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Newsletter Finnish American Chamber of Commerce, Florida
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Issue 05
Volume 4
May 2013
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Greetings!
Happy May Day! This big carnival-style celebration has its origin from the late 1889 when it was called `Labor Day`, now it is mostly carnival style celebration in anticipation of summer.
Florida can join the `Labor Day` celebration as it seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent in March, dipping below the national rate and reaching its lowest level in more than four years, the state's labor agency announced Friday.
The leisure and hospitality sector was the pacesetter as the Sunshine State gained more than 140,000 jobs from a year ago, according to the Department of Economic Opportunity.
It's the lowest jobless rate in Florida since October 2008, when unemployment stood at 7.4 percent in the state.
The 7.5 percent statewide jobless rate last month was down from a revised 7.8 percent rate in February and from an 8.9 percent rate in March 2012, the labor agency said.
Florida's jobless rate last month beat the national rate of 7.6 percent in March.
The board will spend May in a planning mode for the next season. We appreciate your feedback and suggestion. Feel free to contact any of our board members directly.
At your service,
Lena Hartikainen
FACC-FL President
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News from Florida
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Finnish-American home opens doors to clients who are not Finnish
The nursing home has welcomed all nationalities since its inception, but in December 2011, after 38 years of the assisted living facility accepting only Finns, the corporation updated its policy to welcome people of all nationalities and changed the facility's name.
Now, The Village on High Ridge assisted living facility, located at 1800 South Drive, houses its first non-Finnish residents who are of American, Italian and Norwegian descent.
Read the article here.
Florida: No. 1 "innovation" state!
Florida has been named the No. 1 "Innovation State" by Fast Company magazine. which cited the state's rate of new business production, annual revenue per startup, and venture capital ranking. Read the article here.
South Florida Business Leaders Anticipate Higher Growth
The majority of Fort Lauderdale-area business leaders who meet quarterly to give feedback to the Federal Reserve say the South Florida economy is poised to surge.
Read more here and watch a video related to the topic.
Sports Tourism Is a Big Economic Driver
Even as snagging another Super Bowl in 2016 is a high priority, Florida tourism officials see a wider plane of sporting events as one of the keys to developing a year round economic engine. Read more here.
Port Executives Say a Funding Gap for Port Upgrades Could Hurt U.S. Competitiveness
As work on expansion of the Panama Canal reaches the halfway point and the maritime industry increasingly shifts to super-sized ships too large for many U.S. ports, experts said Wednesday that the United States is falling behind on making improvements critical to keeping it competitive in global commerce. Read more here.
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News from Finland
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Great collaboration between Finnish and American companies, producing energy from popular used shoes!
The US footwear manufacturer and the Finnish environmental management company Ekokem have joined hands in a campaign that involves producing energy from used Crocs footwear in an effort to combat waste. Read the article here.
Learning goes digital
Information and communications technology has made its way into schools in recent years. Schools have good capabilities in place, but they still have their work cut out to put these capabilities into practical use. Finnish education know-how is currently experiencing growing demand also outside the country's borders. Read more here.
Tablets in the classroom
Six upper secondary schools in Finland introduced iPads in the learning environment two years ago. The exercise is part of the Mobiluck project, which aims to bring learning and teaching into a new era. The project also serves as practice for the electronic matriculation examination which will be introduced in 2016.Read the article here.
Major Finnish breakthrough in the production of clean water
Researchers at the Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, have developed a new cost-efficient technology to produce separation membranes for the purification of water, at less than half the previous cost. More here.
Stonesoft fights US cyber attacks
Finnish cyber security firm Stonesoft has partnered with IT company Red River from the United States to help US government agencies counter cyber security challenges. Learn more here.
Rapala jacket wins Red Dot design award
Finnish fishing equipment company Rapala has won a prestigious Red Dot design award for its new Eco Wear Reflection jacket. Read more here.
Angry Birds roosting at NASA
At NASA's invitation, the online game birds are roosting at Kennedy Space Center for the next 1½ years in an effort to lure youngsters to the cosmic wonders of math and science. Read more here.
Tekes Water programme reformed Finnish water sector
Water - International Business from Water 2008-2012 programme reformed Finnish water sector by supporting the development of the know-how, technology and networking in the sector. Read more here.
Finnish company to design the new Titanic
Deltamarin, a Raisio-based company specialised in ship design, has received an order straight out of the history books: It has been commissioned to design the new Titanic. The order was placed by Blue Star Line Pty Ltd. Read the article here.
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FACC Blog
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Finnish American Chamber of Commerce, Florida is reporting about the past events!
Read about Aprils events, the ABICC Inauguration of the 13th ABICC World Business Month 2013 and Palm Beach Strategic Forum 2013 here.
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Other Events
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May 7, 9, 16, 21, 23&28, 2013
Tampa, Florida
The Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida invites successful businesses interested in exploring potential international markets or businesses with limited exporting experience to participate in the NASBITE accredited International Trade Certificate Program.
May 10, 2013
Boca Raton, Florida
Join the SBDC for the second annual International Trade Symposium. If your small business is currently exporting or looking to expand into international markets.
Florida Logistics and Trade Conference
May 16-17, 2013
Doral, Florida
Business crosses borders and operates in a global environment. Logistics is an integrated and integral part of business. It is the engine that makes it all run and encompasses a variety of sectors such as transportation, retail, environment, energy, research, real estate, international trade and policy. This is the first annual forum of discussion and networking designed to bring together industry stakeholders and leaders from all modes of transportation, academia, government, and economic development to discuss the state of logistics as a sector in Florida.
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We hope you find this newsletter useful and we love to get feedback and suggestions how we can make it better. We also have many volunteer opportunities within the chamber so let us know how you want to be involved.
Sincerely,
Lena Hartikainen
Finnish American Chamber of Commerce
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The Finnish American Chamber of Commerce's Newsletter is a great opportunity to get your
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Members: $250/year and $50/month
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Please contact the FACC (faccflorida@gmail.com) for more information about advertising opportunities.
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