I’m excited to announce and welcome two new leaders to the Bungalower team as I take on a new position with the City of Orlando.

Brendan O’Connor is our new Editor-in-chief at Bungalower. Brendan will oversee all our content on Bungalower.com and make sure that you stay up-to-date with everything happening in bungalow neighborhoods.

Brendan has spent most of his career keeping Orlando awesome. In the past Brendan has worked with the Orlando Weekly, The Daily City, Urban ReThink and on various sustainability and art projects in the area.

Sarah Elbadri joined Bungalower as our new Business Manager. Sarah is responsible for our business partnerships and our Bungalower Membership. Sarah will also be working with Brendan on the website content.

Sarah most recently helped launch The Iron Yard academy in the Church Street Exchange building and before that worked to bring bike sharing to Orlando and other cities. She also worked on community engagement projects for Rollins College and is the co-host of the ReThinking the City radio show.

The most exciting part is that both Sarah and Brendan have already spent a tremendous amount of time and energy working to make Orlando at better place to live. They are truly committed to building a stronger city and will continue the work I have started at Bungalower to do just that.

As part of these changes, I will be stepping down as publisher of Bungalower and starting a position at the City of Orlando as the Director of Innovation. As new technologies continue to emerge it is important that the City be able to utilize those technologies to identify internal efficiencies and improve community engagement. With this new position, the City joins the ranks of 20 other municipalities like Philadelphia and New York City to have positions specifically aimed at innovation within City government.

I’m excited to utilize the latest technology to identify opportunities to enhance the City’s communication and outreach efforts to better connect the City with Orlando’s residents and businesses.

While employed by the City of Orlando, I will not be involved in any editorial or content decision-making for Bungalower. I will only be a silent investor and technical advisor.

Sarah has been writing almost all of our recent content on Bungalower, but chances are you haven’t noticed unless you looked at the byline and that’s by design.

I know that Sarah and Brendan will make sure that Bungalower stays an important resource for the community and ensure that the site continues to provide useful information as our downtown grows.

I want to thank everyone for their help over the past year growing Bungalower to where it is. I know we all look forward to the great things the new team will do!

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22 Comments

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  1. Wow congrats on the new position. You’ll be missed but I’m sure you know exactly who’s hands you would leave this wonderful project in. Good luck!

  2. Fantastic news all around! Love having more people that love Orlando in positions to make positive change and influence.

  3. Good for you! Congratulations. You started something great and I am sure it will continue to grow!

  4. Matt – I want to thank you for bringing the Bungalower to all of us! Good luck in your new endeavor. If you bring the same excitement to your new job as what you created here, the City of Orlando has a great new employee!

  5. Congrats Matt on your new role and to Brendan and Sarah! Looking forward to great things from all 3 of you!

  6. Thanks for everything, Matt! Bungalower is my “go to” site for news about downtown neighborhoods including mine. You’ve made a difference and had a positive impact on downtown life. I know you’ll continue to do that in your new role.
    Congratulations Brendan and Sarah! What a great gig! Have fun with it.

  7. Thanks everyone! I’ll hazard a stab at speaking for Sarah too by saying we’re both really excited to have a chance to take the Bungalower helm from Matt and steer her into some exciting waters in 2015.

  8. Matt you’ll be missed. We appreciate all the support you’ve given us and we look forward to working with the new team.