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Dallas – September 23, 2026 -- HudsonLake, the strategic communications firm acquired by MikeWorldWide (MWW) in May 2026, has elevated Quinton Crenshaw to president, giving him full executive oversight of the firm's Dallas-based operations.

Crenshaw takes the helm after a decade as executive vice president

Crenshaw, who has spent ten years in leadership roles at HudsonLake, will now direct strategy across the firm's 25-year-old organizational transformation and labor communications practice. He previously advised Fortune 500 executives across North Texas on corporate communications, internal change and brand transformation. "By combining our specialized workforce expertise with MWW's scale and multi-channel reach, we are unlocking extraordinary new opportunities for our clients, our culture and our people," Crenshaw said.

Chicago – September 23, 2026 -- The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, working with the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND), has launched an initiative to embed evidence-based nutrition training into U.S. medical school curricula, citing rising attention from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a catalyst for the effort.

Academy rolls out a microcredential framework to standardize nutrition training

The ACEND Nutrition in Medical Education Microcredential Framework allows accredited nutrition and dietetics programs to convert existing coursework into microlearning units aligned with ACEND curriculum competencies and the HHS Medical Education Nutrition Competency Framework. The tool is designed to give medical schools a structured, program-level path to add nutrition content without building curricula from scratch.

Brentwood – September 23, 2026 -- FreightWise, which manages over $1 billion in annual freight through its Kuebix TMS platform, has been named to the 2027 FreightTech100 list by FreightWaves, an industry recognition awarded to just 100 companies out of a record nominee pool.

More than half of this year's FreightTech100 list consists of newcomers, underscoring rapid sector turnover

Now in its eighth year, the FreightTech Awards saw FreightWaves' Research team evaluate nominees on documented innovation, market impact, and year-over-year technology evolution. FreightWise's inclusion follows what CEO Chris Cochran called one of the most active product development years in the company's history.

Fort Lauderdale – September 23, 2026 -- Air New Zealand has partnered with Business-Class.com to give premium travelers advisor-led booking support for long-haul flights to New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific.

Advisors gain direct access to compare cabin options and fare conditions before booking

Through the partnership, Business-Class.com's travel advisors will help customers compare cabin layouts, routing, connection times, and fare flexibility on Air New Zealand flights, with Air New Zealand managing the onboard experience. The service includes concierge-level support for trip modifications and 24/7 assistance.

Washington – September 23, 2026 -- App-based rideshare and delivery platforms supported $414 billion in U.S. economic activity in 2025, according to a new study commissioned by Flex, the trade association representing the sector's leading companies.

Drivers and couriers completed 6.3 billion orders, earning $8.9 billion in supplemental income

Some 9.4 million drivers and couriers completed a combined 6.3 billion rideshare and delivery orders with Flex member companies last year, generating $8.9 billion in additional income for workers. Order volume rose 29 percent since 2022, the report found.

Hsinchu – September 23, 2026 -- Phrozen has launched the Sonic Mighty Revo 16K MAX, a 14-inch 16K large-format MSLA resin 3D printer priced at USD 1,600 and now available in the United States, targeting studios and print-service providers scaling into batch and production-grade resin work.

Dual heating system targets long-print failures in cold or high-viscosity conditions

The printer's dual-fan chamber heating brings the build chamber to 30°C, while an optional heated resin vat directly warms the resin to reduce thickening and improve layer consistency across long print runs.

2L resin vat cuts mid-print refill interruptions

The vat holds up to 2.5 standard 1 kg resin bottles, giving users enough capacity for overnight prints and full build-plate batches without pausing to refill — an approach Phrozen positions as simpler and less failure-prone than auto-feed pump systems, which can suffer clogs and leaks.

New Orleans – September 23, 2026 -- HOTWORX, the 24-hour infrared sauna fitness franchise, has surpassed 900 open studios worldwide and now serves more than 400,000 members, putting the brand on track to hit 1,000 locations by spring 2027.

Franchise Network Crosses 900 Studios Nearly a Decade After Launch

HOTWORX opened its first studio in Oxford, Miss., in 2017. The brand has since expanded across the United States, Canada, Ireland and Dubai, with 408,693 members recorded this year and new studios in development in Mexico and Kenya.

Member-to-Owner Pipeline Drives Majority of Franchise Growth

A majority of HOTWORX franchisees joined the system as members before converting to ownership, according to the company. Founder and CEO Stephen P. Smith said the model is working at scale, noting that most owners experienced the infrared workout firsthand before signing a franchise agreement.

Ketchum, Idaho – September 23, 2026 -- Skilled trades workers reach financial break-even by age 19, nearly seven years faster than bachelor's degree holders who hit that mark at 26, according to new commissioned research from truck-storage manufacturer DECKED. The findings, drawn from an economic trajectory study and a proprietary survey of 500 tradespeople, anchor the company's new Built for Those Who Build campaign, launching with a Builder's Day event on Sept. 30 at DECKED's manufacturing facility in Defiance, Ohio.

Chicago – September 23, 2026 -- WovenX Health, a Chicago-based specialty care platform, has won the Industry Disrupter Award at 1871's 19th Annual Momentum Awards for its model expanding access to gastroenterology care.

National GI wait times average 40 days as two-thirds of U.S. counties lack a specialist

One in five Americans is affected by a gastrointestinal condition, yet the average wait for a GI consult has grown to 40 days nationally, according to the company. GI-related visits account for 10% of all emergency department visits, 86% of which WovenX says are avoidable with timely specialty access.

Washington – September 23, 2026 -- Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) has joined the Rare Access Action Project (RAAP), adding a major biopharmaceutical player to a coalition working to resolve coverage and access barriers for rare disease patients.

RAAP expands coalition with BMS to tackle patient access barriers

RAAP, a coalition of patient advocates and life sciences companies, confirmed BMS's membership as part of its ongoing effort to develop policy solutions for structural access and coverage gaps affecting rare disease patients. Michael Eging, Executive Director of RAAP, said BMS brings a long history of scientific innovation and a strong commitment to patients facing serious and complex diseases.

Arlington, Va. – September 23, 2026 -- Eagle Hill Consulting's new HR Technology and Service Delivery Survey finds that 51% of HR professionals spend at least half their workweek on routine, repetitive, or low-value administrative tasks, even as 86% say automation or AI improves the service they deliver to the business.

Fragmented systems undercut technology investment across HR functions

Ninety-one percent of surveyed HR professionals use two or more systems to complete a single task, and 43% rely on three or more. Seventy-eight percent regularly re-enter the same information across multiple platforms, while 68% turn to workarounds such as spreadsheets, shared drives, or manual tracking to get work done.

Washington – September 23, 2026 -- Grain Management has appointed Amran Hussein, a 23-year veteran of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, as General Counsel to lead its legal and governance functions and join the digital infrastructure investment firm's leadership team.

Hussein exits 23-year Paul Weiss tenure to join Grain leadership team

Based in New York, Hussein spent more than two decades at Paul, Weiss advising sponsors of private investment funds on formation, governance, secondary transactions, joint ventures, and investment management M&A. She has worked with Grain for more than a decade as outside counsel prior to this internal appointment.

San Francisco – September 23, 2026 -- None of the 15 major institutions interviewed by Bitwise Asset Management reduced their crypto allocations during a roughly 50% market drawdown between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, with several increasing positions instead, according to the firm's new Institutional Crypto Adoption report.

Bitwise, a crypto asset manager overseeing $9 billion in client assets, conducted in-depth interviews with senior investment professionals at endowments, foundations, public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multi-family offices, investment consultants, and public companies to determine what institutions hold, why, and what would trigger a sale.

Delray Beach – – September 23, 2026 -- The global Workforce Management (WFM) market is projected to grow from $10.6 billion in 2026 to $17.2 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 10.1%, according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets. The market stood at $9.6 billion in 2025, with North America alone accounting for $3.4 billion of that total.

Analytics and optimization tools post the fastest segment growth

Within the market, workforce optimization and analytics is expected to expand at a 13.2% CAGR, the highest of any solution category, as enterprises push to use data for staffing decisions and labor planning. The broader solutions segment held the largest share of the market in 2025, while services are forecast to register the fastest growth rate as organizations outsource implementation, integration, and managed support for increasingly complex scheduling, timekeeping, and compliance systems.

Durham, N.C. – September 23, 2026 -- Avalara, Inc. unveiled Avalara Aviator, an AI agent hub designed to cut manual tax and compliance work from days to minutes, at its CRUSH customer and partner conference.

Avalara Aviator connects specialized AI agents to close gaps between automated compliance tasks

For years, tax software automated discrete steps such as calculations, filings, and exemption certificate management, leaving finance teams to manually bridge the gaps, chasing approvals, interpreting reports, and building business logic. Avalara says it is the first company to unify specialized AI agents, compliance workflows, and its trusted tax technology into one connected agent hub. Customers interact via Avi, an orchestrator agent that delegates to lead agents overseeing research, certificates, and returns, validating and executing work while leaving judgment-based decisions to humans.

Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 23, 2026 -- FlashGrid Inc. has released version 26.05 of FlashGrid Cluster and FlashGrid Server with support for Oracle AI Database 26ai, Oracle's next long-term support release, enabling enterprises to run the AI-native database platform on Oracle RAC across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

Oracle AI Database 26ai brings over 300 new capabilities to enterprise workloads

Oracle AI Database 26ai integrates AI functions directly into the database engine, adding more than 300 new capabilities spanning artificial intelligence, developer productivity, performance, and mission-critical availability. Oracle designed the release to let organizations build AI-powered applications while retaining the security, governance, and transactional consistency standards of Oracle Database.

Shenzhen – – September 23, 2026 -- Lenovo has launched the ThinkVision P27UL-40 IJP OLED monitor, its first 27-inch UHD Thunderbolt docking display built for commercial and remote-collaboration environments, powered by TCL CSOT's inkjet-printing OLED panel technology.

Panel specs target color accuracy and text clarity for professional workflows

The 27-inch UHD panel runs at 120Hz with 3840 x 2160 resolution, 99% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, and carries VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. TCL CSOT's Real Stripe RGB pixel layout in the IJP OLED panel is designed to cut text color fringing, a longstanding OLED weakness in office and content-creation applications.

Helsinki – September 23, 2026 -- Helsinki has ranked first on the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index for the third consecutive year, with results published Wednesday, September 23, 2026, scoring 93% across more than 70 sustainability indicators.

Helsinki scores 93% while over 100 global cities compete on sustainability metrics

The GDS Index evaluates tourist destinations across four categories: environmental performance, supply chains, destination management and social sustainability. More than 100 cities committed to sustainability were assessed in this year's comparison, and Helsinki again topped the ranking.

"Securing the top position for the third consecutive year demonstrates that sustainability is not a one-off achievement but a long-term strategic commitment," said Nina Vesterinen, Director of Tourism, City of Helsinki.

Vero Beach, Fla. – September 23, 2026 -- Riverside Theatre, Florida's largest independent nonprofit professional theatre, has appointed Robert (Bob) Gibilterra as Chief Financial Officer, effective October 2026, placing a nearly three-decade Viacom finance veteran in charge of the organization's next growth phase.

Gibilterra will oversee accounting, budgeting and long-range financial planning as Riverside expands its campus

The CFO role will manage financial operations, risk management, and strategic planning as the Vero Beach-based theatre advances plans for a more flexible, expanded campus. Gibilterra relocates to Vero Beach to take up the position.

Dallas – September 23, 2026 -- TGI Fridays has signed a development agreement with Meerab Hospitality to scale to 15 restaurants across Pakistan, marking the brand's second market signing this month as it pursues a global target of 1,000+ restaurants and $2 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

First flagship restaurant targets Lahore's Hyatt Regency within 12 months

Meerab Hospitality, the franchise and development arm of Meerab Properties, plans to open its first TGI Fridays location at the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex in Lahore within the next 12 months. The company will develop restaurants across Pakistan over the next decade through a mix of company-owned and approved sub-franchised units, according to Pervaiz Iqbal Shahid, Founder and Group CEO of Meerab Properties.