 Welcome back folks, Dow. Dow Industries right now at 223, get the NASAC up 164, S&Ps are up 35. I guess today folks is Allison Barlow. Allison is the Executive Director of the St. Pete Innovation District. We've had Allison on before. Today we're going to be talking to her. It's pretty cool about the Defense and Maritime Technology Hub. So the Defense and Maritime Technology Hub will take advantage of the increased state and federal funding to provide St. Pete a space for the development of maritime and technology solutions. The bottom line folks is that no matter where you are in this country right now, come on down and visit us. You're going to love St. Pete. I've been here 25 years. Every day you wake up, the sun is beautiful. For all you folks up in Woods Hole, you know, the bottom line we get a nice maritime center up there for all you folks out in California. You get plenty of technology out there. Come visit us. Allison, welcome back to TFNN. Thanks for having me, Tom. I'm glad to be here. I'm telling you, I like this. Okay, so tell us, you know, I see the I see the write up here. Okay, so tell us exactly, you know, how this is going to work. Sure. So we're fortunate here in St. Pete to have a booming tech entrepreneur and small business entities as well as maritime. Yes. And so we had this fantastic building. It's a city owned building actually that is sitting right on the port. It has the ability to do port operations, meaning you could test an underwater drone or something off right out of the back of the building. Right. It also has lab space and secure communications. So we looked at it and said, what do we really need here in our community? And we need a way to bring those companies together because when they're under one roof and having an opportunity to collaborate, there is a lot of amazing work that can be done. And we're already seeing some joint works, joint proposals that are coming out of the planning even. Yes, because I mean, it's so specialized. It's there's a different conversation that takes place, whether we're talking engineers, whether we're talking folks that are in the Defense Department, whether we're talking about folks in the Maritime Department. So let me ask you, as I'm looking at this, we're talking about that organizations selected will be expected to engage as members of the innovation system, the same peak community such as internships, peer monitoring, mentoring. So is this a place that you can just go down and lease or is this something that someone is going to be looking at and say, okay, this is going to be a good fit for this building? How does this work? Exactly. We're curating the companies. So we want companies that have, first of all, a strong track record. Yes. Even if they're new. But we also want companies that are really intentional about their engagement in our community and with each other. So I always tell a company, if you're looking for a spot to come, leave some space, close your door and be in your office all day, you're not for us. We're not the right spot for you. Right. And so with the building having been developed by the city and by our county, we have an obligation to our community to make sure there's a tie and a benefit to them. So that's where the internships, tech exchange events are we're calling Tech Tuesdays and also some peer mentoring for younger companies who want to get into this space. Because you can learn how to be an entrepreneur and run a business, but the unique aspects of working with the federal government, you need someone who's done it before to show you the ropes. Yeah, we want to know how to get those green checks. Yes. So let me ask you about the aspect of, you know, when we take, we take the maritime community, we take the technology solution, right? The aspect, now do you go to different cities looking for people? You don't have to go. I'm just saying, trying to reach out to different cities, how are you trying to bring people together? So we're really fortunate because we do have such a strong beginning hub here that it's actually been through partnerships and word of mouth that we've had a lot of companies call us. Nice. So I actually think we're going to need to build a second building. We are that we've had that much response and it's really amazing because if that these companies come to us through referrals, that means they're already establishing a connection to other companies in our community. So it just reinforces the pattern of behavior we want to see happening. And in particular in the maritime environment, St. Pete has the largest concentration of marine scientists, oceanographers in the southeast U.S. And so much of the emphasis these days in our ocean is around mapping and exploration to understand how there's effects to climate change and flooding, but also mineral exploration in the water. And what happens when there's an oil rig that has a disaster like we saw with Deepwater Horizon? Yes. So all of our local folks are particularly strong in mapping and I think that's going to create a really great tie for future companies that come to us. Yeah. It's pretty cool. People are definitely getting more cognizant, well particularly in Florida folks. We're cognizant about this water because we're here for water. I mean in the bottom line is that you know that's that's survival in a huge way. So let me ask you about the aspect of you're saying that there's increased state and federal funding in order to basically do this. So what type of funding do you have in order to basically keep bringing this forward? So right now we've had great support from the city and the county and really what they're giving us is in-kind support with some reduced rent on the building that allows us to bring companies in and get them established. But what we're seeing with the companies and the organizations is because the state in particular is spending a lot of time and energy around clean water and the health of our ecosystem here in Florida. And at the federal level we're seeing both investments in the Department of Defense and new technology but also across the Department of Defense around data and data analytics and IT. The companies are looking at opportunities for really exponential growth and that's what fuels us. So keeping that connectivity. We are looking at additional kind of workforce job growth grants to fuel like our internship program and things like that. And we'll be looking we're working both at the state and the federal level to see what makes sense. We have to go over to Tampa and steal some more people from McDill and in Tampa folks that's where the central command is okay and the bottom line is that they got plenty of green checks over there and we have a much better place over here. And they've actually got both it's really interesting they both have central command and special operations command. Yes. And special operations command has a unique funding string within the Department of Defense. So it is it's a great opportunity in both fronts as well as DOD up in DC because we saw with COVID a lot of government contracts in the DOD center area where they normally would ask for geographically you to be close by or in their building they're not asking for that anymore. So we're seeing more opportunities for remote telework for technology professionals as long as the building is set up right. No I can see that. I was down I was just getting dinner now this is over a year ago but the bottom line I'm getting dinner and there's four or five men and women and they're all there and the bottom line is that they they're now they're from DC but they're all contractors right they're extra generals and all this right but the bottom line is that three of them had apartments in St. Pete to come down for the weekend and go back to DC and I said right to them I says hey man you're gonna bring some more bread down here you know and I mean we know and folks I'm not kidding if you come down here you know we all can do remote I mean you know what Allison's talking about you saw this building you gotta Google this building folks okay because that one of the buildings we were actually going to have our office that brick building right down the street from you we were moving in there and it just didn't work out it's gorgeous I mean it's insane you know coming to work every day looking out that water it's a whole different ballgame you know what I mean no doubt it's a lifestyle right I I worked up in DC for 15 years oh you know I like that my day was a commute here my commute is 10 minutes I can go meet up with friends it's great that's awesome well listen thank you so much again Allison we really appreciate you bringing all this business in getting these entrepreneurs going getting these young people going it's really exciting man I think it's just fabulous you have a great one the safe one thanks you too thank you stay right there folks who come right back