iG Spotlight 7/20/11

Good Afternoon Everyone! 

Shands and North Florida Recognized by U.S. News & World Report

The magazine named Shands Hospital at the University of Florida one of the top 50 hospitals in the United States in seven medical specialities, and it named Shands as high-performing in five other specialties, meaning they are not ranked in the top 50 but in the top 25 percent of hospitals evaluated.

iG2011 Task Force Update

Last week, the iG2011 co-chairs convened for their monthly meeting and reported progress on their respective plans for the year. From the reports,  iG 2011 volunteers are working hard to achieve their goals.

 The iG Calendar Task Force will be meeting for a final time in August to make a recommendation on a platform for a business calendar that will gather all business, entrepreneurial and tech events in the community and list them in one place. Calendar Task Force chair Dug Jones, Santa Fe College assistant vice president of economic development, said the group has met three times and saw demonstrations of potential platforms. The group will soon begin working with organizations that will contribute to the calendar.

On August 11th, the iG Networking and Events team is holding its first event, a mega-mixer with Alachua County Emerging Leaders at the 2-Bits Lounge at the University of Florida Hilton Conference Center. Make plans to be there!  Then, on Sept. 7, iG will join hosts Ken and Linda McGurn for a Green Drinks mixer at the Sun Center downtown. Co-chairs Annie Pais, Florida’s Eden executive director, and Chris Brown, UF Tech Connect coordinator, are also in the planning stages of several opportunities through the end of the year.



FloridaWorks, Santa Fe College and UF have come together to provide early success for the iG LEARN team this year. FloridaWorks partnered with Santa Fe College to provide workforce and entrepreneurial training to 40 of our area’s students through the TechQuest program. It also partnered with the UF Office of Technology Licensing to give entrepreneurial training and assistance to a group of unemployed professionals who created new businesses based on UF spinoff technology. Co-chairs Andy Sherrard, O2BKids! owner, and Angela Pate, FloridaWorks executive director, are working on new ideas with this group to provide mentoring and experiential learning opportunities for high school students in Alachua County.



The iG INVEST Land Use Task Force is focused on developing land use, zoning and permitting guidelines for economic development. Co-chairs Gerry Dedenbach, Causseaux, Hewett & Walpole, Inc. director of planning, and Rick Drummond, assistant county manager, are coordinating local planning professionals from both the public and private sectors in a discussion that includes creation of a 3-D model of available properties and buildings in Gainesville/Alachua County. This will help attract companies looking to move or expand to our area.



The iG SPEAK team is executing a multi-pronged communications plan for 2011 and is always looking for organizations to help spread the word. iG SPEAK co-chair Kathy Viehe encourages local organizations to place the iG logo on their websites to let the world know you do cool things in Gainesville.



The SPEAK team also recently unveiled the iG display at the Gainesville Regional Airport. This display features videos from our area’s most innovative companies and has a section for a quarterly Featured Innovator. Check out the display on the here, and contact Lindsay Brennan at Lindsay@gainesvillechamber.com for more information.

Out of 4,852 facilities considered for the 2011-12 Best Hospitals rankings, only 140 were ranked in any of the 16 specialties. Shands at UF is recognized consistently in this annual report. The rankings take into consideration the reputation of each hospital, its death rate and a set of care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. Medical centers are assessed for competence providing complex care for patients who are high-risk.

In addition to Shands, North Florida Regional Medical Center also was recognized in the report for having a high-performing gynecology department.  Read more at http://innovationgainesville.com/shands-continues-to-rank-high-in-a....