When Caddy's Went Viral

With the sun losing its glare and now appearing as a beautiful orange orb just above the distant horizon where the sky meets the sea, Barry O’Connor thought to himself, “This is as close to paradise as you can get.” Yet, the vast empty sea of white sand surrounding him told a very different story. It was July 17, 2020, and this beautiful area should have been overrun with college students and young families as they enjoyed their summer vacation. Instead, the executive order that came as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic four months earlier forced him to immediately close his four bars and six Caddy’s Waterfront Dining restaurants, laying off 600 employees and dashing his dreams of another lucrative season. Barry gazed at the beautiful sunset one more time before turning his thoughts to the monumental problem that faced him. While he agreed that the health and safety of his employees and loyal customers was paramount, he couldn’t help but feel the pang that losing a few million dollars a month brings. Now, as businesses began to reopen their doors in the face of new restrictions brought about by COVID, Barry was left to figure out how to navigate the uncharted landscape of new in-house capacity restrictions, everyone’s fear of contracting the virus, and the unknown of when this pandemic would end. All the while, Barry’s bar business was in shambles due to a second government shutdown of bars, which only added pressure on the Caddy’s brand to drive revenue and keep the other half of the business afloat. A potential solution loomed on the horizon, however. This Caddy’s location in Treasure Island had an extensive beach immediately outside its doors, which could expand its footprint, allowing an additional 450-500 customers to enjoy the Caddy’s experience in the safety of an outdoor arena. However, due to local government zoning restrictions, Caddy’s was not legally allowed to treat this area as a traditional restaurant setting. But Barry had become a self-made man because he understood that the nature of business was never static. He knew that the best way forward was to disregard the inconvenience of circumstances beyond his control, and instead pour his efforts into a search for the opportunities that always accompanied such impacts. But just what opportunities did the pandemic create? How could he best leverage technology to exploit them? How would he manage the impact of the changes on his customers and employees?

Sustaining a Hotel Business during Crisis: A Singapore Luxury Hotel's Journey during COVID-19

Richard Ang, a Singaporean general manager at Hotel J, aimed to be a strong leader during COVID-19 disruption. Richard sat in his office deep in thought as earlier in the day, he had attended a board meeting with his management team to discuss strategies, he wanted to ensure safety of in-house guests and employees whilst effectively managing cost to sustain the hotel business during the crisis. Leaning back in his chair, Richard thought to himself about the potential strategies presented by his team and the effectiveness of the current critical situation. Richard knew that this was not an easy decision to make, and how could he choose among the three options based on the uncertainty of the pandemic. Hotel J enjoyed and experienced the prosperity of the economy in Singapore since it opened in 2015. Tourism business was continually growing and doing well, according to Singapore Tourism Statistics 2019, Singapore recorded a total of 18.5 million international visitors who came to Singapore in 2019, they spent a total of S$27.1 billion in 2018 (Singapore Tourism Board, 2019). With a strong inbound arrival, Hotel J kept running over 85% occupancy with a decent average daily rate (ADR) at S$460. Hotel J has grown to become one of Singapore's leading luxury hotels. However, in early 2020, the spread of COVID-19 virus had caused many countries to implement nationwide lockdowns and restricted international travel to curb the proliferation of the virus. Singapore experienced a strong impact from this unprecedented event with the number of infected people increasing, fear of the unknown being unsettling, and unforeseeable disruptions to business and life in general thus leading to panic. As a result, the Singapore government imposed stringent measures in response. These measures include an increase in health, hygiene and sanitation measures, halting of social activities, compulsory donning of masks in public, and compulsory quarantine for anyone traveling to Singapore. The Singapore government employed the help of hotels to act as quarantine facilities to house individuals returning from overseas who are required to take fourteen days Stay-Home Notice (SHN). Many hotels expressed interest in accommodating SHN guests, as this option offered hotels a source of revenue, due to the fact that the government remunerated the hotels accordingly. Thus, becoming an SHN hotel was a good option for Hotel J. After signing a contract with Singapore Tourism Board, Hotel J was employed as a dedicated quarantine / SHN facility and overhauled its amenities to cater to the safety measures set out by the government. As COVID-19 infection rates in Singapore declined, the government began reducing stringent lockdown measures and to allow for small social gatherings. Additionally, hotels that were used as quarantine facilities could restart its F&B operations albeit restricted to serve in-house dining. This created a spur in the market where many hotels began to return to regular operations to recuperate losses incurred during the pandemic. Concurrently, the government offered Hotel J an extension of the SHN hotel contract until late 2021. Upon hearing the news, Richard gathered the team leaders to begin discussions on the possible strategies for Hotel J. The meeting ended at a stalemate where there was no conclusion on an agreed strategy and decided to adjourn the meeting to the following day. As the general manager of Hotel J, the final decision on the hotel strategy lies with him. Richard must consider the pros and cons of each option thoroughly. If you were Richard, what would you decide?

Children's Cancer Center: Navigating A Pandemic

Patty O’Leary is the Executive Director of the Children’s Cancer Center (CCC). The CCC was founded on the philosophy that when a child is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family is really diagnosed. Patty and team dedicate their service to these families through 24 support programs focused on their emotional, financial, and educational needs. Much of the success of the organization has been driven by Patty’s ability to cultivate relationships with small to medium size businesses in Tampa Bay and Sarasota. These businesses support the Center through sponsorships and direct donations for the four signature events held each year: Golf Madness, The Gelatin Plunge, The Fall Stampede and Wine, Women & Shoes. The recent spread of COVID-19 leading to a statewide “safer-at-home” order placed Patty and her team in an unfamiliarly position of potentially not achieving their fiscal budget due to having to postpone the final two fundraisers for the year.

City Telecoms Potential: 5G Challenges for a Smart City

City assets have the potential to play a pivotal role in the deployment of future connectivity such as 5G. How should Dublin City respond to this or should it get involved at all?

Selection of Collegewide Course Materials

Due to COVID-19 pandemic a college with eight different campus locations moved its face to face courses online. The college decided to list all courses under one main campus since the regional locations did not matter now. There was a course materials issue since the professors from each of the campuses use their own materials. Now that courses are provided collegewide (as one campus), the students could sign up for a course with an instructor at another campus without knowing. This created a serious problem for the students. A student could potentially buy course materials for a course, for some reason switch to another of the same course and have the wrong materials purchased.

A District Approach to Smart Mobility

“As a Smart City district evolves, and its success as a business location of choice grows, we need to ensure that mobility challenges are addressed for all communities. Smart technologies are a major factor.” – Ronan Herron Ronan Herron had recently been appointed the Smart Dublin Coordinator with responsibility for Smart Sandyford and was travelling to its launch on the modern Luas light rail system. Ronan found himself marvelling at the changes to the Sandyford area since he first started working in the Council twelve years earlier: Gone was the old industrial landscape with pockets of sad-looking housing estates, and in its place was a vibrant business district with multiple household name multinational companies, nestled with modern residential areas. Sandyford was a short distance from Dublin city centre but just ten short years prior, few would have anticipated the economic and business transformation that had overcome this once maligned and side-lined district of Dublin. While Ronan had managed to get a seat on the packed Luas tram, he noticed multiple congested areas in and around the route to the launch. Clearly, this had become a very popular district indeed! Since starting in his post, Ronan had observed that the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council (DLR), responsible for Smart Sandyford, was very excited about the future for the Sandyford district, anticipating (and indeed, planning for) significant growth in the number of businesses moving there, and additional residential areas. Ronan contemplated what impact this was likely to have on on-going mobility for everyone living and working in the district. Given his background in smart technologies, and Smart Sandyford’s position as a part of Smart Dublin, Ronan naturally found himself contemplating technology as a means to address Sandyford’s growing mobility challenges. He was on his way to launch Smart Sandyford, and surely, smart technology could contribute to solutions to those challenges. This Smart District offered a means to answer some of the pressing questions around mobility for Dublin: How might technology deployment improve mobility services? How would mobility solutions impact all stakeholders in the community? Can technology alleviate the impact of transport on the environment? How would the data needed to enable smart mobility be collected and analysed? What data would even be needed?

The Ticketing System That Couldn't

In today's competitive market, companies must rely on technology to scale the business and operate efficiently

USF Community Cries for Rapid Employment Due to COVID-19 Devastating Job Loss

Josie Rocco hung up the phone and wiped away the tears streaming down her face as she contemplated what her next move would be. This was the third call she'd received that day where all she could say was, “I am so sorry to hear that.” Words that felt empty with no real solutions or answers attached to them. Josie was the Chief Operations Officer for the University Area Community Development Corporation, Inc. (UACDC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving community through resident empowerment and self-sufficiency. Josie was in charge of all the programs and services, and in her 25 years of doing this work, she had never heard such hopelessness in her community's collective voice. The number of residents who had lost their jobs due to COVID-19 was overwhelming. This public health pandemic came out of nowhere, like a thief in the night stealing away security and peace, leaving behind the devastating effects of death, unemployment, loss of housing, and crippling food insecurity.

COVID-19 - Hillsborough Fire Rescue Department

In early January of 2020, the world became aware of a new coronavirus, now named COVID-19, rapidly spreading throughout Wuhan China. As the events of this deadly virus in China played out on the evening news, conversations started about the impending Chinese New Year. As a tradition, China shuts down all nonessential work for several weeks to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which gives families in China time to vacation around the world. The combination of COVID-19 and the Chinese New Year helped quickly spread the virus around the world to create a deadly pandemic. Europe was first to feel the fatal effects of COVID-19, then by late February, the virus had entered the United States. The fatal consequences of COVID-19 caught all nations off guard and quickly overwhelmed the medical system. While Hillsborough County Fire Rescue trains daily for both known and unknown emergency, is Hillsborough County Emergency Management team prepared for a pandemic as deadly as COVID-19?

MEALS ON WHEELS OF TAMPA CONFRONTS COVID-19

Meals on Wheels of Tampa (MOWT), a 501(C)3 tax-exempt organization founded in 1975, delivers hot meals to people in need in the community, mostly the elderly and the homebound that live alone. The meals are prepared, packaged and delivered by the organization on a daily basis, approximately 870 meals per day. Beneficiaries of the program truly depend on it, not only because of their inability to procure their own meals, but also because for some, this is the only nutritious meal they eat every day. The work is done by staff and volunteers. The staff does a remarkable job of coordinating the volunteers, especially regarding the logistics of delivering the meals. All the funds needed for this operation come from charitable donations and local community support. When the COVID-19 pandemic started lurking in early 2020, it was very clear that it would be a large disruptor to the MOWT operation.