Port Manatee officials will bring a group of business leaders from around the world to Fort Lauderdale today, the first in a tour of four Florida cities the guests will visit as part of an international summit taking place all week. It’s part of an effort by the International Trade Hub at the Palmetto port to present the state’s assets through a series of expo-style events.

“We bring in 30 to 40 companies from overseas and do almost like an Enterprise Florida event,” explains Port Manatee Executive Director Carlos Buqueras. It’s part of an outreach effort to showcase not only the physical assets of the port but the reason why Florida serves as a hotbed for international trade.

“I don’t think any other port has ever done that,” Buqueras said.

The International Trade Summit starts at Port Everglades today at 10am and runs through 2pm today. At each stop, an expo-style event with presentations, showboards and booths will allow commerce leaders to pitch international partnerships and business relationships.

Then, it moves Tuesday to Fort Myers at the Lee County Economic Development Office, where a similar mini-expo will run from 9:30am to 1:30pm. The Port Manatee officials bring everything home to Manatee County to hold a similar event Wednesday at the Manatee Chamber of Commerce from 9:30am to 1:30pm. Finally, the group will go to The Portico in Tampa on Thursday for an event that runs from 10am to 2pm.

The whole time, visitors and Port leaders will travel together in two busses. There’s no requirement any of the guests commit to something at Port Manatee in particular, but by arranging and running the summit, it puts the Manatee County entity in a leadership role as far as promoting Florida trade.

“Entrepreneurs throughout Florida and beyond will have dynamic opportunities to build productive global connections through the International Trade Summit functions,” Buqueras said in a statement.

“Taking Port Manatee’s world-class trade center on the road with a series of interactive events to which the public is invited maximizes the prospects for Florida businesses to benefit from the hub’s extensive expertise while developing highly valuable commercial relationships around the world.”

Summit attendees hail from a number of critical countries for trade through ports, including Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and Spain. The tour will also include domestic producers looking to export products outside the Unites States or who need to import goods and materials.

“I think Port Manatee and the International Trade Hub have a fiduciary responsibility not just to increase the port’s coffers but to expand outreach to benefit our exporters and importers and companies in Florida that might otherwise never have use of the port,” Buqueras told SRQ. 

PGT Innovations, a national leader in the premium window and door category, has penned an exclusive partnership deal with southwest Florida’s premier luxury builder John Cannon Homes. PGT Innovations will provide windows and doors from the manufacturers’ family of brands in the two new model homes opening in late summer 2020 at The Islands on the Manatee River and Skye Ranch.

Throughout his home designs, John Cannon is known for using products that exceed code standards. Impact-resistant windows and doors from WinDoor®, one of PGT Innovations’ luxury brands, will be featured in both The Tindarra and The Kylie models. The brand was selected, in part, due to its reputation for having some of the highest-performing products in the industry that exceed code requirements, as well as its product styles that complement the designs of John Cannon Homes. Additionally, high-style, contemporary products from the exclusive PGT Innovations’ iLab may also make an appearance in some of Cannon’s highly customized designs. 

PGT Innovations

Pinkerton, Harkins & Mehserle Private Wealth has announced several hires and promotions in response to its recent rapid growth and anticipated expansion.

New to the practice are Donna Guinta in the position of Chief Operating Officer and Janet Buley, who will be serving as a Registered Client Service Associate. Guinta hails from Syracuse, NY, where she spent the past 18 years as Vice President of Operations, Agency and Systems with Cadaret, Grant & Co., an independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisor with 475 offices in 27 states. Buley previously worked as a financial advisor with Region’s Bank and Wells Fargo Advisors. She was also employed for several years with AIG, where she administered retirement plans. She holds multiple registrations through FINRA.

The firm also promoted Kathy Henderson to the position of Vice President in charge of client services, allowing her to focus on training and ensuring a consistently excellent service experience for clients. Certified Financial Planner™ professional and partner, Bill Mehserle, was named Branch Operations Manager, filling a position vacated by retiring partner Michael Harkins. 

Pinkerton Harkins & Mehserle

We Craft Box was recently awarded the “Best Craft Box” award at the SUBTA CUBE Awards, held by the Subscription Trade Association. The event is the industry’s first subscription box awards honoring achievements in the subscription industry. The awards ceremony is the pinnacle of the SubSummit 2019, an industry-wide convention for subscription box businesses. Betsy Wild, founder of We Craft Box and local mom entrepreneur, was nominated for four awards including Best Kids Box, Best Craft/Artisan Box, Best Start-Up and Best Customer Experience. For more information or to order, visit the website below. 

We Craft Box

Sun Country Airlines has announced nonstop seasonal service from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Sarasota-Bradenton (SRQ) with fares as low as $79 one-way. Flights are on sale now. The new nonstop seasonal service to SRQ will operate twice a week on Fridays and Mondays beginning December 20, 2019.  

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

Sarasota County Schools has announced that Booker Middle School has been named a CFES Brilliant Pathways School of Distinction, based on its performance during the 2018-19 school year. CFES (College For Every Student) Brilliant Pathways aims to help students unlock their brightest futures. The initiative empowers educators and gives communities a chance to participate in the 21st-century economy, effectively leveling the playing field for hundreds of thousands of students. Their programs introduce students to college and career possibilities, provide crucial resources to educators and help students and their families chart out a clear path to college, and beyond. Booker Middle School continues to receive high praise for the exemplary plan they have developed and executed for their CFES Scholars, a plan that immerses the entire school in the CFES core practices of Mentoring, Essential Skills and Pathways. 

Booker Middle School

The Players Centre for Performing Arts has announced Ron Pantello’s Damaged Goods as the winner of the 2019 New Play Festival. Once a year, local playwrights submit brand new, never-before-performed plays in an annual competition where audiences are given the opportunity to witness the birth of a brand-new play. Five plays are chosen then performed in readers-style theater by actors under the leadership of a local director with a talk-back following the show to help give the playwright some constructive criticism. One play is chosen as the winner and a year later, after a few revisions, is performed with full sets and costumes. This year, audiences chose Pantello’s tale of family drama in the fickle world of show business. Carole Kleinberg is on tap to continue with the process of re-writes and to direct the production set for August 4-9, 2020.  

Players Centre for Performing Arts