John Hinnant, President and CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc. will be speaking at the Southeast Tourism Society Spring meeting in Florida this week. He is one of four panelists chosen to speak concerning downtowns becoming destinations. Other panelists include Jay Markwalter, executive director, Lawrenceville Tourism & Trade Association; Marjorie Ferrer, executive director, DDA, Delray Beach, Fla.; and Joel Cordle, director, DDA, City of Dahlonega, Ga.

Environments Unlimited Inc. recently received the Small Business Excellence Award from the Center for Entrepreneurship at Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. The award was presented to president John Cockrum and vice president Roger McSwain for customer satisfaction. Environments Unlimited is a LEED accredited, commercial, general contracting company based in Wilmington.

Donna Flake, Director of the Robert M. Fales Health Sciences Library with South East Area Health Education Center will speak as part of a national webcast hosted by the Medical Library Association in Chicago on April 20. Flake will discuss the integration of SEAHEC’s Virtual Library into New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Electronic Medical Record, ideas in achieving meaningful use, and how consumer health information can be integrated to improve patient outcomes.

Intracoastal Realty recently received a Website Quality Certification Award for at the 2011 Leading Real Estate Companies of the World Conference.  The company’s website, www.intracoastalrealty.com, was the winner in the “Best Interactivity” category, chosen for its utilization of blogs, interactive maps, lifestyle searches and links to social media sites, according to a release.  This global-scale recognition is especially impressive considering they were competing with numerous larger companies with much bigger markets than their own.