Eight editions in, Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale goes all day

Key points:

• • caa launches its first-ever full-day Broward summit on June 11, bringing together 250+ executives, mayors, and industry leaders across six panels and a fireside chat lineup.
• • The event debuts the Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale Technology & Innovation Awards, recognizing builders, tech leaders, and regional newcomers driving Broward County’s growth economy.
• • Four sitting mayors and the heads of Broward County Transit and Tri-Rail will share the stage — making this one of the highest-density public-private leadership convenings in the region.

May 2026 — caa will convene more than 250 executives, elected officials, and industry leaders at the Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale 8th Edition Leadership Summit on Thursday, June 11, at the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The full-day event — caa’s first in Broward County — marks the launch of the eighth edition of its comprehensive regional economic report and introduces the inaugural Technology & Innovation Awards.

Join us at the Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale 8th Edition Leadership Summit! This premier event brings together hundreds of Greater Fort Lauderdale’s business and regional leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities for businesses and investors. Buy your ticket now!

The summit runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., opening with registration and a full breakfast networking session before moving into a structured program of panels, fireside chats, and a closing awards ceremony and cocktail hour.

“We’re beyond excited to launch the eighth edition of Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale with the local business community in Broward County,” said Abby Lindenberg, founder and CEO of caa. “With our first-ever full-day event in Broward along with the launch of our inaugural Technology & Innovation Awards, we’re expecting the best event yet.”

Morning panels: capital and policy

The morning program opens with “Ground Floor: Why Broward’s development mix is attracting the kind of capital that doesn’t leave, and how key stakeholders are capitalizing.” Austin Fox, principal at Austin Fox Architecture; Jason Martin, senior vice president at Moss; and Luis Senra, COO of ANF will discuss the forces drawing sustained investment into the county’s built environment. Sidney Calloway, partner and governmental affairs co-chair at Shutts & Bowen LLP, will moderate.

Between panels, Lindenberg will lead a fireside chat with Shane Strum, CEO of Broward Health. Their conversation will center on the institutional partnerships expanding healthcare access across South Florida — a region where health system consolidation and public-private collaboration have accelerated significantly in recent years, with implications for workforce, real estate, and community investment.

The second morning panel, “From Policy to Place: Creative incentives and use cases that Broward leaders are implementing for intentional growth,” draws key public officials to the stage: Michael Ryan of Sunrise, Josh Levy of Hollywood, Joy Cooper of Hallandale Beach, and Carolyn Francis-Royer, chief housing administrator for the City of Miramar. Todd Holt, vice president of business development at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, will moderate. The panel targets one of the region’s most consequential near-term questions: how local governments translate zoning reform, housing incentives, and public land use into measurable economic outcomes.

Infrastructure, mobility, and scale

Following a lunch and networking break, the afternoon session opens with its most transit-forward panel yet. “How Broward Moves: Infrastructure, transit, and the public-private deals that will determine the county’s future trajectory and mobility aspirations” features Joyce Davis, mayor of Dania Beach; Angelo Castillo, mayor of Pembroke Pines; Diane Hernandez Del Calvo, interim executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority/Tri-Rail; Coree Cuff Lonergan, CEO and general manager of Broward County Transit; and Greg Stuart, executive director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. Michael Platner, managing partner at Lewis Brisbois, will moderate.

The panel convenes at a decisive moment for South Florida mobility. With Tri-Rail’s downtown Miami link now operational and Broward’s bus rapid transit and Complete Streets initiatives advancing, the conversation will move beyond planning rhetoric into the contractual and capital structures that determine whether these projects deliver on schedule — and who benefits.

A second afternoon fireside chat will feature Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale, alongside Heiko Dobrikow, executive vice president and general manager of The Las Olas Company and Riverside Hotel. The discussion addresses how Fort Lauderdale is positioning itself as a year-round conference and events destination — diversifying its hospitality economy beyond seasonal beach tourism into convention-driven demand and major-event infrastructure.

The closing panel, “Built to Scale: What sustainable business growth actually looks like in Broward County and the South Florida region,” rounds out the afternoon with Eve Cann, managing shareholder at Baker Donelson; Andrew Sossin, co-founder and CEO of Recovery Unplugged; and Michelle Gómez, mayor of Tamarac. The panel will interrogate what durable regional growth requires at the company and institutional level — not just expansion, but the operational, financial, and workforce structures that sustain it.

Inaugural technology & innovation awards

The summit concludes with the first-ever Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale Technology & Innovation Awards, held during a cocktail hour sponsored by Fiske Advisory, a Springline company. Three awards will be presented: the Broward Builder Award, honoring leaders who are transforming how projects are designed, built, and operated through technology and data; the Technology Leadership Award, recognizing executives who leverage innovation for competitive advantage across industries — from startups to established enterprises; and the Newcomer Innovation Award, celebrating companies and individuals who have recently established a presence in Greater Fort Lauderdale and are already hiring, investing, and driving regional growth.

As Invest Greater Fort Lauderdale enters its eighth edition, caa is helping to formalize the region’s identity as a technology and innovation economy. For investors and executives tracking where capital and talent flow next in South Florida, the award categories define the sectors and behaviors the Broward business community intends to incentivize.

Registration and event details are available at the Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale 8th Edition Leadership Summit event page. For media and sponsor inquiries, contact Jorge Fadul at (305) 850-6509.

Want more? Read the Invest: Greater Fort Lauderdale report.