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Consensus Communications Co-Founder John Sowinski has been appointed to the University of Central Florida Strategic Planning Commission Distinctive Impact Dimension.

The Commission is exploring UCF’s role in the community through three dimensions – Philosophy, Value and Distinctive Impact. A UCF alum and former student body president, John will join university stakeholders and community leaders on the Distinctive Impact Dimension, helping evaluate areas of excellence and impact that distinguish UCF from other institutions.

Started in the fall of 2015, the planning process involves not only internal stakeholders but also members from the community and concludes in spring 2016. Ultimately, the commission will deliver a road map that will help develop a long-term vision and a five-year action plan.

A founding partner of Consensus, John is a veteran of numerous statewide political, issue and corporate campaigns and has more than 20 years experience in public policy, media relations, message development, and paid media management.

John was recently named a top mover and shaker in Florida politics in the inaugural Influence 100 list by Peter Schorsch of SaintPetersBlog.com.

Ready to get your bowl on, Orlando? We’re excited to announce that our client Create Your Nature, a new quick-service café concept, is headed to Winter Park in spring 2016, offering a menu that boasts healthier menu options and centers around acai bowls and oatmeal blends as well as salads.

The approximately 1,300-square-foot café will be located at 1284 N. Orange Ave. in one of Winter Park’s oldest garage buildings – State Auto Body. The building is being renovated into an innovative retail complex featuring a variety of local businesses, including a distillery, coffee house and salon.

Husband-wife team Dan and Kim Dill will own and operate the new café. Both working professionals, passionate about a healthy lifestyle and parents of two young girls, the Dills are not your typical café owners. Dan is a successful trial lawyer and owns The Dill Law Group. Kim recently left her job as an insurance defense attorney at Carman, Beauchamp, Sang & Gonzales to focus on the family’s new restaurant venture.

After falling in love with the acai bowl concept while away celebrating their anniversary, Dan and Kim quickly learned acai boasts several health benefits and began experimenting with recipes to provide both savory and sweet options for their friends and family.

As Kim puts it, “we saw the potential in Orlando to provide a quick, healthy alternative to your average breakfast or lunch spot, and as they say, the rest is history. We both live healthy lifestyles and also want to enjoy what we’re doing while serving others. It’s a natural fit for us and our family.”

The café features more than just acai bowls, with other featured items including oatmeal bowls and salads, and as the namesake implies, guests have the option to create their own of any of these offerings. Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the quick-service café caters to everyone – business professionals on the go, busy moms, those with active lifestyles and more.

The Dills are excited to have the opportunity to provide their friends and the greater Orlando community with a product that fits their active lifestyle.

The café will also feature a natural, casual interior design with a neighborhood feel. Anna Schmidt Interior Design, a familiar name to the Central Florida area, has teamed up with the Dills to oversee the build out of the new café space, which will offer an inviting and comfortable atmosphere. Schmidt has worked with some of the most well known restaurant brands in the country as well as some local favorites, including East End Market, Cask & Larder and Cocina 214.

About Create Your Nature

Winter Park, Fla.-based Create Your Nature is the brainchild of husband-wife team Dan and Kim Dill and is Central Florida’s first acai café and oatmeal bar. Opening in spring 2016, this new café concept features fresh takes and tasty bites, such as acai bowls and oatmeal blends as signature dishes, salads, and sweet and savory indulgences. For more information, visit www.createyournature.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. #getyourbowlon

Consensus Communications, a Downtown Orlando-based full service public relations firm, today announced Christina Morton, APR, has been elected to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Sunshine District board. She will serve as treasurer.

The Sunshine District represents more than 1,000 public relations professionals from seven chapters throughout Florida. The district is one of 10 nationwide and provides educational resources, scholarships, and professional development opportunities for the industry’s leading professionals.

Christina has served on the local PRSA Orlando board for seven years, most recently as president. This is her first officer-level position with the district board.

An accredited and awarding-winning public relations professional, Christina’s emphasis is in media relations, social media and community relations.

Consensus Communications, a Downtown Orlando-based full service public relations firm, today announced long-time Principal Dana Loncar has been appointed to the Family Homelessness Committee of the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness (CFCH).

Led by long-time child advocate Dick Batchelor, the committee is charged with researching family homelessness in Central Florida and identifying solutions to help homeless families. It was created in 2014 as a subcommittee of the CFCH.

Dana has more than 15 years experience in public affairs in Central Florida. Since joining Consensus a decade ago she has focused on community relations, local lobbying and campaign management for a variety of clients. Dana’s public affairs clients include leading trade associations, industry groups, public/private consortiums, and Fortune 500 companies in sectors ranging from agribusiness to tourism and retail.

For more than 10 years, Dana has been an active voice in the community on the issue of homelessness, having served on the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida’s board for many years, including as chairman in 2011. She currently serves on the communications committee for the Coalition, the board of directors for the Central Florida Partnership’s BusinessForce committee, and the board of trustees for The Christ School.

From time to time, we like to bring you news and views from our team on what’s happening across the state. As many of you may know, Consensus Co-Founder John Sowinski is the president and spokesperson for No Casinos. He is considered a leader on what has become, and will continue to be, a hot issue for Florida. John held a press conference Tuesday in Tallahassee to outline a plan to block the expansion of gambling in the state, and we thought you might find this of interest.

Here’s what he had to say:
“… Spectrum concluded that around 95% of the money spent at proposed destination resort casinos would come from residents, not tourists.

Gambling is not economic development, it’s an economic parasite.

Money spent in the casino is money not spent in a restaurant, a bar, a movie theater, or other form of entertainment. If 95% of the people patronizing a casino spent their money at some other business, we would be better off for it, because those forms of entertainment don’t come with the crime, addiction, and corruption, that is too often associated with the gambling industry…

… It is beyond reason that anyone would look at what is happening to the casino industry and states and communities that rely on it and conclude that Florida should have a greater stake in this industry. Why would we trade what’s working here for what has become a complete disaster in almost everywhere that it has become a major player?

That’s why today, we’re here to outline our three-pronged strategy to prevent the expansion of gambling in Florida over the next three years.”
– John Sowinski, President, No Casinos

Articles of interest:

Palm Beach Post
No Casinos sees gambling deal that includes PBKC slots an “economic parasite” on Florida

Miami Herald
Gambling opponents bash compact and hope for court ruling to squelch all gaming expansion

SaintPetersBlog
No Casinos promises multi-front war on gambling

WCTV
Anti-gambling group in Tallahassee

Sun Sentinel
Anti-gambling group takes aim at Seminole deal

Consensus Founder Tre’ Evers joins a cast of the most influential people in Central Florida for a look at the region’s top stories in government, politics and culture. Each week, the opinion leaders weigh in and share insight with the Orlando Sentinel. Here’s what Tre’ had to say this week:

“BISHOP MOORE PRIDE. Last week: The Bishop Moore Hornets won the state 5A football State Championship on Friday by defeating Wakulla 37-34. Bishop Moore’s current athletic director, Mike Malatesta, was the Hornet quarterback in 1970, the only other time Bishop Moore won a football State Championship.

Last year the Hornets were defeated in semi-final play with a last second field goal. So their mantra this year was “One Moore” — one Moore play, one Moore game, etc.

Led by 5A coach of the year, Matt Hedrick, the Hornets drew first blood, but wound up down 21-17 at halftime.

Facing future University of Florida quarterback, All-American Feleipe Franks, the Hornets made half-time adjustments and shut down his passing game.

The Hornets scored the go-ahead touchdown with 70 seconds to go, and then watched as Franks’ field-goal attempt to tie the game flew wide left with time running out.”

For more from the Central Florida 100, visit the Orlando Sentinel.

“For more than two decades, they’ve been at the forefront of issues that define Florida’s corporate and political landscapes.”

Consensus co-founders Tre’ Evers and John Sowinski join the ranks of the top movers and shakers in Florida politics in the inaugural Influence 100 list by Peter Schorsch of SaintPetersBlog.com.

The list features the players, thought leaders, lobbyists, media, industry leaders, legends and more from across the state who have been, and still are, key to Florida’s political landscape.

Evers and Sowinski founded Consensus Communications in 1995. For more than two decades, the firm has worked with major companies, business leaders, and leading industry groups with high-stakes needs in Florida.

A political consultant and communications specialist, Evers provides public relations advice, integrated communications counsel, messaging strategies and grassroots advocacy tactics to clients, including Fortune 500 companies, major business and trade associations, some of Florida’s most well-known elected officials and Florida’s most-storied statewide ballot initiatives.

Sowinski is a communications strategist and a veteran of numerous statewide political, issue and corporate campaigns. He has more than 20 years experience in public policy, media relations, message development, and paid media management. Sowinski is regarded as the premier expert on statewide referendum campaigns in Florida, having accomplished an unmatched record in statewide ballot initiatives.

For the full excerpt and the complete list, click here.

Now that’s what we call #winning. At this week’s Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) Golden Image Awards Banquet, Consensus Communications was awarded the Grand Image Award in the public service category for its work in 2014 on the Seminole County public information campaign for a penny sales tax to fund capital projects. This same project was also awarded a Radiance Award in the community relations category from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Sunshine District in July.

FPRA’s Golden Image Awards competition is conducted annually to recognize outstanding public relations programs in Florida and to encourage and promote the development of public relations professionalism in Florida. More than 200 entries were received for this year’s awards ceremony.

The PRSA Sunshine District’s Radiance Awards recognize outstanding strategic public relations programs by Florida practitioners or organizations. The statewide awards are among the highest levels of professional achievement and highlight PR campaigns that demonstrate excellence in research, planning, implementation and evaluation.

Based on his grasp of history, politics and even pop culture, you would never guess that Ryan Houck was born when Ronald Reagan was seeking re-election in 1984.  But in a book he completed before his 30th birthday, Houck, who leads Consensus Communications’ media production team and provides clients with high-level strategic communications counsel, unpacks volumes of research and decades of history into an enjoyable and insightful book that shows how generational politics will shape the future of our great country.

Written from his perspective as a free-market millennial, “Will America Fail?” describes how the generation that elected and re-elected Barack Obama will ultimately lead a conservative renaissance that will usher in a new American golden age. The book is published by Post Hill Press and is available in hardcover or for download from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. As of this writing, the book is ranked 11th in Amazon’s Elections category, 36th in the National Politics category, and 50th in the Commentary and Opinion Category.

Here’s the official release, and links to the book’s video trailer and purchase page:

Will America Fail?
The Unlikely Story of How Millennials Will Spark a Conservative Renaissance and Restore American Prosperity

Will America Fail? With China rising and the Middle East ablaze, the question of “American decline” has seized the national spotlight.  In the midst of historic change, Ryan Houck—the 29 year-old co-creator of If I Wanted America to Fail and President of Free Market America—partners with Post Hill Press to deliver a groundbreaking new book with a surprising take on America’s future.

The title: Will America Fail?

Hailed by Rush Limbaugh as “brilliant” and declared a new “conservative manifesto” by Fox News’ Eric Bolling, millions tuned in to watch Houck’s last tour de force, If I Wanted America to Fail. In his new book, Houck makes the bold but painstakingly-researched prediction that America stands at the threshold of a new Golden Age—and that many members of his Millennial Generation will not only live to see it, they will inaugurate it.

As implied by the book’s powerful new trailer, Will America Fail? addresses haunting questions raised in past videos, such as: Is America, like Rome before it, destined to crumble and collapse?  Have the values of our Founders become obsolete in the Information Age?  Will the 21st Century belong to China or the United States? Is the next generation of Americans—the so-called Millennials—prepared to lead?

Unlike most political commentary on bookshelves today—much of which is rooted in the late 20th Century experiences of Watergate, Vietnam or the Reagan Revolution—Houck’s narrative style and nuanced message belong wholly to the Information Age.  Readers in their twenties and thirties will instantly discover modern ways to connect with the timeless truths of our American Experiment, while older readers will find both a new sense of optimism for our nation’s long-term future as well as a new conservative language that will appeal to their Millennial children.  A Millennial himself, Houck’s relatable style and assiduous research make Will America Fail? a truly unique addition to his genre.

Buy the book.
Watch the trailer.
View the original, If I Wanted America to Fail.