In a world that tends to be fast, companies are seeking what lasts. Fueled by the need to create a resilient and relevant regional workforce, FSU InSPIRE (Institute for Strategic Partnerships, Innovation, Research, and Education) was conceptualized.

InSPIRE’s mission is to foster high-skilled, high-wage employment opportunities in the region to accelerate technology innovation, cultivate corporate investment, and nurture the growth of new industries. The footprint spans eight counties: Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Gulf, Franklin, and Wakulla.

In late 2023, a delegation from Florida State University’s Panama City campus, including President Richard McCullough and Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson, presented InSPIRE’s vision and proposal to the Triumph Gulf Coast Inc. Board of Trustees. Triumph Gulf Coast, Inc. is a nonprofit that oversees funds recovered from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

“As a top-tier research university, FSU has the pedigree to be involved in national challenges and help address them,” says Grey Dodge, director of community relations and partnership engagement for FSU InSPIRE. “We sold our vision to Triumph, and we were fortunate to receive the largest grant they’ve ever given out, which speaks to their commitment as a partner.”

InSPIRE’s vision is to be the applied research and innovation neurocenter of the region, providing an environment for secure, end-to-end product and system development while leveraging FSU’s established expertise to form local partnerships that will benefit regional growth.

“We envision an on-the-floor experiential learning environment where students are working side by side with industry, defense, and research experts to drive innovations from the ideation stage into relevant, marketable products,” says Drew Allen, InSPIRE executive director. “At its core, InSPIRE aims to bridge the gap between discovery and the market by shepherding them along the prototyping, testing, and evaluation phases under one roof to deliver timely solutions that best serve our customers, the affected counties, and our nation as a whole.”

InSPIRE aims to open a temporary facility in Panama City in early 2026 and have shovels in the ground for the main facility for manufacturing and testing in the summer of 2026. While a permanent home is in the works, InSPIRE is integrating into businesses and getting to work on their mission by partnering with local companies such as Maritech Machine.

Based in Panama City, Maritech Machine is a family owned and operated business that has provided CNC machining, fabrication, assembly, and engineering support to the defense, aerospace, and industrial sectors since 1991.

“FSU’s InSPIRE program recognized that small, agile manufacturers like Maritech could provide the hands-on production environment and industry experience needed to help bridge the gap between academic research and deployable manufacturing capability,” explains Corbin McCall, vice president of operations for Maritech.

Initial conversations led to pilot projects, facility visits, and eventually a partnership where FSU InSPIRE brought in over $3 million worth of modernized equipment to work alongside the shop’s traditional machinery.

“Maritech provides real-world context, equipment, and production support, while FSU provides research expertise, additive capabilities, and training pathways,” McCall says. “It’s a model that’s proving to be mutually beneficial. Beyond the technical gains, it’s strengthened our role as a regional manufacturing leader and positioned Maritech as a trusted partner in building Florida’s defense and innovation ecosystem.” 

InSPIRE seeks to replicate this model of a symbiotic relationship with other companies throughout the Panhandle.

“A manufacturing war is going on in the world, and America is falling behind,” Dodge says. “We desire to partner with young, hungry, innovative local partners who are willing to learn, grow, and address our national challenges.”

While still in its early days, InSPIRE has plans in the works to conduct partnerships with other local companies and universities alongside research labs and the region’s vast military presence.

“We are helping train the workforce,” Allen says. “We partner with the local military installations and communities. We’re building trust with partners and starting to address the current manufacturing challenges, so we can rapidly design and deploy and go where industry needs us to go to lead the world in next-generation capabilities.”

One of the most effective ways InSPIRE is making an impact is by educating and certifying regional K-12 teachers to help build local STEM expertise. Led by a partnership with FSU’s Learning Systems Institute, InSPIRE is fostering a community of educational experts who can help their students compete and rapidly respond to industry trends.

In the summer of 2024, nearly 200 educators from all eight Northwest Florida counties attended professional learning courses over a four-week span. Course topics included robotics, AI in engineering, computational thinking, 3D printing fundamentals, and more.

“As I have traveled across the region speaking at our teacher training events, I have been impressed by the excitement and commitment from our teachers,” Allen says. “Many educators have been wildly receptive to evolving their skills and curriculum to align with tomorrow’s workforce demands.”

For current FSU students, InSPIRE provides applied research facilities, internships, and funds to grow the number of engineering graduates in Panama City. The program intends to make collaborations between students, educators, industry, and community leaders the expected status quo.

Once the Panama City facility opens, it will support the development of an entire product lifecycle under one roof. This in-house deployment will encompass technological advancements in next-generation machining, additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence design, robotics, simulation, and prototyping as well as complete testing and evaluation.

“What areas are missing, and what holes can we fill to solve national challenges?” Dodge asks. “That’s how we demonstrate our value to produce innovations at scale, improve the national supply chain, and build strategic growth in our local communities.”

Dodge notes that the access to land, close proximity to other large, factory-centric cities, heavy military presence, influence of top universities, job availability, and quality of life all add to the appeal of the Panhandle. “Northwest Florida is falling in line with a broader effort from the state to become a top spot for manufacturing.” 

The genesis of InSPIRE all stems from forward thinking, especially pertaining to keeping students local by presenting an attractive and reliable workforce.

“Students from the affected counties are our most important target audience,” Dodge says. “In the coming years, they will be the skilled talent and modern workforce that will ignite growth in the region. The InSPIRE infrastructure will rapidly and easily adapt to meet industry and defense requirements that are even yet unknown. We aspire to create multiple, seamless career pathways to high-technology, high-wage careers within a thriving ecosystem that is translating science into solutions.” ▪

Out of over 19,000 municipalities across the United States of America, only 20 are invited by the National Civic League to apply for the prestigious All-America City Award. Last June 2025, Tallahassee emerged as one of 10 finalists who took home the title.

The honor is nationally recognized to be one of the highest awards a community can receive and is bestowed upon those who demonstrate outstanding civic accomplishments, citizen collaboration, and innovative initiatives. This year marks a third victory for Florida’s capital city.

“I’m really proud of the community coming together to achieve this,” says Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey. “Tallahassee is a great place to live, work, and play, and I think our secret’s getting out!”

The focus of this year’s All-America City Award revolved around the theme of “strengthening environmental sustainability through inclusive community engagement,” something Dailey says Tallahassee has been fostering via its dedication to clean energy usage, the further development of its green spaces, and a citizen’s approach to community planning and redevelopment.

One key initiative that led to the city’s designation this year was its adoption in 2023 of its Clean Energy Plan, a foundation of 87 goals that will lead to the achievement of 100% net clean, renewable energy. Thus far, progress has been made in the form of the development of infrastructure for electric vehicles with over 500 home charging stations, improvements to grid resilience, and energy efficiency, leading to more economical electricity bills and the fact that 42% of the city’s fixed-route bus fleet is now electric.

Tallahassee also boasts one of the nation’s largest on-airport solar farms, which has led to the further implementation of renewable energy across thousands of households.

“We’re very proud of our sustainable efforts,” Dailey says. “We are one of the leaders in producing solar energy at our facility, and we like to think we’re leading the way.”

Dailey also lauded the efforts of the city’s parks and recreation team, as park system expansion has officially put Tallahassee past the 100 park mark at 102 and approximately 4,000 acres in green space, with more in the making.

“I think we’re up to about 95% of having the entire municipal population living within a 10-minute walk of a park or a green space inside the city limits,” Dailey says.

The expansion has made possible increased participation in city athletics and community center programs, enhancements to infrastructure, public safety, and the beautification of underserved neighborhoods, which include the Southside.

And, on that note, Dailey says the Southside Action Plan, a comprehensive effort to directly address the needs of neighborhood infrastructure, planning, and housing, is an essential part of the application they submitted for the award. Through surveys, virtual meetings, and special events, Tallahassee addresses citizens’ needs directly, resulting in the addition of over 2,000 affordable housing units, more than $200 million invested in renewed infrastructure, increased public safety measures via new transit, and aesthetic improvements.

“It’s a prime example of what happens when we listen to our citizens and come together with a shared vision for Tallahassee,” he says.

For the All-America Award presentation itself, Dailey and his team headed to Denver, where each finalist put on a presentation before a panel of civic leaders. These presentations have evolved over the years, Dailey says—it’s not a dry PowerPoint, and the serious stuff was in the writing submitted early on. He advised his team to concoct something that demonstrated Tallahassee knew how to have a good time.

The result was a Daily Show-type of skit in which Dailey and Tallahassee residents, officials, and community leaders hilariously conveyed the fruits of their labors as they were hosted by local radio personality Greg Tish.

They left quite the impression, and the fact that Tallahassee has received the designation for a third time is something Dailey doesn’t take for granted.

“I think it shows that Tallahassee has, over the decades, been on the right track, and we still are,” Dailey explains. “To be recognized for our excellence is a humbling experience. The citizens have worked really hard to get to where we are, and I’m just proud to be the mayor.”

Since its unassuming beginnings in 2009 as a luncheon for patent-holding faculty at one of Florida State University’s “neighbor” schools, the University of South Florida, the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has settled in the academic scene as the premier organization recognizing academic inventors. Today, the NAI boasts almost 300 chapters at member institutions in 19 countries and two tiers of membership for individuals: Fellows and Senior Members. Senior Members are active faculty whose innovative spirit and inventions are poised to revolutionize their industries. They are the high-impact inventors changing the world—or just about to.

Four faculty members at Florida State University were chosen to join the 2025 cohort of Senior Members (a group of less than 800 members in total): Drs. Hoyong Chung, Prashant Singh, Branko Stefanovic, and Yaacov Petscher. From plant-based plastics to Atlantic shrimp, their research has put the gears in motion for healthier and fairer futures.

Hoyong Chung

In 2025, there’s one thing almost everyone seems to agree on: Plastic is bad. Plastics pollute, shed microplastics, deplete resources, diminish the value of objects, and accumulate inside the human body, causing an untold number of potential health complications.

Hoyong Chung has set out to complicate this idea, explaining, “Many people misunderstand [and believe] that plastic is so bad, so we have to use less. This is kind of true, because of course, we should use less classic plastics,” Chung says, like plastic bags offered by Walmart or Target, but our interactions with plastic shouldn’t end with an outright boycott.

“We should not just kill studies in plastics,” Chung purports but instead increase support for researching to design better plastics. Chung has designed nontoxic, biodegradable plastic that is safe for the environment.

Chung is a polymer scientist who uses organic chemistry to synthesize new polymers, which are large molecules consisting of many smaller molecules in a repeated pattern, resulting in many of the common materials we know and use. All plastics are polymers, but not all polymers are plastics. Some are natural, like lignin—a polymer found in the cell walls of plants (similar to cellulose), helping to make stems and leaves rigid. It’s a plant byproduct commonly seen as waste. This polymer is the basis of Chung’s plastic innovations.

Using lignin, Chung’s group has designed and synthesized a new biomedical adhesive that is not only as strong and flexible as plastic but works wonderfully in the presence of water. Combined with its nontoxic properties, it’s an excellent option for surgical applications and is already in use in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

Chung’s adhesive is being used as a patch placed on the trachea to relieve chronic coughing for elderly patients, as it resolves issues with thinning tissue in the area. “It’s not really a risky surgery,” Chung explains, and “if [surgeons] start to use this adhesive, then [they] can reduce the surgery time substantially,” allowing more patients to be treated. So far, the collaboration has been successful.

The Hoyong Chung Group recently moved into a lab in Florida State University’s brand-new Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building. Judging by the array of samples, impressive, specialized equipment, and tests in progress throughout the group’s gleaming space, Chung’s work in the field has just begun.

Prashant Singh

Bags of steaks, chicken, clams, and shrimp might seem more suited to a top chef’s kitchen than to an inventor’s lab, but in Prashant Singh’s built-from-scratch workspace, the bounty behind the refrigerator and freezer doors isn’t for cooking; it’s for testing. Each sample helps advance the development of his invention, RIGHTTest™, a tool designed to verify species authenticity in seafood.

Singh has eaten a lot of shrimp, he says, smiling. Fishermen tend to give bags, even boxes, as gifts. After all, the work Singh is doing has already made a tangible impact on the seafood industry and fishermen’s livelihoods. His invention, RIGHTTest™, validates the species of a small sample of seafood product, guaranteeing authenticity in market and restaurant settings. Seafood mislabeling and fraud is an increasingly prominent issue in the industry; the market for Atlantic white shrimp is a prime example. This highly desirable species, caught along the Atlantic Coast from New York to Florida, is often substituted with cheaper species (like those farmed in the Pacific) that are virtually identical to the untrained eye. Not only does mislabeled seafood rob the consumer of value but some specimens can be toxic.

RIGHTTest™ can reliably verify the species of raw or cooked shrimp (even seasoned) within two hours. Years of development have resulted in a portable device about the size of a cooler (it can even be placed in a stroller). One of Singh’s graduate students, Hanna Victoria Brown, who stands in the lab defrosting a bag of what looks like Cajun shrimp, explains how handy the device has become. She just returned from a seafood festival in Alabama, where she checked vendors’ products on the spot. If a vendor had mislabeled a fraudulent product (which most often happens on day two), she explains, they are fined and suspended from the festival.

Even outside of the festival scene, “When people see seafood at a restaurant by the water,” Singh says, “people assume the product is authentic and coming from the body of water they are looking at, which is frequently not the case. Our goal is to support and fight for our domestic fishermen who are in need of our help.”

Singh believes consumer demand is paramount in driving academic research. It’s already clear that RIGHTTest™ fills a pressing need in the industry and will keep rolling out all over the South.

Branko Stefanovic

When Branko Stefanovic joined a group of scientists studying the liver at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, he took the first step in life-changing research for treating liver fibrosis. Liver fibrosis, which is most commonly associated with fatty liver disease, affects a significant amount of the general population, particularly those who struggle with obesity, hepatitis, or alcoholism. Liver fibrosis occurs when the long fibers that form liver tissue are damaged repetitively, forming scar tissue that’s less supple and resilient. Often, people “don’t know they have [fibrosis],” Stefanovic says, until a doctor finds it in an advanced stage.

Stefanovic has studied fibrogenesis for over 20 years, as well as research on preventative antifibrotic agents capable of slowing or even reversing liver fibrosis.

Fibrogenesis is the process by which normal tissue is replaced with scar-like fibrotic tissue, often following chronic injury or inflammation. A key hallmark of this process is the excessive deposition of Type I collagen, the primary structural protein produced by activated fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. By inhibiting the production of Type I collagen, researchers aim to interrupt the cycle that drives fibrosis. When Type I collagen synthesis is reduced, the extracellular matrix does not accumulate as rapidly, which limits tissue stiffening and disrupts the feedback signals that further activate fibroblasts. In essence, blocking collagen formation prevents the “scaffold” of scar tissue from developing, allowing normal tissue repair and regeneration to proceed instead of pathological scarring.

Stefanovic has discovered three such inhibitor molecules that could be key for developing new treatment options, with one treatment currently in preclinical trials, the first step toward getting his drug to market.

“Once we discover something that may be useful,” Stefanovic says, “then it has to be [adopted by] big pharma,” but the road is not quite that simple. Toxicology tests, according to Stefanovic, are of particular importance for maintenance therapy for chronic diseases like fibrosis. Typically, preclinical trials assess safety, efficacy, and mechanisms of action, using in vivo murine models before proceeding to phase I human trials. Getting a treatment to market can as much as 15 years.

Though the road is long, Stefanovic urges other academic researchers, “Don’t limit yourself,” and to research for the sake of research. Once intellectual property has been protected, an innovation can be discussed in terms of next-level application. “About half of [academic researchers] have this kind of spirit,” Stefanovic says cheerfully. One can’t help but imagine a world where that figure is closer to 100%.

Yaacov Petscher

When we think of inventions or innovations, physical products most likely come to mind. But patents, particularly utility patents, are much more inclusive than what can be held in hand. Yaacov Petscher is certainly familiar with this fact. Petscher, a professor, associate dean of research at Florida State’s College of Social Work, and associate director for the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR), has an “inventorship portfolio” containing less commonly considered innovations, such as algorithms, assessments, and even a graphic novel. His goal is to improve literacy in all students, with a special focus on those with disabilities or other challenges.

“My training is in developmental quantitative psychology,” Petscher clarifies. “Even going back to grad school, I’ve always been interested in how we can create better measures and better assessments for people.” While not limited to educators, Petscher’s work is highly relevant to teachers, especially those who need to be responsive to changing legislation. His tools broaden the scope for students’ classroom assessment, leading to more precise snapshots of ability.

And these tools have already made a tangible impact. “With my colleagues at FCRR,” Petscher says, “we created the state’s first large-scale computer adaptive assessment in reading for kindergarten through 12th grade.” One purpose of computer-adaptive assessments is to adjust question difficulty in real time, enabling advanced learners to demonstrate their full proficiency while presenting students who struggle with questions aligned to their current skill level, thereby reducing frustration and discouragement. These assessments provide educators with clear insights, making it simpler to target and strengthen students’ areas of need.

Petscher believes, “Kids are more than the sum total of their grades or their performance on exercises in the classroom,” claiming countless and often overlooked personal factors affect their development. “Sometimes the reason that a child is struggling … is because they came to school hungry,” Petscher says, or that neurodiversity and self-regulating behaviors might be in the picture. “Maybe there was a trauma at home that their parents experienced or the child has experienced.”

Petscher’s future innovation goals reflect this holistic thinking. “I would love it if the kinds of tools we are trying to build were inclusive of trauma and behavior, and nutrition, reading, and language,” Petscher explains, which would be possible, “if we had a bigger table that more people were sitting at to talk about the nature of what we do for a child.”

Collaborating with academic publishers, combined with Petscher’s keen eye for innovation, may well be the key to turning these aspirations into reality for schools nationwide. ▪

According to the U.S. Organ Donation & Transplantation System, more than 100,000 patients are awaiting organ transplantation, with roughly 16 people dying per day on the waiting list. Patients with advanced kidney disease make up approximately 87% of these cases.

With 3D Nano Printing, this could all change. In the future, patients could be diagnosed with liver failure and have a new liver printed from their own cells, then transplanted without ever going on a waiting list.

Though the technology capable of this level of precision and scale has not yet been created, researchers like Jamel Ali are working on projects that may pave the way for this sort of medical innovation.

Ali is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) as part of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. According to Ali, his team is using “3D printing to develop tissue models for studying cancer, working with Mayo Clinic on products related to glioblastoma and other cancers. And we’re also 3D printing tissues to model the human liver, or the hepatic tissue.”

This work will help with preclinical testing. Ali explained that “over 70% of drugs developed fail clinical clearance, not because the drugs don’t do the job, but because it’s toxic to the liver because of their hepatotoxicity. We want to make better in vitro models for screening drugs.”

Rather than using animal models and small-scale human trials to test the viability of drugs at the preclinical stage, organoid models using human derived cells could be more informative and less costly than current methodology.

The truly remarkable feat here is that Ali is producing these small-scale organoids capable of replicating aspects of the liver. Right now, they are laying the groundwork for experimentation in murine models, but eventually, Ali says, “We implant that into a person one day that has a dysfunctional liver.”

Though not currently viable for use in humans, the ultimate goal is to restore functionality in patients with damaged livers.

Another application that Ali’s lab is using 3D nano printing for “is to make micro, nanoscale actuators, or as we like to call it, a lot of micro nanoscale robots—bacterial-like structures with these printers that are then magnetized and able to be actuated using external magnetic fields and field gradients so that we can get them to do things maybe one day in our bodies,” Ali says, such as deliver drugs, act as diffusion barriers, medical imaging, and minimally invasive biopsies.

Outside of biology, Ali says, “Our lab is interested in creating nonmetallic, non-biological applications. Engineered biofilms are applications of interest to the Department of War.”

Ali is also working with Professor Subramanian Ramakrishnan from the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering to design advanced materials for in-space manufacturing by utilizing innovative printing methodologies. With limited resources in space, broken equipment or a cracked shield can be catastrophic. But, Ali says, “If you’re printing with living things that have optical properties, basically now you have systems that are potentially self-healing,” which would prove an invaluable material on space missions.

Erika Bechtold, vice president of U.S. operations for UpNano, who produces one of the world’s leading 3D nano printers, attributes these advances to the ability to upscale 3D printing, which is a core mission of UpNano.

“Let’s try to make it easy. Let’s try to really help individual labs and core facilities get these nanoscale 3D printers and be able to really have them become mainstream,” Bechtold says. “We can also 3D print the optics that are inside the camera lenses.”

The potential to create lenses on the nanoscale would drastically improve our diagnostic capabilities, making procedures less invasive for patients. In general, increasing the number of labs capable of conducting nano research and print on the nanoscale will naturally increase the number of innovations across disciplines.  Scientists around the globe are making strides toward advancing our capabilities with these technologies. Vaccine delivery could take place with microneedles. We could also create smaller cell phones and other imaging technologies.

In time, these tiny building blocks will reshape every aspect of humanity. ▪

Zooming In

A nanometer nm is 1 billionth of a meter, a size far too small for a human to detect. The smallest particle a human can see floating in the air in the best possible light is 10,000 nm across.

For a frame of reference, a human hair is roughly 90,000 nm thick, approximately the same width as a piece of paper, which is 100,000 nm wide. A single human cell can be as wide as 10,000 to 30,000 nm, visible as a particulate to the naked eye.

The minimum resolution for 3D nano printing can go as low as 100 nm, which is far too small to detect with the human eye. The single strand of human DNA is about 2.5 nm wide, so the resolution is not quite small enough to create the interstitial components of a cell but is low enough to print living tissue.

→ How does it work?

Two-photon polymerization (2PP) is a cutting-edge form of 3D nanoprinting that uses extremely short laser pulses to “write” tiny structures directly into a light-sensitive material. Unlike regular 3D printing, which builds layer by layer, 2PP can also sculpt objects freely in three dimensions, focusing light so precisely that only the very center of the beam activates the material. This precision allows scientists to create features smaller than the wavelength of light, as low as 100 nm.

Using computer-controlled laser paths, researchers can form intricate lattices, microlenses, and even scaffolds for living cells. The process works by having the material absorb two photons at once, which only happens at the laser’s focal point, triggering solidification in a tiny voxel (a 3D pixel) and happens only where the light intensity peaks.

The technology is revolutionizing nanofabrication, enabling breakthroughs in micro-optics, photonics, biomedical engineering, and metamaterials. While still slower than large-scale printing, advances in laser scanning and chemistry are speeding it up, bringing us closer to mass production of custom nanoscale devices that blend the worlds of art, biology, and physics.

If a picture can tell a thousand words, then Sean Murphy, Skye Bailey, and Tyler Trant could fill volumes with their art. Impressively, intricate tattoos canvas their bodies—creative works they are proud to share.

“Storytelling is most important,” Murphy says. “We can have all the latest technology and use all the best tools, but what really brings us together as a team and sets us apart in the industry is finding a special angle to our storytelling.”

The Gannet Creative House origin story began when all three worked together at BOTE, a Florida-based company specializing in innovative, high-quality stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, and outdoor water gear. Traveling the world together, working on extensive projects for BOTE, they realized how compatible they were as a team.

Ideas flowed freely, mutual respect was shared, creativity flourished, and work they were proud of came to fruition. Starting out as a side business with just a few clients, they sought to ride that momentum as far as the journey would take them.

By January of 2025, their “fun side project” became a full venture when they agreed to commit more time and talent to becoming a business. July brought their official company launch and an influx of clients, keeping their calendars packed and passports stamped.

Gannet Creative House specializes in high-end photo and cinematography storytelling. This could be a one-day, few-hour photo shoot capturing the essence of a local company in distilled frames. Or, it could include scouting, casting, scheduling, and logistics, all handled by their team for a month-long international production to make a major ad campaign.

When asked to define their roles, they say Bailey is the producer, Murphy is the photographer, and Trant is the cinematographer, but they all agree that each person contributes much more than just these roles.

“Every client is asking for something different, and you have to treat every project differently,” Bailey says. “As a producer, I’ve become a fixer, a problem solver, seeing us through to the end goal and vision.”

“I think Skye’s role is the most interesting and inspiring, especially to young people,” Murphy says. “Her career started in graphic design then transitioned to marketing before fully embracing her role as producer. She’s always learning, adapting, and gaining new skills.”

They work together to make client decisions, to conceptualize shot lists, to write scripts, and more. While they are a core team of three, they have others on staff and have the capabilities to bring on a large production team for high-end projects.

While Northwest Florida boasts the studio location, the team is ready and willing to travel wherever their clientele needs them to go, be it by sea with their access to underwater equipment or by sky with the use of drones.

“This is a great home base for us,” Murphy says. “We don’t have to live in a big city to have access to nearby airports and a wealth of local talent.”

While they have worked on campaigns for national and international clients, including BOTE, Lululemon, Kona Bikes, and Bajio Sunglasses, they delight in getting to shine the spotlight locally.

An upcoming campaign they are proud to contribute to is the B.E. A S.H.E.R.O. Foundation, a grassroots organization founded with the mission of addressing the urgent needs of those affected by sex trafficking.

“The campaign, titled ‘Girlhood,’ shines light on what young girls would miss out on if they experienced sex trafficking,” Bailey says. “It’s very moving and really rewarding to have worked on this. We were able to cast local women to share these stories. It’s really special for a campaign this large to be done in a small town.”

All three call the Panhandle home now, but Murphy was raised on the Emerald Coast. He spent much of his 30-plus-year career working in Los Angeles on global campaigns with an affinity for the music scene.

“We are lucky to have many of the clients we have because of Sean’s reputation, alongside the reputation we built working together at BOTE,” Bailey says. “For those reasons, we haven’t had too much fight for creative control. That stems from having clients that trust us and come to us knowing they like what they’ve seen.”

They all reflect fondly on their time working for BOTE, desiring that type of long-term, build-from-the-beginning-to-the-end relationship. All agree that it’s fulfilling to be a key part of building a brand.

Be it a one-time client, a yearly project, or a retainer client that lasts more than a decade, the thrill and the challenge are to craft something unique.

“I think clients like that while we stay true to us, we never repeat the same idea from job to job,” Trant says. “Not having egos and really listening to our clients gets us a long way.”

Gannet Creative House has embraced the use of AI in some aspects of its work. It’s utilized as a tool for expediting processes such as building treatments, generating script ideas, and organizing shot lists.

With the latest and greatest in camera and video equipment, and as business-minded creatives, they keep with the cutting edge while knowing their minds are their greatest assets.

“No matter how good technology gets,” Trant says, “it will never replace the human element of being on set and creating with a client.” ▪