Business Briefs

The Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association held a blood drive from May to August in support of Florida Blood Center. More than 3,600 donors participated, all of them associated with the CFHLA’s hotels, resorts and theme parks. Because of their donations more than 10,800 lives were saved or sustained. Florida Blood Center’s will recognize the CFHLA’s successful drive with an award.

Cuhaci & Peterson Architects Engineers Planners, based in Baldwin Park, recently earned a first place award in an international design competition in Atlanta, sponsored by Autodesk, the producers of REVIT (BIM) software, an engineering and architecture program. Steve Blevins led a team of designers who used the software to depict the remodeling of a Winn-Dixie store.

Mercantile Capital Corporation financed seven commercial loans in October. These loans provided more than $28 million dollars to fund projects across the nation, including Florida. Mercantile Capital Corporation is one of the nation’s leading small business lenders.

Denise Morris Hammond, a partner in the Orlando law firm Wright, Fulford, Moorhead & Brown, discussed “Frequent Issues in Design and Construction Contracts,” during the Nov. 13 meeting of the Women in Architecture Division of the American Institue of Architects in Orlando. Hammond’s practice includes the representation of architects, engineers, contractors and owners in projects of all size and complexity.

Full Sail graduates and staff members took home honors during the 23rd Annual Crystal Reel Awards put on by the Florida Motion Picture & Television Association. The Crystal Reel Awards are a way of recognizing outstanding achievements in motion picture, television, audio recoding and digital media in Florida. In all, 13 Full Sail student films were nominated and six graduates won awards in five categories: Matt Dunham, Best Sound Mixing for Short Film for “Men of This Life”; Charlie Turner and Ashlie Cassell, Best Script in a produced Short Film/Video for “Kaleidoscope”; C.A. Barrow, Best Art Direction/Set Design for Short Film for “Men of This Life”; Charles McCrary, Best Director of Photography for Short Film for “Kaleidoscope”; and Peter Clotfelter Quenelle for Best Director for Short Film for “At Night”. Full Sail staff members also took home an award for Best Sound/Sound Mixing for a Feature, Dubbing Stage Engineer Michael Orlowski, Assistant Dubbing Stage Manager Dave Chmela, Course Director Colin Hart and Lab Specialist John Stazell all worked on “Renee.”