Like movies? Go check out the 2nd Annual Orlando Hispanic Film Festival opening today through the weekend, wrapping up on Sunday. The event is being held at the Premiere Cinemas 14 at Fashion Square and coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month festivities.

This event is described by the website as a “high energy, high profile event” that provides a “highly desirable platform where independent filmmakers from around the world can showcase their work to industry professionals and the entire Central Florida Community.”

Awards will be presented to the top films in several categories, selected by a committee of Orlando area entertainment professionals, with the exception of the Audience Award, which, you guessed it, is decided by audience kudos. The categories are:

• Best Feature
• Best Short Film
• Best Documentary Feature
• Best Short Documentary
• Best Screenplay
• Best Original Score
• Best Director
• Best Cinematography
• Best Short Animation
• Best Actor Male
• Best Actor Female
• Best Ensemble Cast

Cool stuff, looks like over 50 films will be screened, so should be something for everyone’s tastes.

With the recent slate of tech conferences that have rolled into Orlando, such as IZEAFest and BlogOrlando, one would think O-Town has become the new Silicon Valley. Well, there’s even more just on the horizon as Create Chaos 08 comes to town next week.

The event, which runs October 13th – 17th at the Orlando World Center Marriott, is actually a conglomeration of ten different events, including a web and design conference, a job fair, a track by FreshBooks on billing and invoicing clients, the Annual Create Awards, and the Motion Graphics Festival, aimed at “creative” types ranging from photographers and graphic artists to web designers and more techy types.

There will also be several keynote speeches, including one by Lee Cockerell, the former executive vice president of operations at the Walt Disney World Resort, who has just released a new book titled, Creating Magic, 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies From A Life At Disney. In it, he draws from his experience with the company to discuss how we all can become better leaders not just in business, but in our personal lives in general. If you want to know more about the book, visit Cockerell’s site and receive a free chapter when you sign up for his mailing list.

Tickets for Create Chaos 08 range from $45 to visit the expo hall, to full week passes for $995. Individual day passes range from $295 to $395.

There are also two free events during the week worth noting - “BarCampChaos,” a Monday-night session that invites participants to control the programming by preparing a 20 minute talk on any creative topic and presenting it to other conference attendees, and doterati’s “Juggling Creativity and Business,” on Wednesday night, where local business leaders Ted Murphy of IZEA, Sterling Raphael of NFi Studios, Scott Allen from MonkeyFoot.com and Chuck Southworth of the Southworth Group will all speak on starting creative businesses from the ground up. I highly recommend both of those events to anyone interesting in networking with locally-minded tech and creative minds. As a bonus, pre-register for either event via the above links and you’ll get a free pass to visit the expo hall on the day of the event.

I’ll definitely be there on Wednesday for the FreshBooks track, as I’ve been interested in learning more about their online invoicing and time tracking service (not to mention their Twitters mention something about candy…), and most likely both the BarCampChaos and the doterati sessions. I’m also told that using the codes FRESHBOOKS or BARCAMP when registering for Create Chaos 08 online will offer a hefty discount off passes.

As you know from earlier posts, I had plans to attend this weekend’s IZEAFest and I did, even though I can’t claim to be too awake during the morning sessions. LOL But overall, I’d have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the conference.

To be honest, I didn’t learn a lot of new stuff, since I’ve been blogging and designing for over eight years, but I enjoyed hearing the different perspectives from the people on the panels. I also felt quite a bit more inspired to keep doing this line of work in hearing the anecdotes and various tidbits of info that I didn’t know. Think of it as positive reinforcement that I’m still on the right track. Though in talking with others, some got a wealth of new knowledge from the panels, so I guess it’s all relative to what you walked in there knowing.

But what I did enjoy the most were the various networking opportunities this blogger conference gave me. From people who I read daily to people who I’ve now added to my feedreader, it was the human interaction with people who felt as passionate about the subject as me that I enjoyed the most. And I really enjoyed finally meeting people face to face that I’d only interacted with online before (a big hello to Ashley, Sean B. & Rae!).

First of all, big kudos to the IZEA folks who put on the conference. Despite a few glitches (which happen at any conference), both days ran smooth and provided a good variety of panels, for people of all levels of blogging. Though, in talking with people in between, as well as hearing various panel guests talk about “hotlinking” (a word that seriously makes me cringe), perhaps a “copyrights and blogging” panel might be a good subject for any future events.

Second, if you didn’t attend, or just want to relive the event, IZEA is streaming the event at izeafest.com/live.html. You can also read the Twitter stream that ran during the event, which I’d have to say was really cool to experience in the moment, as it was interesting reading the various threads that were running between those in the room and those who were not even in Orlando, much less at the event, but were following the live feed on their computers. A great way to harness current social media technology, I think.

If anyone is interested, I have a few pics up from the event at my Flickr account. Lighting wasn’t the best from the back, where I was sitting, and the light from the onstage screens, while providing several ongoing streams of chat to read, played havoc with my camera’s light meter. As a result, I stopped taking pictures on the second day. But thanks to Flickr’s search engine, you can also view pics there from anyone else who tagged their photos with IZEAFest.

I look forward to seeing what the IZEA folks put together for their next event, and I’m really looking forward to seeing more about the new project from them, which they debuted on Friday at the conference. I’ll talk more about it when it gets to a stage where it’s out of the testing phase and open to all, but I think it’ll provide a really fun level of interactivity to any blog and I’m excited that it’s being produced by an Orlando-based company.

So, that’s my wrap-up on IZEAFest. Did you go or at least watch the live feed? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and if you’ve done a blog post or have photos up somewhere, drop a link in the comments so we can come read it.

I know that Michelle already mentioned this before, but since I’m flying to town for it I thought I’d mention it again - IZEAfest is this week! If you are interested in blogs or social media or anything that kinda relates to that I’m guessing you might want to check it out. There’s lots of great speakers lined up which you can see from this schedule. I’m even on a panel Saturday about social networking if that’s your thing. Anyway, come out, say hi, all that stuff. See you then!

Got a blog? Want to know how to market it and maybe make some money off of it in the process? Then you’ll want to be a part of the upcoming IZEAFest in downtown Orlando.

What is IZEAFest, you say? Well, if you attended this spring’s BarCamp Orlando, you’re probably already familiar with local social media marketing firm IZEA, which sponsored an amazing after-event party.

Now they’re taking it a step further by bringing in a slew of influential bloggers and internet advertisers to Orlando for a three-day event designed to allow everyone from newbies to experts in the blogging world access to information and panels on such subjects as improving your content, growing traffic to your blog, and, of course, how to make it more profitable.

Among the panel guests will be such people as money-making gurus like John Chow and keynote speaker Jeremy Schoemaker, both of whom make five-figure incomes monthly off their blogs. Joining them will be other movers-and-shakers in the blogging world like Merlin Mann (another keynote speaker), Orlando Sentinel’s Etan Horowitz and internet marketing consultant Tamar Weinberg, who writes for sites like Lifehacker and Mashable. Even Metblogs head honcho Sean Bonner will also be on hand as a panelist, if you’ve had any questions you wanted to ask him about this site.

The event starts on Thursday, September 11, with an evening social event, then gets down to business on Friday, September 12 and Saturday, September 13, with panels from 9am until 6pm each day.

Of course, it’s not an IZEA event without the closing party, which this year is a scavenger hunt that promises to be “messy” and fun. Um…messy?? Anyways, the hunt is timed and the winning team gets $500 in Home Depot cards. Even if you don’t participate, I’m sure the blackmail pictures will be worth attending this shindig. (Sean…pay no attention to that last sentence…)

Similar events like this are normally priced at several hundred dollars a ticket, but IZEA wants this to be accessible to everyone who has a blog, so they’re pricing their tickets at only $65. Seriously, as someone who attends quite a few blogger conferences, I can tell you that’s really a steal for the amount of information you’ll be able to take away from this event. Not to mention all the opportunities to network with the people attending.

All the details you could want to know about the event can be found at IZEAFest.com. Already know you want to go? Skip ahead to the ordering panel and get your tickets before it sells out.

And if you are going, I’ll see you there!

I know this posting comes a bit late in the day, but if you can make it out to a Cheesecake Factory before close of business today, you can get a slice of cheesecake for only $1.50.

The restaurant is celebrating its 30th anniversary today, which also happens to be “National Cheesecake Day” (who knew??) by rolling back the prices to what they were in 1978 when the first restaurant opened. There is a limit of one per customer and you have to dine-in, but who can turn down a yummy slice of cheesecake for under $2?

Orlando-area locations can be found at the Mall at Millenia and at Winter Park Village. For other central Florida locations or a list of cheesecake flavors available (including the new chocolate cake cheesecake unveiled for the anniversary celebration), visit thecheesecakefactory.com.

I think I’m headed out to grab a slice of the Tiramisu cheesecake. ;)

Hold on to your stir sticks, folks…the first round of Starbucks closures has been announced for Orlando and Central Florida.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that thirteen area stores are soon to be shuttered as part of the coffee chain’s previously announced plan to close 600 stores across the country. Exact locations have also been confirmed by Starbucks on their own website, and they include stores inside Fashion Square Mall, Altamonte Mall, Sanford’s Seminole Towne Center, Oviedo Marketplace, West Oaks Mall and Winter Park Village. Several more stores may face the chopping block before the end of the year.

I personally am not a fan of Starbucks, but what does that say about our economy when people are no longer willing to shell out $4 for coffee drinks on a daily basis?

Of course, you can still patronize local coffee shops around town and keep the cash flowing in our own financial ecosystem.

So, questions of the day…does it matter to you that Starbucks is closing stores? And while we’re talking coffee, where do you like to get your daily fix of caffeine around Orlando?

On first blush, I’m a big fan of new Police Chief Val Demings’ plan to move undercover officers to a uniformed detail in order to beef up visible officer presence. It seems like a highly wise move that will hopefully have a fast impact on arrests and crime in the city.

I’d be lying if I said this stat wasn’t a little troubling, though:

Last year, eight officers in the uniformed drug squad were responsible for 716 arrests, compared with 83 made by the plainclothes unit, according to department statistics.

One would think, hey, if the undercover officers are doing well, don’t mess with success. However, I’m putting some faith in the new regime, and at the very least, this seems a step toward shaking things up in an effort to shake loose some reduction in area crime.

I’ve got nothing more to say on this horrific tragic accident but that let’s all be careful out there when driving. It takes very little for a standard routine morning commute to turn into a total nightmare.

The OPD has just made an arrest in the first homicide of 2008.

EDIT (1/9/08): Reader Steve kindly points out in the comments that I was absolutely wrong with this original post, in which I indicated that the OPD had made their first homicide arrest of the year:

Actually they’ve made arrests on the other homicides so far this year (yes that’s already plural), but they just now have an arrest on the FIRST homicide of the year (which happened just a few hours into 2008).

I’ve rewritten the above to reflect this critical error in my original post. Remember, I never said I was GOOD at this whole “blogging” thing…just that I was going to start DOING it. Thanks to Steve for the assist, and apologies for the error.