled to prevent hygiene-related illnesses around the globe, and from this transformational idea, the organization Clean the World was born. The global benefit corporation, headquartered in Orlando, collects and recycles soap products discarded by the hospitality industry and distributes these products to the impoverished, preventing millions of hygiene-related deaths each year.
Learn MoreTopics: Education, Sustainability, Entrepreneurship
Orlando's culinary scene heating up. Recently rated a top foodie city in the U.S. by WalletHub, Orlando has already made significant national headlines. Orlando’s food scene has been featured in The Boston Globe (here and here), The Toronto Sun, Style BluePrint, Delta Magazine, New York Magazine and Thrillist.
National recognition for Orlando chefs and restaurants has also been on the rise. Two Orlando chefs were nominated for the national James Beard award. Three Orlando restaurants were featured in celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Orlando’s foodie scene recently welcomed the re-opening of Guy Fieri’s the famous Planet Hollywood, and Orlando hotspot Redlight Redlight was highlighted in USA Today’s 10 Best BrewPubs of 2017.
Learn MoreTopics: Rankings, Collaboration, Sustainability, Dining, Entrepreneurship
While many people associate Orlando with its booming tourism industry, many do not realize that Orlando is paving the way for a more eco-friendly and sustainable future. In fact, Orlando is ranked as one of the greenest cities in America by EcoWatch. The region was recently elected as an innovative training ground for autonomous vehicles. Orlando is a top city for urban farming (Redfin 2016) and is one of only five cities awarded the Smart City Council Readiness Challenge grant in 2017.
Learn MoreTopics: Sustainability, Autonomous Connections
