No food pictures this time. This was going to be a leisurely few days getaway… and then we discovered restaurants worthy of your attention if in Greenville or Franklin (North Carolina) or Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Originally, my husband Russ and I booked a flight and hotel in Asheville, NC. When Hurricane Helene drove forceful winds and powerful floods throughout the artsy mountain community, we ended up staying
NO CAR, BUT HOTEL CHARGED MANDATORY VALET PARKING FEE!
No car, but parking fee charged anyway.
Robert Kraus, travel professional, event planner, and owner of Small Conferences LLC took an “expensive van service from the airport to a Florida hotel for a three-day educational conference aimed at meeting planners,” he explains. In his LinkedIn post, Kraus said the property was “near a beach that literally brags about how most of the properties there do not charge a “resort fee” and even offer free parking. The actual town I stayed in offers a surplus of complimentary parking along the main strip with no parking restrictions – welcoming guests to drive and stay there (as they are an hour away from the closest regional airport).” Along with his key and information about the complimentary breakfast
Wellness. What does it mean to you and how does having it benefit you both personally and professionally?
What it is, what to do about it, and what steps can be taken to improve an individual’s wellness are topics discussed in seminars, meetings, publications, and in the latest SBO Connects July 17 session. Claire Caldwell, a New York-based small business owner who specializes in Sales & Marketing Training, and who co-chairs
Just one of the extraordinary inflatables by Disco Designer.
Occasionally, I see event props and décor that are over-the-top incredible. I have worked functions with enormous inflatables that enhance a theme but the ones from Peter Yordanov’s Disco Designer group soar to new levels of creativity, vivid colors, imagination, and yes, size. While there are many enormous inflatables on his FaceBook and LinkedIn
Lisa Speer panned for gold, not in a riverbed or deep within a cave walls’ veins. Instead, she targeted a much more valuable and easily accessed resource: her satisfied clients.
In the March 20th, one hour Zoom education session hosted by Meeting Professionals International’s Small Business Owners (MPI SBO) community council, the founder of Speerhead Solutions, a strategic branding business, said that “Testimonials are gold. But simply asking for one doesn’t ensure
By Karen Kuzsel
Have your New Year’s resolutions for organizing, amplifying, and focusing your business gotten caught up in the complexities of personal and business time management, trying to be all things to all people in order to keep the money flowing in, sorting through business apps for one suitable to your expertise and needs, and trying to keep up with governmental rules, both federal, state or even by
HOT DEALS!
River rafting with Western River expeditions can earn planners a free trip!
Planners who book a group for a Western River Expeditions’ rafting adventure in 2024 get the entire trip for free. The charters are for river rafting trips in Southern Utah destinations such as Desolation Canyon and Cataract Canyon as well as through Moab. Early bird bookings have the best selection of departure dates and destinations. User-friendly links also come with supplemental trip information, all designed
If time has been slipping away from you into 2024 and you’re desperate to have a more cohesive business plan, what should you do to get there? (Giving up, pulling your hair out, or pretending it won’t matter because you’ll figure it out “later” are not viable responses.)
The question of best practices for future business planning was the topic of discussion for the November 29, MPI SBO Connects hour-long session on Zoom. The Small Business Owners community is a slice of Meeting Professionals International that offers discussions and information about how to run your business. One way that is done is by offering informal social chat sessions
Lessons the hospitality, meetings & events industries learned from the “great COVID interruption” is that business models may have gotten deconstructed and staffing thinned, but continuing industry professionals dug in and have reshaped businesses to meet the future. Next generations of eager beginners are joining the ranks to reshape the future. It is imperative that valuable experience earned by longtime professionals is recognized and shared with “newbies”, that young staffers build new networking relationships, and that the experienced professionals who have left corporate positions to begin their own small business will evolve and thrive.
The Meeting Professional International Small Business Owners (MPI SBO) community is here to help. The community
What if the road you were travelling on suddenly dead-ended or another path beckoned with possibilities? Would you continue your planned journey or stride forward to see what could happen, prepared to meet unknown challenges?
Fortunately for the hospitality, meetings and events industries, Terri Breining, CMM, CED and CMP Fellow, chose the latter.
As she indicated during the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Small Business Owners’ SBO) Mentorship Moments hour-long Zoom session on May 18, her business journey has never been predictable or traveled in her anticipated direction, but what made her journey remarkable
The Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Small Business Owners’ (SBO) April Mentor program on ChatGPT had barely turned off the Zoom microphones and web cameras when the plethora of newer information and controversies about the suddenly-trending Artificial Intelligence (AI) came pouring across the social media-verse faster than a speeding (bullet) train.
If you are an MPI member and want to learn how ChatGPT does or may affect your small business (under 400 staff), click onto MPI’s SBO
I am not the only person who has entered my personal information into a website that is later hacked. I wish I could say it’s only occurred once.
Because of that, I am acutely sensitive to where my info is captured. That sensitivity is why I want to share an article sent directly to me as a journalist-blogger from Widness & Wiggins PR (Salt Lake City, UT) for their client, WaiverSign.
I hope that by sharing, you will better understand how six new privacy laws (with more coming) may directly impact both how your personal information is collected and what steps your company website must take to protect your customers.
HOT DEALS!
Lip print readings even fun for men. Check it out for the MPI SBO virtual holiday social! (See below for details.)
Maybe the name of iconic Inn on Fifth & Club Level Suites’ new “To the Nines” package should have had the word “opulence” included in the title. If you are seeking to have a vacation that is “to the moon and back” luxurious, check out this offer that is available until May 31, 2023. The Naples, FL boutique property is offering luxury experiences that showcase the best of the Naples lifestyle. Designed for two, the package centers on a three-night stay in either the King Supreme Suite or the elegant Presidential Suite, both with spacious verandahs overlooking Fifth Avenue South. Club Level amenities include deluxe
No one doubts that the hospitality, meetings & events industries faced meltdowns during the height of the COVID Pandemic, but what have business owners done to overcome the negative challenges and redirect their business to effect more positive outcomes? For many, that begins with Managing Client Expectations, the topic of the October 20th CommuniTEA hosted by Meeting Professionals International’s (MPI) Small Business Owners (SBO).
Your next great partnership may be someone you meet at a chapter meeting, on the other end of a cold call, or it could be from joining in on a Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Small Business Owners (SBO) casual chat called CommuniTEA. The one-hour Zoom call focuses on a core topic of concern to SBO members.
TradeWinds has also added the new Zing Ray Zip to its St. Petersburg, FL resorts.
NEWLY OPENED, RENOVATED, AND COMING SOON
You might say that TradeWinds Island Resorts is zipping along. After all, the St. Petersburg, FL resorts, which includes the Island Grand and RumFish Beach Resort, have added 141 guestrooms, new zip line on the beach, and a new Mexican restaurant concept at the Island Grand. The 141 rooms were part of the property formerly known as the Alden Suites, which was acquired by TradeWinds last March and incorporated into the RumFish Beach Resort. The expansion brings the
Pool area at Caerula Mar Resort in Andros, The Bahamas.
HOT DEALS!
Homesick-branded candles and The Bahamas have teamed up with luxury resort, Caerula Mar Club in Andros, for a four-day, three-night escape package. Enter to win. One lucky winner (and guest) will be randomly drawn on February 28. The package is worth over $2,000.
Meetings Mayhem
Meetings Mayhem is what happens when you tumble dry the principles of Murphy’s Law with surprising mishaps experienced by hospitality, meetings and events, and entertainment industry experts, and then have a professional meeting planner collect and fold them into a passion project ready-made as a “how to respond to nightmare scenarios and come out a winner” book. I vacillated between laughing out loud and gratefully moaning, “Thank goodness it wasn’t me in that situation!”
You don’t have to be in the aforementioned industries to appreciate that “no matter how well you plan, there is always something beyond your control that can drastically upend at the last minute.” What author and professional meeting planner Terry Matthews-Lombardo, CMP demonstrates is that no matter how dire the situation might seem, the anecdotes contained within the pages of this easy-to-read 182 pages are an amusing guide for what-to-do-if…
Rolling out strudel dough at Dunaalmási Lovarda, a Hungarian family farm and cooking school.
“Just take one bite. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat a second.” I can still hear my mom’s cajoling words when I turned up my nose or clenched my mouth tight. Light years later, those very words slipped out of my mouth when my picky-eater daughter would refuse to eat what I had cooked. Fortunately for both of us, now world class champions of trying a bite of something unfamiliar (no insects, please… I can only bend so far!), the “try one bite rule” has enabled us to travel across many countries and continents, devouring many new foods along the way.
The flames from the large stand-alone heater flicked closer to my hair with each breezy gust. I have thick, long curly hair. One errant spark and both my hair and the nightmarish trauma witnessed by the guest seated across from me would turn this corporate event from a fun, relaxing tropical party in the hotel gardens, to absolute disaster.
The close call could have been so easily prevented.
If only the party coordinators or hotel wait staff hurriedly removing dirty plates and glasses strewn on linen-topped tables had thought, “Hmmm. I wonder if we should move those patio heaters a tad further from seated diners. The flames seem to be escaping their confines with each wind gust.”
A short while back there was a viral-bound joke that if vaccination site managers wanted to have their operations, appointments and follow through go smoothly, they should turn to meeting and event planners. The joke continued that not only would the task be done skillfully and to everyone’s satisfaction, but all those seniors who had endured standing in long lines, (sometimes throughout the night), unsure if they’d even score a shot, would have been served snacks, a drink and maybe even a chair. I was likely among the meetings & event Insiders who didn’t see the surface humor in the proposition. I had discussed that same “duh moment” ad nauseum with industry friends and my husband and wondered why no one in charge hadn’t already figured that out. Who better to strategize all the minutia of appointments, parking, cue lines, qualified staff, and follow up visits to fulfillment, than a planner?
This Florida Time Travel Series captivates the imagination and reveals facts about Florida that likely few know other than historical or geological researchers.
16,500 years BP (Before Present time), a bald stranger wearing tight dark blue pants and turtleneck, black boots and black cape appears suddenly before an ancient Indian chief and his son. Before the stranger from 2338 CE (Common Era) departs in the same gust of cool swirling air, he imparts knowledge of wheels and wagons: practical tools to advance their progress as a people and as the first step in preparing them to counter the lethal invasion of Europeans in 1492. That stranger, whom the natives think of as a god, materializes multiple times in later centuries, each time dispensing knowledge for making tools, and techniques and languages for the betterment of diverse ancient tribes. However, not all time travelers proved to be as magnanimous.
Time travel topics have always tantalized my imagination. These were whimsical what-if stories that begged for suspension of known science; yet armed with a cozy couch and a glass of wine, made for delightful sojourns of the mind.
Then I read the Florida time travel trilogy written by John Charles Miller, a Tampa, FL-based author, groundwater geologist in the United States and Latin America for more than 40 years, and an avid birdwatcher with his wife, Mary.
The three books of alternate history (there’s that what-if premise)– Citrus White Gold, The Gatherers, and Deep Florida, are embedded with rich dialogue, colorful characters, articulated technology, and graphic depiction of how events and Florida’s native population’s history might have plausibly impacted today’s Florida. The stories are absorbing, thought-provoking, stimulating fun.
I am awed by John Charles Miller’s proficiency at dialogue to reflect the locations and timelines. His In-depth descriptions of a place or event compelled me to research their veracity, for no reason than just wanting to know if this detail was fact or fiction. Each instance was a factual pivotal moment of Florida history meticulously woven into the stories’ narrative. So, not only did I spend many hours of enjoyable time reading, but I learned about Central Florida, where I live.
Each book can be read on its own, but I encourage you to read them in succession.
What if you were in the target zone of this shooter?
The headlines have become all too numbingly familiar: mass killings at schools, airports, churches, offices, restaurants, arenas and public streets.
What if fight or flight aren’t your only solutions?
What if you could prepare yourself to spot dangerous behaviors, strategize how you’d narrow the chances of being caught unawares, and might save both yourself and others during unexpected, volatile, life-threatening scenarios?
It’s about understanding behavior patterns and looking at anomalous behavior outside of the normal baseline. It’s about profiling behavior, not people and identifying behavioral indicators consistent to a potential threatening environment.
All of the above are possible according to two experienced lawmen who addressed the Greater Orlando (FL) chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) luncheon held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress.
Director of Education & Life Safety for the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM) Mark Herrera’s keynote presentation was aimed at mitigating threats to employees or meeting groups, but the practical information would be as applicable to individuals.
I was threatened today by email. Third time this particular threat has arrived in the past few weeks. Each time the message is roughly the same: send me bitcoins or I will expose you to your friends, family, and all email contacts.
The return addresses are always different. Sometimes the threat is that they have one of my passwords and in good faith, they reveal it. I immediately called my computer guru, Joseph Boy of Your Computer Solutions, who said he gets these messages also. Just delete them. He explained how the hacking trolls obtained that one password, but they haven’t actually wormed their way into my system.
Today’s email heading actually bore one of my own email address, which I didn’t notice until after I began reading the threatening email. That is part of the scare tactic: I can spoof your email and everyone will open this insidious note because they will think I am sending it. I’ve gotten many phone calls that spoofed a business name and even twice our home number said it was us calling, but this email got right to the point of trying to instill fear instead of just scamming me into buying their services.
This troll alleged he had remoted into my webcam and caught me watching porn. Send a $1000 in bitcoin or the world would see my scandalous activities. It was a much more detailed, longer message than ones I’ve gotten before, but still cautioning me against calling the police or trying to track the extortionist.
Sad news for them. I don’t watch porn and I don’t have a webcam.
I haven’t gotten the phone calls about family members in dire straits (send $$ immediately) or that the IRS was after me for not paying taxes and I needed to contact this number immediately or I’d go to jail. I haven’t gotten those calls, but I do personally know people who have.
The scare tactics work on many people. They are more unsettling than some Nigerian Prince has a fortune to leave me, or XYZ company in (usually) China is looking for a representative and even though I do not have any experience with what they’re seeking, I am the chosen recipient of what promises to be great business wealth.
I’m likely older than many of you reading this. I remember when this insistent pursuit of money at the expense of anxious victims-to-be didn’t initiate on the telephone or internet, or on unsuspecting innocents.
I want it to stop.
No one I’ve asked has answers except to delete the messages, hang up the phone, or just don’t answer calls from numbers you don’t recognize. The latter works with our home phone but not my business number because I don’t know from where my next client will emerge.
I don’t get the greed, animosity, mind games, and scare tactics. A couple days ago I discovered a troll had given me a nasty review that appeared on a search site next to my website name (www.ThePsychicLady.com). I’ve never heard of this person, let alone read him. I have other business friends who have had this occur and the unwarranted negative comments nearly ruined their respective businesses. I’ve read that people are paid to write, stalk or troll businesses by a competitor who must not otherwise be able to obtain a steady clientele on their own merits.
I don’t have answers. Just questions on why people go out of their way to do harm. I don’t want to believe this is the new normal, so maybe they are just people with morally-bankrupt souls. Either way. I want it to stop.
We all must want this to stop.
Thoughts?
Karen Kuzsel is a writer-editor based in the Orlando area who specializes in the hospitality, entertainment, meetings & events industries. She is an active member of ILEA and MPI and is now serving on the 2016 – 2020 MPI Global Advisory Board for The Meeting Professional Magazine for the third consecutive year. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Karen writes about food & wine, spas, destinations, venues, meetings & events. A career journalist, she has owned magazines, written for newspapers, trade publications, radio and TV. As her alter-ego, Natasha, The Psychic Lady, she is a featured entertainer for corporate and social events. karenkuzsel@earthlink.net; www.ThePsychicLady.com; @karenkuzsel; @thepsychiclady.
Sports socks kept my feet fresh smelling.
Jump into the foam ball pit at Planet Obstacle
Mostly just trying not to let my jaw keep dropping open as I gape at hundreds of kids flying through the air like ninja warriors, or playing dodgeball in a brightly-lit padded court, or bouncing about in a foam ball-filled pit. Above me, a ropes course had human monkeys disguised Read more
Looking for fun ways to incentivize your attendees?
Lisa Jennings (L) and I feeding grapes to ring-tailed lemurs.
My husband Russ and a 15-year-old male relative (whose name I will not use to save him unmitigated embarrassment) have something in common: they both sweat easily and profusely, especially on their feet. The result is that no one wants to be near them when their socks are first removed.
Enter them being my guinea pig subjects for new socks on the market that claim to be the world’s best odorless socks. Full Read more
My vote for worst aiport goes unhesitatingly to KEFLAVÍK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, the largest airport in Iceland, and for worst airline, ICELANDAIR, for its overall poor management and unsocial (or is it untrained, or just incompetent?) gate crew.
I’ll give you my reasons. Please share yours.
Two years ago, my husband Russ and I flew roundtrip to Copenhagen, Denmark on Icelandair, departing and returning to Orlando International Airport in Florida. After the mind-boggling chaos of Keflavík International Airport and the startlingly disorganized manner Read more
Glovax Gloves, a new glove on the global market designed to be lightweight, flexible for multipurpose usages.
Wish they were longer on my arm, but working in the garden was easy with their lightweight flexibility to deadhead flowers or replant.
Russ and me, after our successful hike in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.
Osthoff Resort cooking school, classes for kids and for adults
Springmaid Beach Resort’s Southern Tide Bar & Grille. A new beginning on the Springmaid Pier.
We’re very fortunate living in the Orlando, FL area. While the rest of the country is still experiencing the bluster of March, we’re enjoying blue skies, low 80’s and gentle breezes. It was perfect weather for sitting on the back porch of Seasons 52 overlooking the lake, sipping on slights of wine and munching on flatbreads.
Seasons 52 is a Darden Restaurant original brand that specializes in fresh, locally sourced foods, with meals, appetizers and mini-desserts typically weighing in at no more than 500 calories, including the aforementioned flatbreads. The menu changes seasonally, and the wines offered on their stellar program called Flights & Flatbreads changes frequently. Each wine comes with tasting notes. The program is available daily up to 6 pm.
For $15, you can have a choice of whites or reds (roughly 3 ounces each) and one flatbread. For $20, their Acclaimed red wines are rated at 90+ points. According to Seasons 52, the Acclaimed wines are rated by Wine Spectator, The Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast Read more
We doubled the pleasure at Wente Wineries in Livermore Valley. L to R: Karen and Gabrielle. photo by Russ Wagner
L to R: Natasha, The Psychic Lady and Melanie LaJoie ply their “fortune telling” skills at the mystics tent.
Mount Rushmore handcrafted in solid milk chocolate at the World of Chocolate Museum & Cafe’. photo by Karen Kuzsel.
Sweet treats from Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at the goampi Meeting Planner All Stars program. photo by Lauralee Shapiro CMP
Hoo has personality! photo by Karen Kuzsel
penguin holiday. photo by Karen Kuzsel
The edible Christmas tree and friends. photo by Karen Kuzsel
| Event |
School | Home School | Student Name |
| Non – Edible Centerpiece | |||
| First place | Cypress Creek HS | Riani Pokipala | |
| Second place | Dr Phillips HS | Cassidy Brown | |
| Second place | Dr Phillips HS | Sofia Fernandez | |
| Second place | Dr Phillips HS | Madison Fitch | |
| Second place | Dr Phillips HS | Tia Humphries | |
| Edible Centerpiece | |||
| First place | Mid Florida Tech | University HS | Christine Hernandez |
| Second place | Mid Florida Tech | Edgewater HS | Kristopher Davis |
| Third place | Mid Florida Tech | Cypress Creek | Jamie Pena |
| Dessert High School | |||
| First place | Gateway School | Heriberto Lopez | |
| First place | Gateway School | Josue Cabrales | |
| Second place | Cypress Creek HS | Grant Baldinger | |
| Second place | Cypress Creek HS | Jessica Butler | |
| Third place | Winter Park HS | Daniella Sauri | |
| Third place | Winter Park HS | Raham Elsayed | |
| DessertTech Center | |||
| First place | Westside Tech | Wekiva HS | Zakoya Hall |
| First place | Westside Tech | Evans HS | Devante McDonald |
| Second place | Westside Tech | West Orange HS | Kristi Caruana |
| Second place | Westside Tech | West Orange HS | Lauren Harms |
| Gourmet Meal | |||
| First place | Winter Park HS | Melissa Morales | |
| First place | Winter Park HS | Antonio Cepero | |
| First place | Winter Park HS | Angelique Allison | |
| Second place | Winter Park HS | Joey Goldberg | |
| Second place | Winter Park HS | Laura Johnson | |
| Second place | Winter Park HS | Foley Flood | |
| Third place | Winter Park HS | Caleb Johnson | |
| Third place | Winter Park HS | Julie Phicien | |
| Third place | Winter Park HS | Amber Negron | |
| Gourmet MealTech Center | |||
| First place | Westside Tech | West Orange HS | Angela Cippilone |
| First place | Westside Tech | West Orange HS | Brandon Santiago |
| First place | Westside Tech | West Orange HS | Abby Johnson |
| Second place | Mid Florida Tech | Cypress Creek | Emmanuel Arboleda |
| Second place | Mid Florida Tech | University HS | Raquel Amador |
| Second place | Mid Florida Tech | University HS | Desiree Perez |
| Knife Skills | |||
| First place | Orlando Tech | Winter Park HS | Yafreicy Rodriguez |
| Second place | Mid Florida Tech | Dr Phillips HS | Fransheska Whittington |
| Third place | Westside Tech | Wekiva HS | Latasha Morris |
| Waiter’s Relay | |||
| First place | Freedom HS | Luis Alvarado | |
| First place | Freedom HS | Ysenia Palomino | |
| First place | Freedom HS | Lourdes Sanchez | |
| Second place | Colonial HS | Christine Ortiz Hernandez | |
| Second place | Colonial HS | Nathaniel Morales | |
| Second place | Colonial HS | Angel Dones | |
| Third place | Orlando Tech | University HS | Jessica Rivera |
| Third place | Orlando Tech | University HS | Gabrielle Tursi |
| Third place | Orlando Tech | University HS | Adrianna Colon |
A cantelope tiki hut shields birds of a feather. photo by Karen Kuzsel
| Event | School | Home School | Student Name |
| Hospitality Competition | |||
| First place – Overall | Dr Phillips HS | Tia Humphries | |
| First place | Dr Phillips HS | Cassidy Brown | |
| First place | Dr Phillips HS | Madison Fitch | |
| First place | Dr Phillips HS | Sofia Fernandez | |
| Second place- Overall | Colonial HS | Yarissa Pena | |
| Second place | Colonial HS | Meagan Ojeda | |
| Second place | Colonial HS | Noe Hernandez | |
| Second place | Colonial HS | Lesly Lopez | |
| Third place – Overall | Mid Florida Tech | Lake Nona HS | Angie Grunskyte |
| Third place | Mid Florida Tech | West Orange HS | Jadia Johnson |
| Third place | Mid Florida Tech | Cypress Creek HS | Sasha Gatti |
| Third place | Mid Florida Tech | Wekiva HS | Deja Miller |
Karen Kuzsel is a writer-editor based in the Orlando area who specializes in the hospitality, entertainment, meetings & events industries. She is a Contributing Editor-Writer for Prevue Magazine and is an active member of ISES and MPI. She writes about food & wine, spas, destinations, venues, meetings & events. A career journalist, Karen has owned magazines, written for newspapers, trade publications, radio and TV. As her alter-ego, Natasha, The Psychic Lady, she is a featured entertainer for corporate and social events. karenkuzsel@earthlink.net; www.ThePsychicLady.com. @karenkuzsel; @thepsychiclady.
Castle Hotel shimmers with royal attitude
I am not sure if Orlando has ever had a food guide before Ricky Ly took on the task. I had heard about Ricky Ly before meeting him at two food events where we were both invited as food critics. Ly is a food blogger who can be found at @tastychomps or on FaceBook at tastychomps. His book is the Food Lovers’ Guide to Orlando: The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings.
Like Ly’s day job as an engineer, he tackled this food guide with meticulous organization and verve at getting the project done in a timely manner. Unfortunately, as with a guide of any kind, the listings start to become outdated by the time the guide is published. I noticed that with several of the restaurants mentioned here that are no longer in business.
Nonetheless, for someone looking for descriptions of a restaurant’s cuisine, a bit of background, and where it’s geographically located within the metro Orlando area (which is divided in food zones), this book is a winner. He articulates Orlando into downtown, central, north, west, east and south areas, as well as breaking down further into Universal/International Drive, Restaurant Row/Sand Lake Road, and Disney/Lake Buena Vista. The surprise is a separate listing for Winter Park and for food trucks. He told me he had visited all 300 restaurants listed here. I wish I could more plainly see the evidence of that. I like when he mentions dishes he personally favors at these restaurants. There just should have been more of that. Instead, many of the restaurants are relegated to general information about what style of cuisine is prepared; information that could be found elsewhere.
I can see this guide as very useful for someone unfamiliar with Orlando restaurants, or someone just looking to try something new when out of their usual vicinity for dining out. Restaurants are delineated as to their price, type of attire (dressy or casual), and which are hid favorites. Specialty markets and stores are also categorized.
The book sells for $14.95 and can be found on Amazon or you can just contact Ly on his Facebook page or twitter name to get updates on where it can be purchased. Tell him you heard about the book in my blog.
Karen Kuzsel is a writer-editor based in the Orlando area who specializes in the hospitality, entertainment, meetings & events industries. She is a Contributing Editor-Writer for Prevue Magazine and is an active member of ISES and MPI. She writes about food & wine, spas, destinations, venues, meetings & events. A career journalist, Karen has owned magazines, written for newspapers, trade publications, radio and TV. As her alter-ego, Natasha, The Psychic Lady, she is a featured entertainer for corporate and social events. karenkuzsel@earthlink.net; www.ThePsychicLady.com. @karenkuzsel; @thepsychiclady.
Musicians played. Actors orated. The audience listens. Shakespeare Lives!
Weaving is a time-honored craft
Natasha, The Psychic Lady reveals the mysteries in palms
a student created my sign
King Henry VIII says, “Huzzah”
Spinning a pot
Karen Kuzsel
There’s a relic of an ironic joke that if you can remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there. The drugs were psychedelic and mind-expanding, the clothes worn as a defiant costume of flowers, paisleys and neon colors, and the arrogance of youth permeated the atmosphere like a clashing haze of ideas and ideals that rose upward and outward from a center core of music that can still be heard on any classic oldies station. The same could be said for the early 70s. Bands that etched their genius onto the landscape like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, The Beach Boys, Grand Funk Railroad, Bob Seger, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfinkle, The Buffalo Springfield, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Santana, and Rare Earth were just some of the names that regularly vied for #1 on music play lists.
On none of those lists would you have found the band, Hollywood, a ragtag group of wanna-be rock ‘n roll stars who fought through their drug-induced sex haze long enough to let their creative musicality and stumbling managers guide them to their dream. You wouldn’t have found Hollywood listed because author Steven Jordan Brooks hadn’t yet imagined them on paper. But the band lives as surely as any fictional character representing a time, a place, and an era. “Hollywood The Band, A Tale of Sex, Drugs, And Rock And Roll” is a story of that band’s journey to secure a record deal. To get there, they had to survive the issues of the day: politics, music maneuverings, unlimited designer drugs, unbridled sex, homosexual awareness, the Viet Nam war, and racial tensions.
Brooks is a classically trained musician who transitioned from rock ‘n roll performer to management and production. Those years before he eventually morphed into an English and drama teacher became the research of his saga. He uses Hollywood, The Band, as the catalyst for telling a story of the 70’s, name dropping real bands and real-life situations into the fictional mix. While the story rings true and is likely a composite of characters Brooks lived and partied with, Read more
Pui Chan, the documentary, won Best Documentary and Audience Favorite
Ron Howard and his Oscar nominated daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, were at the Central Florida Film Festival (CENFLO) over Labor Day Weekend. OK, so maybe they weren’t physically there, but the movie he executive produced and she directed, When You Find Me, was not only there, but later won for Best Short Film.
Over the course of the Friday-Sunday festival, more than 80 features, shorts and documentaries from 14 states and eight foreign countries were shown to more than 2,000 film fans and movie industry folks. Held each Labor Day weekend for the past eight years, this was the third time it was sponsored by the City of Ocoee’s Community Redevelopment Agency (administered by my husband, Russ Wagner) and held at the newly-expanded West Orange Cinemas (WOC) in Ocoee.
MovieMaker Magazine recently named CENFLO in the “Top 25 Film Festivals worth Read more
This story was published in the December-January 2012 issue of Facility Manager magazine, an official publication of The International Association of Venue Managers, Inc. It is reprinted with permission from Editor RV Baugus.
Face it. When it comes to using social media to get traffic through your doors, the concern now is how to use it more effectively than should you be using it at all. In a world where software changes more quickly than a teenager’s moods, the successful arena manager begins by pondering these questions.
Which social media platforms work best for my audience?
Deciding which social media platforms work
If Facebook and Twitter aren’t your new best friends, they should be. “Facebook currently has 800 million active users, who in turn each have about 130 friends they actively share information with on a daily basis,” says Ryan Sheehy, Advertising & PR instructor for the Nicholson School of Communication for the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
What does that mean to you?
“Facebook allows you to directly connect with folks invested in your product. Research shows that those connected to Facebook are more likely to purchase your product,” she noted during a session on Building A Social Media Strategy for Every Type of Facility at the 22nd annual Area Management Conference in Orlando.
For the 18,000-capacity Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, social media has been a gift for reaching an audience beyond their regional area. Social media collects personal information from users that “allowing us to customize what we’re sending,” says General Manager Michael Marion. “Email is being replaced by social media sites as the preferred Read more
I love when certain words slide off my tongue as easily as dipping aforementioned tongue into a delectable Carvel soft chocolate ice cream cone on a hot summer day. Take synergistic, for example, a word that has been rolling around in my head for the past hour, just begging to be released. Synergy to me is when at least two diverse entities converge and the result is more powerful and wonderful than either part individually. Today my past and my present and my future all collided. When I was very young, I had a favorite uncle who was both a widely-respected newspaper editor and a prodigious national book reviewer. When I’d go to visit him, the walls were literally lined with books he’d reviewed. With each visit, he’d stimulate my thirst for knowledge with gifts of these treasures and encourage me to write about what I knew, what I saw, and what I wanted to be in this world. Never did I dream that one day I’d be on publicists’ lists to review their authors’ efforts, Read more
It’s like squeezing into a too-tight dress when it’s the only one that will work for the event you’re headed to tonight. There’s just too much to cram into one small space and too little time to do anything more about it. That’s how I think of all the information I’m privy to about hotel and destinations promotions, event announcements, software that sweetens success, and people of distinction in the hospitality/meetings & events/entertainment industries. I know you’d like to know what I know, but the collection of knowledge doesn’t fit into the formats of publications and organizations for whom I already write.
Here’s where you come in.
I will give a $25 check to the person who comes up with a title for a new blog I feel compelled to create. Whoever dishes up the best Read more
Wine is like fine art. Can’t explain why I like it. Just do, or don’t. I studiously strive to understand the complexities, savor the nose, taste the underlying notes, or chew each velvety drop to assay whether it is fruit forward. I know what I like, which usually tends to be bold, brassy reds like cabs, merlots, zins and syrahs from California or Australia. My palette was recently tested during a tasting tour through Oregon, Napa and Sonoma Valley wineries.
Through these handcarved doors lies Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyards' wine cave. Photo by Russ Wagner
Every couple years, my husband Russ and I visit my daughter, Gabrielle, and her husband, Steve, in the San Francisco area. As they are the ones who ultimately converted us to bolder wines, we inevitably make tasting treks to Sonoma County wineries they frequent. Occasionally Russ and I plan routes to wine regions with which we want to become much better acquainted. This trip we revisited some favorites, checked out some Napa Valley area wineries recommended highly by our friends, Julienne and Ross, and discovered gems in Oregon’s central coast. You already know I’m a foodie, so no surprise that our road trip likewise involved uncovering mouthwatering culinary delights.
Grab a snack. Sip some wine. Read more
Ravella at Las Lake Vegas
I attended events at two Orlando venues I’d not visited before and one I have. They were all better than just good. In fact, if you remember the old Tony the Tiger commercial signature line, they were “Grrrrrreat!.”
So, I see you already scratching your head and wondering, then where does the bad or the ugly come in? Read on. I’ll get there.
I’m pretty fortunate. In my multitasking roles as Natasha, The Psychic Lady (a corporate and social performer), an active member with both Meeting Professionals International’s Orlando chapter and the Orlando chapter of the International Special Events Society, as well as my always-interesting role as Contributing Editor for Prevue Magazine (a meetings & events industry publication), I get invited to a lot of functions.
Saturday evening I dined at Todd English’s bluezoo at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Lake Buena Vista. To say our food selections were impeccably done would be an understatement. I knew bluezoo creates its own infused adult beverages, such as the Bazooka Joe, which allegedly tastes just like the bubble gum. I also know they customize cocktails to fit a corporate client’s logo colors or the function’s theme, so I was eager to see their unusual concoctions. Read more