Things To Do In SW Florida

The difference between a good workplace and a great workplace often lies in the opinions of the employees, those closest to the daily operations of a functional workplace.

Employees spend many, if not most, waking hours engaging with their workplaces and becoming experts in how those workplaces operate.

For the seventh year, the Orlando Sentinel partnered with employee survey firm Energage to determine the best places to work in Central Florida. Not all can be winners, and the chosen few are selected based on a comprehensive survey process that covers 26 factors and takes a few minutes to complete.

The survey asks employees to offer feedback about work factors such as pay and benefits, direction, leadership, meaningfulness, and appreciation. Energage crunches the feedback data and scores companies based on the responses.

The award is open to any employer with 35 or more employees in Central Florida. Survey results are valid only if 35% or more employees respond, and employers with fewer than 85 employees have a higher response threshold, requiring responses from at least 30 employees. read more

Though the job primarily deals with the technological world behind our computer screens, AIT Engineering President Jason Eddy said the company’s employees are what make it successful.

“It’s basically a team of experts who are well-respected for what they do,” he said. “Having the organizational resources to do a good job for the Department of Defense is what we want people to strive to be happy about coming to work every day.

For dedication to their work — and the appreciation they receive in return from Eddy — AIT Engineering has been named the Orlando Sentinel’s 2025 Top Workplaces in Central Florida winner in the small business category for the third consecutive year.

Founded in 2010 by Eddy, AIT Engineering is a veteran-owned small business that provides cybersecurity, information technology and software development solutions for federal government clients, mainly the Department of Defense.

With 95 employees in Central Florida, Eddy said he’s been able to keep employees engaged by not limiting their development to one particular area of the company. read more

NEW YORK — More than 100 members of the Writers Guild of America East and their supporters jammed the sidewalk in front of Walt Disney Co.’s Lower Manhattan headquarters Friday to protest ABC’s decision to pull “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

The late-night program has been dark since Wednesday, when the Disney-owned network announced in a terse statement that it will be “preempted indefinitely.” The move followed decisions by two major owners of ABC affiliates to drop the show because of Kimmel’s remarks about the suspect in the shooting death of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

Members of the union, which represents TV and film writers, marched with signs calling the move an attack on free speech and accusing Walt Disney Co. executives of lacking backbone.

Among the messages: “Disney and ABC Capitulation and Censorship,” “Always Be Cowards,” “Absolute Bull— Cowards” and “Disney/ABC Bows to Trump Extortion.” There were chants of “Bring Jimmy back.”

The demonstration reflected anger building in the creative community over Kimmel’s removal, which Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr called for during a podcast interview that aired on Wednesday. read more

The latest vessel in Disney Cruise Line’s growing fleet left its shipyard home Friday, making the slow 20-mile river trip so it can complete sea trials ahead of a debut from Port Everglades later this year.

Disney Cruise Line’s new ship Disney Destiny makes the 20-mile conveyance on the Ems River overnight Friday into Saturday, Sept. 19-20, 2025 as the vessel moved from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany headed for Eemshaven, Netherlands ahead of sea trials. (Courtesy/Disney Cruise Line) Disney Cruise Line’s new ship Disney Destiny makes the 20-mile conveyance on the Ems River overnight Friday into Saturday, Sept. 19-20, 2025 as the vessel moved from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany headed for Eemshaven, Netherlands ahead of sea trials. (Courtesy/Disney Cruise Line) Disney Cruise Line’s new ship Disney Destiny makes the 20-mile conveyance on the Ems River overnight Friday into Saturday, Sept. 19-20, 2025 as the vessel moved from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany headed for Eemshaven, Netherlands ahead of sea trials. (Courtesy/Disney Cruise Line)