With advanced, enterprise-class technology backed by local, professional service and support, Smart City Metro offers highly-flexible, scalable solutions for today’s advanced business needs.
With over 50 years of experience building and maintaining custom fiber solutions for businesses in Central Florida, Smart City is expanding to provide fiber and voice services to more businesses in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Brevard counties. Operating as Smart City Metro, the expansion of their fiber network means you now have a choice for your communication needs.
As a full-service telecommunications provider, Smart City Metro offers symmetrical Fiber Internet Access services, cloud-based Hosted Voice, and managed services like SD-WAN, Wi-Fi, and Manager Router over an all-fiber network. An all-fiber network means your business can experience faster access to your data and applications with speeds that range from 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps. This will give you greater reliability and scalability, the ability to quickly upload and download large files simultaneously, fewer delays in accessing cloud-based tools and platforms, and – most importantly for businesses in Florida – an all-fiber network is designed to be weatherproof.
Smart City is headquartered in Lake Buena Vista and has been providing telecommunications services to two of the most important organizations in Central Florida: The Walt Disney World Co., including all enterprises on the Disney property, shops, hotels, restaurants, and transportation companies, and the Orange County Convention Center. They have a long history of innovation in Central Florida, including the first fiber optic network in the country, and the first 911 service in Florida. Today, they operate one of the most advanced telecommunications platforms available.
Most importantly, Smart City Metro backs their services with a top-down customer commitment and the locally-based personalized support your business demands. Their goal is to continually evolve as the nation’s leading provider of telecommunication services, delivered by one of the best-trained, most versatile workforces in the country.
See why the smartest choice for your data and voice requirements is right around the corner. You can contact Smart City Metro today for a free communication needs assessment at 407-828-6400.
On Friday, April 8 the Poinciana Council of The Osceola Chamber celebrated education in the Poinciana area with their Annual Scholarship Awards Luncheon at Poinciana High School.
The event began with a four-course lunch catered by the Poinciana High School Culinary Arts students under the instruction of Chef Juan Alamo. Attendees were served in the students’ classroom, complete with views of their kitchen studio. These students learn all aspects of planning, preparing, and serving their meals, and they could not have been greater hosts. They offered an Asian-inspired menu of egg rolls and potstickers, chicken and vegetable lo main, and a chocolate green tea mousse for dessert.
Following lunch, PHS ROTC students escorted attendees to the Osceola Business Academy, an application-only, business focused program located on the PHS campus, to learn about and celebrate the scholarship recipients.
Earlier this year, the Poinciana Council Board of Directors solicited applications from eligible graduating seniors with a single requirement that the student live in area code 34758, 34759, or 34746. Thanks to an Osceola County Community Betterment Grant from District 3 Commissioner, and Board of County Commissioners Chairman, Brandon Arrington, the Council was able to match their collected funds and offer the scholarship to a total of four students.
After an application review process, the Poinciana Council board chose four remarkable students with diverse interests and life goals from four different Osceola County School District schools. The decision was based on extra curricular and volunteer activity, recommendation from the students’ teachers and advisors, and, most importantly, the student’s essay response to the question “Explain your educational goals and future career path. How will achieving your goals impact your community?”
Noan Crandall, a Poinciana High Student, wants to study video game design and create games that will bridge gaps between generations and bring families together. Shenica Jerome from Liberty High School plans to become an OBGYN and advocate for women’s healthcare and education. Xiomaris Legarreta, a theatre major from the Osceola County School for the Arts, wants to put her passion for performing toward a career in broadcast journalism. Anthony Polanco, a member of the first-ever graduating class at NeoCity Academy, plans to pursue a career in finance and help educate his community on financial independence.
Minus the intrusion of an unplanned fire drill (welcome to high school!) scholarship recipients and event attendees listened as keynote speaker Dr. Chundra Evens, Assistant Superintendent at the Osceola County School District, reminded them to seek practical experience outside the classroom, as it is the powerful weapon that could make dreams come true. Impressed with the students, she used their own words via quotes from their essays as proof that character is as important as intelligence in creating bright, well-rounded students. Commissioner Arrington reminded the students to seize opportunity whenever it presents itself – even if it isn’t what you think you’re looking for.
The annual scholarship awards could not be possible with sponsorships and community support. This year’s event was sponsored by Riviera Spa Massage and HCA Healthcare Florida. Poinciana High School and the Osceola Business Academy continue to support and celebrate this event year after year, and the Poinciana Council’s impact is heightened by the generous Community Betterment Grant program and Commissioner Arrington.
If you would like to support this event or assist the Poinciana Council Board with their other education- and future-focused programs in the Poinciana area, reach out to us at cpilkington@theosceolachamber.com. See more images from the event in the gallery below.
Recently you may have started to notice some changes to the Chamber’s branding popping up on some of our publications, and you can expect to see many more in the coming weeks. These changes are part of the exciting rebranding initiative that we undertook starting at the beginning of 2020. The pandemic provided a slight setback, but for the past year a task force of member volunteers has worked hard to make sure this rebranding process – a major goal of 2020-2021 Board Chair Adrianna Sekula – would become a reality.
A Brief History of Our Rebrand
The Chamber Branding Committee began by working together to create an RFP that cleanly outlined what our Chamber was looking for in our new brand, and then made it available to marketing and branding agencies from around the country. They narrowed the resulting proposals down to their top five agencies, whom they then invited to participate in in-person interview/Q&A sessions. They finally settled on North Star Place Branding & Marketing. Over the next several months the Chamber surveyed the membership and community, hosted North Star for a site visit, convened focus groups, and arranged one-on-one interviews between North Star and representatives of our business community. The Branding Committee met regularly throughout the process as they received updates from North Star, and offered feedback as the process progressed to help narrow and focus North Star’s work. The first step in the rebranding process resulted in our Chamber’s new DNA statement. This statement forms a basis on which to align all programs and strategies within the Chamber going forward:
For dynamic businesses and leaders committed to Central Florida, The Osceola Chamber, the largest business advocate in the fastest growing part of the region, champions businesses working in Osceola County by extending their reach and bringing together a network of diverse talent for greater access and belonging in the community.
A New Name & A New Logo
With the DNA statement in mind, and continued reference to our community and membership surveys, focus groups, and conversations, the Branding Committee settled on the name “The Osceola Chamber,” and the following logo and strapline were developed and selected:
Many areas of consideration went into choosing this new name. Simplifying the Chamber’s (admittedly rather long) name makes it both more memorable and more encompassing of the areas we serve. The addition of “The” creates a strong sense of ownership and importance for the Chamber community-wide. Going forward, The Osceola Chamber will do business under this new name as a dba.
Similarly, many aspects were considered when choosing a new logo. This monogram logo creates a sense of things coming together around a central focus and generates the idea that a Chamber membership brings together the most meaningful resources for each member. The monogram mark in particular offers a feeling of movement and forward momentum, which are important considerations for any future-facing organization.
The strapline “Business Works Better Together” is a straightforward sentiment that clearly states that our Chamber and its membership group help improve business results and relationships. It boasts a strong sense of community and belonging and indicates the positive impacts of the organization on both business and community. This fits nicely with the The Osceola Chamber’s continued mission to be “Champions for Business and the Osceola Community.”
A New World of Color
A new brand means a new color palette, and The Osceola Chamber now has a dynamic palette of shades to reflect our forward motion and strong community presence.
The primary palette is developed around blue tones that portray strength, stability, and confidence and rounded out with secondary tones that include some stimulating colors (orange and greens) for an active and forward-looking feeling.
Tertiary shades are included to distinguish our eight area councils and any potential logos developed in the future for additional Chamber organizations and events. This expanded color palette extends from the primary and secondary palettes with additional tones in the same family in order to provide each area council with a strongly related but unique look. Each area council has also been granted a brand new logo. A few area councils have undergone a slight name change at the discretion of their boards of directors.
An Exciting Future
The Chamber administration, staff, and board of directors are looking forward to our future as The Osceola Chamber and further implementing our new brand, logos, colors, and name. Pay close attention in the coming weeks as wet start to roll out more and more of these elements and cement our place in the community as The Osceola Chamber. You will gradually notice changes on our social channels, at our events, in our personal correspondence, and in our community presence. Please be patient with us, as the complete brand transformation will not happen over night.
We appreciate the dedication and hard work of the branding committee and the leadership of Past-Chair Sekula throughout the process, and finally, welcome to The Osceola Chamber!
2020-2021 Board Chair, and leader of the Chamber Branding Committee, Adrianna Sekula, shared a few words about the rebranding process at our recent Osceola Update:
