University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program’s Open House at Orlando site on Colonial Drive set for Feb. 18

ORLANDO – The public is invited to attend an open house of the recently expanded University of Central Florida Business Incubator-Orlando Thursday, Feb. 18 at 3218 E. Colonial Drive.
The festivities, which are scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m., will include welcome speeches by Dr. Thomas O’Neal, UCF Associate Vice President for Research and Commercialization and executive director of the Business Incubation Program, and by Tony Ortiz, Orlando City Commissioner for District 2.

The open house also will feature self-guided tours of the 6,400 square-foot facility, as well as finger foods and beverages.

The incubator – a partnership between the City of Orlando and the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program – opened on Colonial Drive nearly two years ago in a 2,400 square foot office across from Fashion Square Mall with plans to expand into a neighboring office with nearly 4,000 additional square feet, according to Site Manager Melissa Wasserman.

The expansion offers dramatically more common space for clients to meet with business associates including a training room equipped with the latest AV technology and work stations with wireless internet access.

“We are very proud of the quality of our new clients and the functionality of our newly expanded space,” Wasserman said. “We are eager to welcome the local community to see how the partnership between UCF and Orlando is growing.”

The center’s established residents – OC Grant Consulting Associates, SeaQuarius, Social Security Advocates and Therigy – recently were joined by Brand Advance, Eginity, Excelsior Communications Services Inc., MTK Sports Training, InBusiness Inc., Learn to Learn, MyDocHub, Perceptive Technologies and VideoProof, some of who recently moved in from other UCF incubator locations.

The Orlando incubator is one of six such facilities in the university’s Business Incubation Program. Others are in East Orange County near UCF, and in Seminole and Lake Counties.
The UCF Business Incubation Program serves nearly 80 full-time client companies and provides a wide range of services, including business mentors, educational classes, affordable office space, as well as access to a receptionist, a site manager, and necessary business equipment like multi-line phones, FAX and high-speed Internet.

For more information please call, 321-281-8384.
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For more information about this release, please contact:
Melissa Wasserman, UCF Business Incubator Orlando Site Manager, 321-281-8384, mwasserm@mail.ucf.edu; Gordon Hogan, Director of Operations, UCF Business Incubation Program, 407-882-1157; bizdev@mail.ucf.edu

About the UCF Incubation Program:
Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 130 emerging companies (including nearly 80 current clients) create over $500 million in annual revenue and more than 1600 new jobs with an average salary of $59,000. With six facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development between the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Winter Springs, The City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. For more information, please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu.