There’s not much that misses the eye of David Samson, president of the Miami Marlins.

During SFBW’s CEO Connect at Marlins Park, we were served up a variety of tasty hors d’oeuvres, including grilled cheese sandwiches with thick slices of bread.

That was just comedic material for Samson when he was asked how well manager Don Mattingly was doing and a server was in sight.

“I can’t believe the food we are serving. It’s not finger food!” Samson exclaimed, eliciting laughter from the audience, which only prompted him to continue his shtick. “Did anyone take this while you are walking around? Are you telling me someone is going to take this while we have a conversation? That’s good networking! Sorry about that. We’re going to have to cut those in quarters. I have to do everything. I’m just kidding. I’m totally not, though.”

Eventually, Samson says Mattingly has been great, although it’s “super hard” not to want to get involved.

There are some other great personalities in this issue as well.

If you have wondered how Perfect Vodka’s name ended up on the amphitheater in West Palm Beach, meet Dennis Cunningham. He has a track record of success in entrepreneurship, but talks openly about how he got hammered by economic downturns as well.

He’s doing well enough now, though, that he’s ordered a million extra liters of his vodka just in case any supply issues emerge.

I met Don Cook at the launch party for the business accelerator at Broward College’s Las Olas campus and, during an interview, I gained a deeper perspective on his background with startup companies, one of which is next door and is helping hospitals bring their systems into the cloud.

I didn’t get to meet Rogerio Fasano in person, but I had an amiable telephone chat with the hotelier, who was in Sao Paulo and getting ready to go to his other home in Rio de Janeiro and catch some of the Olympics. Fasano might be a bit of an unknown quantity in South Florida, but he’s a rock star in the hotel and restaurant field in South America, especially Brazil. Our table of contents page shows an image of the Hotel Fasano Rio de Janeiro.

The renderings of the Fasano Hotel and Residences Miami Beach show the area is going to get another amazing project. (Add to the list our Spaces feature on the new condo at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo.)

There’s also a new feature in this issue: six pages of One-Liners – our tweet-like synopses of key news you might have missed throughout the region.

Kevin Gale