AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

“We are in the right industry at the right time,” Jackson said during an interview. “The recovery in new vehicle sales is being driven by replacement demand,” added Jackson, who has 42 years of experience in the auto business. “The average age of the light vehicle fleet in the country has increased to 11 years, and even though cars and trucks last longer today, they can’t go on forever. About 12 to 13 million vehicles are scrapped every year and need to be replaced.”

Other factors are contributing to stronger demand for vehicles. “The population is growing, interest rates are low, there is ample credit available and manufacturers are producing a wide range of new models that offer attractive styling, power and greatly improved gas mileage,” said Jackson, who took over as AutoNation’s CEO in 1999. “Auto financing is more available than it has been in recent years. A little known fact is that people are more likely to default on a mortgage than on a vehicle loan.”

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Tower Theater remains an asset for Little Havana

More than 20 years ago, when the city of Miami bought an historic but abandoned theater on Southwest Eighth Street, city leaders expressed their hope that the investment would help revitalize Little Havana.

The troubled neighborhood that’s considered the symbolic heart of Miami’s Cuban exile community couldn’t afford to wait to see if “something will fall from the sky and drop in the middle of Eight Street,” then Commissioner Miriam Alonso implored during a 1991 meeting. “The time for that area is now”.

After spending some $3 million to purchase and restore the Tower Theater, the city in 2002 handed the management duties to Miami-Dade Community College (now Miami Dade College), which committed to showing films and cultural events at affordable prices.

Today, many consider the Tower Theater the beacon on Southwest Eight Street that attracts lovers of international film, including many Cuban immigrants who once lived in the neighborhood but now own homes in the suburbs and tourists who are unfamiliar with Miami’s cubaneo.

“The relationship with Miami Dade College has been one of this neighborhood’s success stories,” said Pablo Cantón, who retired this summer from his longtime post as administrator of the city’s Neighborhood Enhancement Team in Little Havana. “The theater has helped local businesses because when people come to see movies they also go across the street to buy dinner. And you have people who haven’t set foot in Little Havana in years who are now returning to watch a movie.”

Nearly 50,000 people attended films at the theater last year, said MDC spokesman Alejandro Ríos. It is also a principle venue for MDC’s Miami International Film Festival and has been the site of several major educational events, including the world premier of the documentary Oscar’s Cuba, about the famed Cuban dissident Oscar Elias Biscet.

“It can certainly be argued that the Tower Theater has been at the core of the Calle Ocho’s cultural renaissance,” he said. “It has brought new audiences into the city and the college. It has been visited by major actors, governmental leaders and thinkers with international acclaim.”

But the past decade of use has started to wear on the theater, built in 1926. This summer, city officials discovered that the roof had some water damage. Meanwhile, MDC President Eduardo Padrón presented a list of possible improvements to the theater, from replacing its four heating and air conditioning units to rebuilding the stage area to attract better live acts.

Currently, the college manages the theater on what’s essentially a month-to-month contract. The original five-year contract, which was renewed in 2007, expired in May. Padrón was out of the country last week and could not be reached for comment. Ríos did not respond directly to questions about the contract but said that the infrastructure improvements could cost some $700,000.

The city can’t afford to pay for repairs out of its general fund, so earlier this year, officials considered deeding the property to MDC with the understanding that the college would then finance the capital improvements.

“We considered that option with the clause that if they stopped maintaining the building or using it as a theater, the property would revert to the city,” said Henry Torre, director of public facilities. “The intent was to keep it open as a community center that services the residents of Little Havana.”

City administrators never brought the plan before the commission after learning that district commissioner, Frank Carollo, was opposed. “This has nothing to do with the college, which has a great reputation in this community,” he said. “It has to do with the fact that the city has given away so many other properties to other municipalities or government agencies, and I don’t think it’s necessary in this case.”

Instead, Carollo has proposed using a portion of federal Community Block Development Grantfunds designated for his district to pay for the capital improvements. A plan to pass the funds to the college will be presented at the commission’s first meeting in January, said George Mensah, director of the city’s Community and Economic Development Department. As the owner, the city must agree to all the work performed, Mensah assured.

Bill Fuller, a Little Havana developer, said it makes sense that the city hold on to the property. “The folks at Miami Dade College have been great stewards of the theater, but it’s a city asset, not a college asset,” said Fuller, who owns several properties along Southwest Eighth Street. “The Tower Theater is the centerpiece of the entire neighborhood and any community would be blessed to be able to preserve its local theater.”

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Golden Globes Flashback: Bill Murray 2004

Bill Murray had been acting over a quarter of a century before he won his first Golden Globe, also receiving a coveted Oscar nomination that year. Nevertheless, as he fielded questions in the pressroom after winning the award, he took the spotlight off himself and turned it on the film.

Beginning his Saturday Night Live days in 1975, the actor and comedian had received his first Golden Globes nomination for Ghostbusters and received another down the line for Rushmore, but didn't grasp an award in his hand after an awards show until he found Lost in Translation in 2003--or rather, until it found him.

VIDEO: Bill Murray Kidnapped By David Letterman

"[Sofia Coppola] (writer, director) really contacted every person I know, and over the period of about a year...all my friends and acquaintances would say, 'There's a script coming your way from Sofia Coppola," he says after winning Best Actor at the 2004 Globes. "It got a big buildup, but it was O.K.; it's worked out really well. I like the movie a lot; it's my favorite movie."

When asked to isolate an aspect of the film industry that relates to the film's theme of "lost in translation," Murray focuses on the history of film and what it has to offer to present filmmakers.

VIDEO: Flashback: Bill Murray on Belushi & Ghostbusters

"I think what gets lost in the translation is that that's all material that we need to look at and the filmmakers need to know in order to bring film to modern audiences," he says. "That you have to know that stuff to see what's gone before; you have to know what they've done so you can take it and use those methods in telling stories to a modern age."

Coming from a filmmaking family, Sofia Coppola, daughter of renowned director Francis Ford Coppola, prevented the history of film from being lost in translation, which was what set Lost Translation apart from the rest of the year's films. The film also won Best Screenplay and Best Film at the Globes that year, which was more important to Murray than his own accolade.

RELATED: 'Ghostbusters 3' is On: Is Bill Murray In or Out?

"I think it is really an award for the movie," then 53-year-old Murray says. "People like the movie a lot, so they had to say thank you 'cause it is good. But for me, it means I picked a good one; that's what it really does to me."

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Iran: Data decoded from CIA drone captured in 2011

EPA

General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, right, looks at the US RQ-170 drone which reportedly crashed in eastern Iran near the city of Kashmar on December 4, 2011.

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran says the country's Revolutionary Guard has decoded all of the data from an advanced CIA spy drone captured last year.

Tehran has previously said it recovered information from the RQ-170 Sentinel craft, but Monday's announcement on state-run Press TV suggests technicians may have broken encryptions.

The broadcast quotes the Guard's aerospace chief, Gen. Ami Ali Hajizadeh, as saying the drone had not carried out missions over nuclear facilities before it went down in December 2011 in eastern Iran near the border with Afghanistan. Press TV gave no other details on the claims of recovered data from the drone, which carries stealth technology.

The Guard also claimed last week that it captured another US drone after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf.

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AutoNation: Back in the fast lane with expansion, higher sales

• AutoNation’s announcement December 4 that it was acquiring six auto stores in Texas, its second most important market after Florida, forms part of the company’s national growth strategy.

• AutoNation operates in 15 states and, according to CEO Mike Jackson, prefers to build its brand network in existing markets rather than expand to new markets. It grows either by acquisitions or by obtaining new franchises from manufacturers. Some recent acquisitions:

• The purchase of Audi, Chrysler, Dodge Ram, Jeep, Porsche and Volkswagen dealerships in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets, announced December 4, is projected to increase the company’s revenue by about $575 million per year in the Lone Star State, which accounted for 20 percent of revenue last year. The outlets are expected to sell about 14,000 new and used autos this year.

• In early 2011, AutoNation bought a Toyota dealership in Fort Myers with annual sales of $135 million.

• In 2006, the company made its largest purchase prior to the December acquisition: a Mercedes-Benz store in Pompano Beach that had annual revenues of $230 million.

Source: AutoNation

South Florida auto dealers

Despite an agonizingly slow economic recovery, the country’s largest auto retailer, Fort Lauderdale-based AutoNation, is thriving again as demand for vehicles expands.

The company, one of Florida’s largest, is posting increasingly strong profits and revenues. Just last week, in a sign of confidence, Autonation announced a major acquisition — buying six large auto stores in Texas — that will add about 700 employees to its national payroll of 19,400.

In announcing the deal Tuesday, which is expected to provide AutoNation with $575 million in additional revenues next year, the company’s CEO and chairman, Mike Jackson, expressed optimism about the prospects for continued growth in vehicle sales.

“You want to know what I’m thinking, look at what I do,” Jackson told viewers on CNBC’s Squawk Box program.

No information was released on the cost of the transactions, but in recent years auto dealerships sometimes sold for three to five times revenue, which would represent a significant investment for the company.

Tough times

To be sure, AutoNation has struggled through some tough times. It was battered by the Great Recession, which depressed sales and pushed the company into a $1.2 billion loss four years ago. As sales began to improve in 2010 and 2011, it was blindsided by a shortage of Japanese-made cars last year after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 shut down Japanese manufacturers of some essential components.

Since then, however, AutoNation has rebounded. Unit sales, revenues and profits all performed well in the first three quarters of this year, and the company expects new vehicle sales to continue their recovery nationwide, rising to the mid-14 million units this year, up from about 12.7 million in 2011. In the third quarter of 2012, AutoNation’s new car unit sales grew by 21 percent over the same period in 2011, doing better than an estimated 15 percent increase industry wide. November’s sales of new vehicles increased by 21 percent over November 2011 .

The big dealerships acquired sell Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen and Chrysler products in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth markets. They are expected to sell 14,000 new and used autos this year, and will add substantially to AutoNation’s future sales.

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State scraps plan to have private vendors make license tags

TALLAHASSEE --
Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors.

Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against the department.

Highway Safety Chief Julie Jones had wanted to save money by paying private companies $31.4 million over two years to make tags and distribute mail and online orders, but she abandoned the idea under pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, among others.

“We listened to what everyone had to say, considered questions that vendors posed and received information from our tax collector partners,” Jones said. “Based on the input, we have decided to withdraw [efforts to privatize].”

The decision will keep Florida out of administrative court, which is where it seemed headed Tuesday after department lawyers shut down tax collectors’ requests to retract its invitation to bidders.

Jones’ change of heart earned praise from Bondi, who said the department “did the right thing.”

Manufacturing company Avery Dennison and St. Petersburg-based PRIDE, a nonprofit organization that uses prisoners to manufacture tags, filed formal protests and met with state officials this week.

For them, the state’s decision may only be a temporary victory.

Stephen Hurm, an attorney for the state highway agency, told tax collectors Friday the department will not seek to privatize plate distribution but could reignite the push as early as January to bid out the manufacturing role.

The state may want to switch from raised tags to the more modern flat tags that are thought to be more legible for red light and toll cameras. PRIDE doesn’t have the equipment to make flat tags.

Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden says he will fight the state if it moves to exclude PRIDE.

“Why change a system that is working well and that customers enjoy? My job as an elected official is to provide the most friendly, capable customer service for the best price. We’re doing that,” said Belden, who criticized Jones for excluding tax collectors in her decisions.

Belden, along with PRIDE lobbyist Wilbur Brewton, argue that flat tags are no easier to read and are more expensive — which will result in more fees for motorists. The company may try to invest in new technology if that’s what it takes to continue working with the state, Brewton said.

“Is the equipment currently sitting in the plant to do it? No,” he said. “This could cause harm, but we would have to calculate that once we see the details.”

Jones hasn’t committed to any tag — flat or raised, she said. She just wants something legible and well-priced.

“We want to get the best product moving into the future in terms of technology, but at a cost that’s affordable,” Jones said. “This is going to be done in a cost-effective manner.”

The controversy over the tags is not expected to stall a planned redesign.

Floridians can continue to vote on four designs for a new state tag at Vote4FloridaTag.com. About 50,000 people have weighed in. The deadline is Dec. 14.

Brittany Alana Davis

can be reached at bdavis@tampabay.com .

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Barnes and Noble Nook HD+ is a Big Screen, Good Value Tablet

Barnes and Noble Nook-HD+

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[More from Mashable: 7 Stylish iPad Cases With Notepads]

The other night I handed the new Barnes and Noble HD+ to my son to see his reaction to one of the latest 9-inch tablets. He held it, played with the screen and said, “Which one is this?” I told him and he answered, “I can’t tell the difference anymore.” It’s true, with the sudden explosion of 7-, near-8-, 9- and 10-inch-plus tablets, it’s getting a little hard to tell which one is which — especially when many larger tablets look like their tinier siblings.

Barnes and Noble’s large-format (9-inch) HD-screen entry, the HD+, is a quite similar to the 7-inch Nook HD. However, with its somewhat sharper corners and far-reduced black-screen border, it’s also more similar in appearance to larger tablets such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9. What sets the Nook apart visually is the trademark nook hole in the lower left-hand corner. It appears to serve no visible purpose, though you could hold the roughly 18-ounce tablet by that corner without too much stress on your hand. It is one of the lightest tablets on the market, although it’s thicker than the Google Nexus 10, Kindle Fire 8.9 and fourth-generation Apple iPad.

[More from Mashable: The 7 Best Tablets for Kids]

Nook HD+’s other distinctive feature is the physical “N” home button on the face of the device. It’s an attribute the Nook HD+ (and 7-inch Nook HD) share with the iPad. As I’ve said before, having that obvious “take me home” button on the front of the device is something I wish every tablet manufacturer would replicate.

Interface

Speaking of replicate, much of what is important and what you need to know about Barnes and Noble’s biggest tablet can be found in my review of the 7-inch Nook HD. The interfaces are exactly the same, so I won’t waste too much space recounting every bit of the Nook HD+ interface, which obscures any trace of Android 4.0, and is exquisitely usable.

The biggest difference between the Nook HD and the HD+ is screen resolution. The HD gets you 1440×900 pixels, while the HD+ offers 1920×1280, which is slightly more than the Kindle Fire HD 8.9’s 1920×1200. The latter two devices are almost the exact same size. By contrast, the competitors’ 7-inch devices are quite different because Amazon includes a front-facing camera, while Barnes and Noble does not include cameras on any of its tablets (if you plan on taking photos or video with your tablet, you can stop reading now). In the case of the Nook HD+, Barnes and Noble uses the space it saves on a camera for, it appears, 80 extra pixels of space. For the record, neither device beats the iPad’s 2048×1536 resolution.

Connectvity

Barnes and Noble also chose to leave out a cellular option from all of its tablets. Amazon, on the other hand, adds it in for the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 LTE. This is not as big of a deal as it seems since the world is filled with high-speed Wi-Fi. Still, if you plan to surf the web on your tablet while sitting on a train without another device to which to tether your HD+, look for products with the mobile broadband option, instead.

When it comes to connectivity, Amazon adds dual-band Wi-Fi to its HD Kindle Fires, while Barnes and Noble’s tablet remains single band. I’ve tested both devices in the most stressful situation -– streaming HD video -– and the difference is negligible.

Using It

Barnes and Noble Nook HD+’s profile-centric interface remains one of the best on the market. There is no learning curve; you simply drag your profile image to the unlock icon, and you have access to the large and uncluttered interface that features a carousel (which like the Kindle is a hodge-podge of disparate icons), your library and some recently used apps. Persistent menu items include the Library, Apps, Web, email and Shop. The screen also includes “your Nook Today,” which, along with the weather, is a place for Barnes and Noble to push shopping options based on your interests.

As you would expect, reading books and magazines is a pleasurable experience, especially on this larger screen. Magazines such as Esquire look great and, yes, Barnes and Noble still employs the animated page turn (though I don’t know for how much longer). Email and Web browsing are solid, and I prefer Barnes and Noble’s web solution to Amazon’s home-grown Silk browser, which crashed too often for my taste.

Social integration is fairly good on the Nook HD+. When I installed the Twitter client, it became one of my options for social sharing. That said, the app looks like it would be more at home on a small-screen smartphone than on the HD+’s 9-inch display. For Facebook, I opted for the web interface, which looks too tiny in portrait mode, but just right in landscape.

Movies and Music

I had no trouble buying, renting and streaming HD-quality movies such Arthur Christmas, and Netflix worked smoothly. Barnes and Noble, however, lacks its own streaming option. If you pay $ 75 a year for Amazon Prime, you get access to a vast library of streaming content. Both devices will let you play HD content on your big-screen TV, though they do it in slightly different ways.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9 comes complete with a mini-HDI-out port, and can accommodate a mini-to-standard HDMI cable (not included), so I could watch the HD content on my big-screen TV. The Nook HD+ lacks an HDMI port, but you can buy a $ 39 adapter (with an HDMI cable), which plugs into the tablet’s 30-pin port, to do the same thing.

I still prefer the Kindle HD platform for music since Amazon’s music services are more deeply integrated into the device and its cloud-based storage offering. On the Nook HD+ you have to start by finding the music service under Apps. If Barnes and Noble is serious about music, it should be on the main menu. Worse yet, if you open the Music app, it offers no instruction on how to fill your music library. You have to add tunes via your computer, by connecting to your PC with the proprietary cable or through the Micro SD slot where you can add more storage or place, say, an entire library of songs.

If you have a Rhapsody Account, you can use it to manage your music needs on the Nook HD+.

I almost never use my large tablet for music (that’s a job for my iPhone or iPod), so I don’t miss the rich music capabilities as much as some others likely would.

Apps and Performance

Like Amazon, Barnes and Noble curates its app library, which generally makes it safe and usable. The key apps, such as Netflix, Twitter, Dropbox, MobiSystems’ OfficeSuite, FlipBoard and Evernote, are all there.

I found some games on there, too, such as the Angry Birds Series and Cut the Rope. On the other hand, Barnes and Noble has very few action games. This may be because, while it’s running the same Texas Instruments Dual core 4470 CPU as the Kindle Fire HD 8.9, it doesn’t offer the same quadcore graphics processing power as Apple’s fourth-generation iPad.

Amazon actually includes the GPU-hungry Asphalt 7 in its app library, but the game does not look particularly good on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9. Obviously, Barnes and Noble chose not to take that risk.

Price

At $ 269 for the 16 GB model (I tested the $ 299 32 GB option), Barnes and Noble’s Nook HD+ is one of the most affordable large-screen tablets on the market — that price even includes the AC adapter. Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9 costs $ 299, but does not include the charger, and adds subsidizing sleep-screen ads. A 16 GB Wi-Fi-only fourth-generation iPad starts at $ 499.

Obviously, the iPad is more powerful, has a higher resolution and two cameras, while the Kindle, which also includes a camera, offers powerful Dolby stereo speakers (Nook HD+ has ones with decent volume) and unlimited cloud-based storage for your Amazon content. But if those features don’t matter to you, and you’re looking for an attractive, large-screen, light-weight, fun, effective and very affordable tablet from a company that knows a thing or two about good content, you can’t do better than the Nook HD+.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan

In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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US drone kills senior al Qaeda leader in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A US drone strike has killed a senior al Qaeda leader in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the latest blow to the Islamic militant network.

Sheik Khalid bin Abdel Rehman al-Hussainan, who was also known as Abu Zaid al-Kuwaiti, was killed when missiles slammed into a house Thursday near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in the North Waziristan tribal area, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Al-Kuwaiti appeared in many videos released by al Qaeda's media wing, Al-Sahab, and was presented as a religious scholar for the group.

Earlier this year, he replaced Abu Yahya al-Libi, al Qaeda's second in command, who was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan in June, the intelligence officials said. Al-Libi was a key religious figure within al Qaeda and also a prominent militant commander.

Al-Kuwaiti appeared to be a less prominent figure and was not part of the US State Department's list of most wanted terrorist suspects, as al-Libi had been.

Covert CIA drone strikes have killed a series of senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal region over the past few years. But the attacks are controversial because the secret nature of the program makes it difficult to determine how many civilians are being killed.

Pakistani officials often criticize the strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty, which has helped make them extremely unpopular in the country. But senior Pakistani officials are known to have cooperated with strikes in the past, and many people believe they still do.

Al-Kuwaiti's wife and daughter were wounded in Thursday's drone attack, according to the intelligence officials. His wife died a day later at a hospital in Miran Shah, another main town in North Waziristan.

Al-Kuwaiti was buried in Tappi village near Mir Ali on Friday, the officials said.

A Pakistani Taliban commander who frequently visits North Waziristan told the Associated Press by telephone that he met some Arab fighters on Saturday who were "very aggrieved." The Arabs told him they lost a "big leader" in a drone strike, but would not reveal his name or his exact position in al Qaeda.

The Taliban commander spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of revealing his identity to the Pakistani government.

al Qaeda's central leadership in Pakistan has been dealt a series of sharp blows in the past few years, including the US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad last year. A significant number of senior al Qaeda leaders have also been killed in US drone attacks in the country.

Many analysts believe the biggest threat now comes from al Qaeda franchises in places like Yemen and Somalia.

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.

One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”

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