Episode 102

In this episode, Joe welcomes John Smith, the President and CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa. John shares his fascinating journey as a turn around specialist in the museum world. They discuss the evolution of MOSI, its current challenges, and the innovative strategies being implemented to ensure its future success. Get ready for an insightful conversation about the intersection of innovation and business in a facility with world class potential that's right here in Tampa Bay.

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Joe Hamilton:

Joining me on SPX is the president and CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry, otherwise known as MOSI in Tampa, John Smith. Welcome sir.

 

John Smith:

Thanks for having me.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So you’ve got a cool job.

 

John Smith :

Some think that, yes.

 

Joe Hamilton :

And you’ve been doing it for a while. You started in Troy, New York and then Reding. So I guess let’s start with a 101 on MOSI.

 

John Smith :

Yeah, so MOSI started, founded officially in 1962, so 62 years old now, and moved to its current location on Fowler Street from USF back in the eighties. And then that’s when MOsI really started to expand some might say overexpand. I might be one of those who might say overexpand and grew to this massive science center experience that did have a real heyday. Although from a business perspective, I mean, if you think about one of the largest science centers in the country, being in a mid nineties Tampa, those two things don’t necessarily equate a massive science center being in 2025 Tampa. That could be a different story. So yeah, I first came to Tampa as a visitor back in the early aughts, just like a lot of people to going a cruise and looked around and then came back to MOSI when I started in the industry.

 

So after I was the CEO for the American Lung Association. And then when I left lung in New York, just sort of fell into the museum world, like you mentioned, up in Troy, New York, just south of Saratoga Springs. And I did that and it was a struggling science center, turned it around, turned the reading Public Museum around, and then bounced back to MOSI. And in the interim, I had visited a couple of times for work purposes and those kinds of things, and really saw the inner workings of what I felt was overgrowth under focusing on the customer experience and growth for growth sake, and never really even had the full understanding. I mean, we’re across the street from USF, so I assumed it was tied into USF and part of USF. Turns out it wasn’t changing some of that and really partnering with USF now, but it’s had a different sort of trajectory. And I think it’s fair to point out that in its 60 plus years, I’m really the first person who’s been hired to come in and run MOSI, who has successfully run large science center operations before, which I think is important when you’re running a business. So yeah, I focus on museum turnarounds and taking struggling museums and getting them fixed, and that’s what we’re trying to do with MOSI.

 

Joe Hamilton :

That’s great. Well, a lot to dig into there. So let’s first just understand the business model of an entity like MOSI. Obviously there’s tickets, people can come in, bring their families, buy a ticket, you do camps, you have other partnerships. So what’s sort of the different revenue streams and then how are they relative to each other?

 

John Smith :

Yeah, so it’s interesting. So not every institution operates the same way, even though they’re very similar businesses. The community makeup really contributes to a lot of that. So depending on what other cultural institutions you have in your community, the philanthropic base that a community has, Tampa Bay is very interesting because, so we talk about Tampa Bay and we talk about it as a big city, a big area, but it’s actually a lot of different things. So we’re sitting here on this side of the bay in St. Pete. It’s its own community. It’s got its own cultural institutions, it’s got its own philanthropic base. Clearwater has maybe less of that, but it’s still a distinct community. over in Hillsborough County, you’ve got Tampa, which technically mostly is in, but we’re not downtown, so that makes it a little interesting and different. We’re actually up by Temple Terrace, which is one of three incorporated entities in Hillsborough County.

 

And then just to the north of us, you’ve got unincorporated Hillsborough and USF, which is really its own little city, if you will, and getting a lot less little by the day. So the drivers at MOSI are different than they would be at a lot of different institutions. The place I just came from, the Reading Museum not just came from, I’ve been here over two years now, but really the model that we focused on and something we’re driving toward too at MOSI is really a three-legged stool. A third, a third, a third, so a third earned revenue, a third gate revenue or a third contributed revenue, and then a third endowed revenue. MOSI has historically not had much of an endowment to speak at. We’re very heavily supported by the county, which is true of a lot of cultural institutions in the Tampa Bay area.

 

And we also don’t have nearly a third in terms of contributed revenue, which is also very true of a lot of institutions in the Tampa Bay region. So the model down here, and it’s kind of a Florida model, we always talk about the House of Mouse and sort of that Disney model that everybody’s familiar with in Florida. Very earned revenue centric for a lot of cultural institutions in this region and across the state of Florida. So yes, gate revenue, camp revenue, field trips, all of those kinds of things. That makes up a massive component of MOSI’s budget annually. And it’s what has kept us afloat along with some community support through the county, the city, some contributed revenue, but we really need to grow charitable giving and we need to grow diversified lines of earned revenue so that we’re not just relying on gate revenue, which obviously in covid shut down summer camps, same kind of thing.

 

So being creative about how we use our space, making sure that our space isn’t just used if you’re coming on field trips and mostly does more field trips than probably any cultural institution in this area. Those school groups can really only come certain weeks out of certain months, out of different times of the year and all at the same time because of busing constraints. And so figuring out unique creative ways to use our property off hours, if you will, driving people in later in the afternoon, getting people there in the evenings, maybe getting them there in the mornings for different types of events. And also not just rely on the young youth population, but make sure that we have something for explorers , if the government contributes and people give one-lifelong learners and people of all ages.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So government, if the government contributes and people give one off gifts, that all falls into the contributed revenue bucket. And then endowments are just ongoing gifts.

John Smith :

Well, once we can grow an endowment. So anytime, and this is where in my experience, again, people might argue with me, but when I try to do large capital campaigns that MOSIover has done the years, I always like to build a component of that as endowment building so that you’re not just raising today’s dollars to pay for those buildings and then figuring out how to operate them on the backend. Because even though your carpet and roof are brand new today, in a few years, they won’t be. And you can’t very easily go back and say, Hey, I’m looking for a naming gift for the carpeting. So you’ve got to factor that longer term operating in. So, trying to grow those endowed dollars so that, you know, have a base there to where you’re not on that fundraising treadmill all of the time., given all the opportunities you mentioned with earned revenue, do you think that

 

Joe Hamilton :

So all that being said, and all the opportunities you mentioned with earned revenue, you think that a third, a, a third is still the optimal place for MOSI to be?

 

John Smith :

I mean, I think it probably would be optimal. I don’t know that it’s realistic, at least in the short term, but going from, so if a third a, a third is your stretch goal, if you will, for 10 years from now, and you’re currently at 85, 10 and five. So obviously the way to do it is to make sure that even though the 85% decreases as an overall percent in terms of the size of the pie, it doesn’t shrink. So as long as those dollars remain constant and we can grow in other areas, that’s the mix that we’re going for.

 

Joe Hamilton :

But I asked that through the lens of it’s where you put your resources so you can either put your resources into making new programs or bring in earn revenue or hiring development person going that direction, which it feels like with some of the ideas you have that maybe the earned revenue is the easiest sledding in the short term. S

 

John Smith :

Yeah, it is, I think where we can make the most impact in creative use for the space and doing those kind of things. My experience is that success begets more success. So the more we can show that we’re growing on the earned revenue side, the more l, where we can make the most impact in the creative use of the space, and in doing that, we are to attract philanthropic dollars for those one-time gifts or a sponsorship type opportunity, those kind of things. And then in turn, that growth begets people who want to make longer term investments. And so we’re working right now on raising some significant dollars to reopen some of the spaces that mostly were closed sort of pre and during a pandemic.ose who come on field trips are, it is not necessarily for them to do the exact same things that kids are doing- And those opportunities are being looked at by people who have a bigger vision, who are saying, okay, we recognize that if we want to be the kind of Tampa Bay that we want in 2025 and beyond, we need the kind of MOSI that accompanies that.

 

And so let’s make an investment, whether it’s really significant in one time or whether it’s multiple times over the course of time now that there’s a vision behind it to really make it an investment versus just a contribution, just a one-off kind of thing. So I think that all of that, as I say all the time, it all feeds the beast. And so every success that we have, whether it’s operationally that leads to philanthropic, whether it’s philanthropically that attracts more philanthropic dollars, and ultimately over for the longest time, the investments from Hillsborough County and other community partners, the school districts in the area, the city of Tampa and beyond, it makes it a lot easier for those checks to get written when they see that you’re firing on all cylinders and that it’s not just you’re being propped up by their investment. So that’s where we’re trying to get.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So you mentioned MOSI in Tampa circa 2010 versus circa now. I guess kids being bused in and having a great day is timeless. What’s changed about a MOSI operation in the last couple of decades?

 

John Smith :

Yeah, so correct. The field trip experience is timeless. We got away a little bit. It’s funny, I just saw a piece from 2017 when MOSI went through early 2017, what they called transitioning when they shrunk out of a lot of the buildings and under the footprint we have now where they talked very openly about becoming more of a place just for kids. Well, that’s great for field trips because that’s who comes on field trips, that’s kids. But when you’re, again, field trips can only happen certain times of the day, certain days of the week, you need to have something for the entire family unit because kids don’t drive themselves. And so if you want to be sustainable, weekends, nights, all of those all summer long, you need to have an experience that’s robust enough for adults as well. So not necessarily for them to do the exact same things that kids are doing, because being all things to all people also doesn’t work terribly well.

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But one of the things that we’ve focused on since I’ve been there is making sure that the experience is meaningful for an entire day. So the first thing that meant was bringing back food service and making sure that if you’re there at M, you don’t have to pack a lunch and you can stay because I have three kids under the age of 15, and if we were to show up at a museum at 10 30 on a Saturday morning, I tell you by 1145, I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I’m hungry. And so we really had nothing other than some light vending available. We’ve now opened a full restaurant and bar on site. We’ve got some really cool, innovative, hot vending options actually from a firm over here in St. Pete. We’ve got ways for you as a family unit to say, okay, we’ve been here an hour and a half now, let’s take a break, get something to eat and drink Again, not just corn dogs for kids, but mom and dad can have an actual lunch from an actual restaurant, grab an actual beer or soda, wine, whatever you want, and recharge, and then continue your day long journey at mo, which does a couple things.

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One, it makes it easier on the entire family and there’s a place to sit and there’s a place to hang. But it also says that if you bring your family at five and you buy five tickets and you come in and even though you might be spending more money on site, because now you’re also buying a meal there, your entire visit is taking 3, 4, 5 plus hours and you’ve only paid for that one ticket. And so instead of your two and a half star, we were only there for an hour and then we had to bust out. Now we’re starting to see a lot more people recognize that value proposition. And so that’s been a big focus is to try and grow, not so much from a geographic standpoint, which was the old MOSI model, but grow from a content perspective. We still have people who get online and complain, well, there’s nothing to do and blah, blah. Well, I can tell you didn’t do an add-on experience. You didn’t go to the planetarium, you didn’t spend an hour in Mission Moon base. There’s a lot of things that you can do with our educator led programming that you couldn’t have done just a couple of years ago.

 

Joe Hamilton :

Well, that opens up a couple paths to walk down, but I guess the first one I’m most curious about is MOSI is a comments heavy type of experience. And obviously you’re, and this will actually feed into my second question, but you’re coming in as a turnaround person to a place that has a lot of baked in position and perception, and you have to do what you can to change that. How’s that journey been

 

John Smith :

Here? It’s been tougher than anywhere else I’ve been, and I’ve now figured out it should have dawned on me before I took the job. But you still, the reason I ended up taking this job after turning it down multiple times over many years is that MOSI is a great brand. MOSI means something in Tampa Bay to a lot of people. So there are a lot of people who want to support it. Then having been said, there are also a lot of people who haven’t been back in 15 years and now they’re coming back because we’re doing better with marketing, we’re doing better with attracting folks in and mixing things up. But the first thing they see when they drive in is the old building, and we’re not in that building anymore. And so psychologically, I still think there’s an overhang where people go, oh, well, I used to go in there.

 

What’s in there now? Why aren’t we in there anymore? What’s happened? People miss those intervening 15 or 20 years and realize that at the end, when they were in that building in 2016, stuff was dirty, stuff was broken, stuff wasn’t working right. It was cavernous. It wasn’t a great experience, but they remember, and I say this to people all the time, actually, there was a couple in with their little kids just a couple of weeks ago, and I saw them on the floor and they were showing kids around and they said, well, we haven’t been back since we were kids. And the father said, yeah, it seems like the dinosaur was bigger. And I said, no, you were just a lot smaller. And he said, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And so a lot of these comments that we see from people are, well, I remember there used to be so much more.

 

No, there wasn’t. And we know because we have the hard data of knowing exactly how many working things were on the floor then versus now, whatever. But you’re not going to change some of that perception without doing it over -win, but you got to give ’em a taste of the past to flare that nostalgia?and time. So that’s going to take more time, and it’s a challenge, but a lot of people are, especially the people who have been with us and been members the entire time from 2016 forward, are seeing that we’re actually on an upswing now, and that positivity is starting to come through as well.

 

Joe Hamilton :

How do you balance trying to tap their nostalgia versus redefining their expectations so that I feel like if you’re just chasing the past, that’s a no win, but you got to give ’em a taste of the past to flare that nostalgia. How do you balance them?

 

John Smith :

Two? Yeah, that’s a great question. If I figure it out, I will be able to retire soon. But what we’re trying to do, and I say this to people all the time, what MOSI always did well is get kids and their adults to some extent inspired or excited about STEM science, technology, engineering, mathematics. We now call it STEAM, for example, called Aviation Evolution, and it’s all about the history of flight locally here in the Tampa Bay region,,, and you’re super smart, and you’re great at engineering,, so if you’re into it, we want you to understand that there are ways for you to continue with that learning that then take you down the because we throw art in there as well, and getting people excited about that, that’s great, but that’s not a measurable deliverable that we can follow up on necessarily. That just plays to nostalgia and just plays to, oh, it’s a fun place to go. What we’re trying to do now is really lean more into connecting kids and their adults with career pathways in steam once they get excited by it. So come have a great time. Now you’re into dinosaurs, you’re into engineering, you’re into drones, you’re into building, you’re into flight and aviation, you’re into space exploration, whatever it is, and helping you understand that there are career pathways locally especially that are opportunities for you to pursue.

 

Maybe it’s locally and across the street at USF, maybe it’s through a trades program. We just opened an exhibit for example, called Aviation Evolution, and it’s all about the history of flight locally here in the Tampa Bay region as well as the future of what flight looks like. And so it’s easy, right? Kids want to be Tom Cruise and Top Gun and everybody wants to be a fighter jet pilot. But unless you’ve got amazing reflexes in 2020 vision and you’re super smart and you’re great at engineering and you can stomach all of that, that’s not going to happen. But there are so many careers associated with flight, especially here with McDill, with all of the airports in the area. And it could be flying, it could be ground maintenance, it could be engineering and airplane maintenance, it could be air traffic control. All of these things exist so that if you’re into it, we want you to understand that there are ways for you to continue with that learning that take you down a road of being a profitable and contributing member of society.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So with that, -visit options and,We’re running ongoing camps that are deeper dives throughout the year,McDill, CAE, Lockheed Martin, and all of these companies that have local bases that want to educateto connectit seems like you would need post visit options, partnerships. How do you do that? So if they say, okay, I want to fix airplanes, I get it. You turn me onto this light bulb’s on and I go home now, do you?

 

John Smith :

Yeah. So we’re always trying to extend the learning beyond our four walls to where say you come on a field trip or you come with mom and dad and you have a great time. There are ongoing camps throughout the year that we’re running that are deeper dives. So you come and aviation evolution takes you an hour to go through and whatever. Maybe then you come back for a week of summer camp or break week camp, and now instead of an hour, you’re spending six hours a day in the environment with one of our educators. And when we’re doing that, we’re also bringing in outside experts from area companies. So when we were developing that exhibit, we worked with Tampa International, we worked with McDill, CAE, Lockheed Martin, all of these companies that have local bases that want to be out educating the next workforce in Tampa Bay as well.

 

We do as much as we can with connecting those professionals with kids and their families through it could be special programming, could be special events. The camps are a great way and an easy way, but not everybody spends a week at summer camp or can afford it. We do a lot of one-offs as well, where we’ll be bringing in industry experts to do a talk partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center where they’re sending in their researchers to come in and talk to families on a weekend, just in a special programming. Every month has a different theme now, well, every day has 10 different, it’s national whatever day. And so finding excuses to bring those scientists in to talk to folks is easy. We run a program that we’re very passionate about called Girls Steam Mentoring Cafeexperimented and diI mentioned a couple of paths, and they had related elements. You said MOSI meant a lot of things to a lot of people, probably more so than the board members. So when you come into a new situation with a board that maybe has been there a long time and is very passionate in its own specific ways, what do you do to set the tone for your leadership and set expectations for how things are going to workhit that rock bottom sort of, whichbelievabl during the school year on a Saturday. We bring in middle school age girls from Title one schools and basically they spend time in the museum.

 

They do some experimentation and some hands-on learning. But much of the day is spent what I call speed dating with women scientists. And so women working in the sciences from a variety of different industries could even be a lawyer at a pharmaceutical company. So maybe you’re not even a scientist, but you’re working in the SS to come in and show these young women that there are career pathways that they may not have thought of. And so we do all of these different type of kind of non-US museum experiences, if you will, that are add-ons to whether it’s that day or a return visit that really bring value to the community.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So I mentioned a couple paths and they had related elements to it. So you said MOSI meant a lot of things to a lot of people and probably know more so than the board members. So when you come into a new situation with a board that maybe has been there a long time, very passionate in their own specific ways, what do you do to set the tone for your leadership and set expectations for how things are going to be working with you?

John Smith :

That’s a great question, and it’s part of the reason why I turned the job down multiple times over multiple years. I was first approached about the MOSI job back in 2014 when the longtime director was on his way out to retirement and they were going to do a search. And at that time, even though I had flagged issues with MO’S growth and where MOSIe was, and as had a lot of other people, I mean, it was no secret that MOSIe was struggling at that time. The board at that time was not ready for a big massive shakeup. And that became clear in sort of the interview process. And I said, you’re not ready for what I’m talking about yet. You don’t get it yet. By the time we got back around to it now, obviously they’ve lived through the pandemic, they’ve gone through this downsizing my board, even though I’ve got some people on the board who have been there decade plus, they were people who had seen the writing on the wall and seen how MOSI needed a new fresh look, a new set of eyes. And I make it very difficult during the interview process to hire me. I’m not fun. I’m not sugarcoating.

 

I remember one in-person interview in Tampa in probably 2021 at one point where I went back home and said to my wife, well, I’m pretty sure either the board chair is going to leave or I’m not getting that job. Because we had sort of a tete. And ironically, fast forward now to late 2024, he is still the board chair and he’s a great champion for the institution and for me, but I misread his. I was pushing, and most volunteers don’t like to be pushed in that way, and I wanted to make it very clear in the interview process, this is the path we’re going to have to go down. If I come down and do this job and the rest of the group, were ready for it, which is refreshing and which is fantastic, and it’s why we’ve had some of the early success that we’ve had because everybody’s rowing in the same direction.

 

But sometimes you have to sort of hit that rock bottom, if you will, before we can get there. And this group had been through a lot and they are passionate about the institution. They want to see it succeed. And they had come to the conclusion that not every volunteer board comes to, which is, we’ve tried it our way and that hasn’t worked. So if you’ve got a different way, we’re open to that. And I have a track record. That’s the nice thing that I have going for me is I’ve done this in other places and taken bad situations and made them better. And so that’s what we’re trying to do here.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So it adds the pain of staying the same has to be greater than the pain of change. So when you come to the situations, do you feel like, is it always kind of the same where it’s just a resistance to change or do a lot of board members, obviously they’re usually successful leaders and executives of their own feel like they just know better and that the CEO is the doer, or, I mean, obviously you mentioned track record and trust, and so is it just a straight fear of change or is it you must be able to dominate the vision in a believable way so that we’ll acquiesce to your vision?

 

John Smith :

I don’t think it’s acquiescing. I think it’s jumping on board with and buying into. I think what happens a lot, and I will say from experience on many searches or I’ve seen it happen where a board in the interview process isn’t necessarily being sold in actual vision. There’s a difference. Say this all the time. There’s a difference between visionary and dreamer and being a dreamer can look good , or I’ve seen it happen,ay in there because, so you say you’re a turnaround specialist, you’ve done, this is your third, so it’s eight-on paper, but there are times when you wake up and realize it was a nightmare. Having a vision is a workable plan with an end goal in mind. And in my experience, especially when an organization has had very difficult times, it’s almost easier to deal with that vision and embrace the vision because you’re having to deal with it in bite-size pieces.

 

The financial situation I inherited at mostly is not one where I could come in and say, okay, first thing we do is a 10 million campaign. No, first thing we do is figure out how to keep the lights on. And so everybody’s on board with keep the lights on, and then after keep the lights on, okay, maybe we should clean up the carpet and the paint and make it a little better. Okay, good, we got that. And so you start having these little victories and you see how they build on one another, and it shows that there’s a tactical plan that feeds into the more visionary plan. And I was very cautious when I first got here, and matter of fact, I said it even when I took the job, I finally took the job because I had done a deep enough dive into the numbers, into the structure to understand that MOSI was worth saving.

 

And I felt that even if it wasn’t saveable, if it was, I was the guy, and there were plenty of people in the industry who said, dude, there’s no way you should be going down there because you have a reputation and you may not be able to save that mess. The reality was, I am fine with, okay, if we can’t save it, I don’t think anybody’s going to put that on me solely because they know that this has been kind of a cauldron of mess for a while. So when I got here, I was pretty confident that it was salvageable. I wasn’t sure how. And so I didn’t sell anybody during the hiring process on a vision. It was more on, okay, if we do these things, I think we can see positive progress. And then when I really got into the weeds, once I was down here and saw the former IMAX building, which is now under renovation plans are to turn it into the largest eight k digital dome theater and planetarium in the state of Florida.

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We haven’t formally announced that campaign yet, but we’re heading in that direction and plan to move quickly. When I looked at the assets in place, that’s really when the vision came in. So it’s not as if I was in a dark room by myself sketching it out. It’s more of, okay, what hand have I been dealt? And then knowing based on experience, what cards to play in what order to then build, build, build. Because again, if card one was, okay, let me talk to people and try and raise a bunch of money, the first question they’re going to have is, well, what’d you do with the money we gave you before? And where is that gone? So we had to be a little careful on that thing.

 

Joe Hamilton :

So there’s an interesting why in there because, so you say you’re a turnaround specialist, you’ve done, this is your third, so it’s eight track record, but not an endless track record. And sometimes people get their first job because it needs a turnaround, and so you sort of fall into that opportunity and then take that reputation builder. But here, I guess my question is why if you’ve built now the readying was your last stop, you’ve built it into a place where it’s comfortable and it’s profitable to come to a place where you literally have to keep the lights on and get the carpet fixed. That’s really, really completely the other end of the spectrum from where you had taken yourself. So what is it about the deep turnaround that makes you want that?

 

John Smith :

Yeah, nothing. I didn’t want to do a deep turnaround. And that part of why I resisted for so long, ultimately the reason we decided to do it, it just continued to gnaw at me. My first deep dive into most, he was in 2008 with the guy who was the longtime director here, did a lot of good things, did a lot of things that I wouldn’t have done. And I remember in 2008, I was part of a group of younger science center directors who were sort of supposed to be learning at the feet of these seasoned executives to be ready to take the helm. And MOSI had just opened its latest buildings. At one point it operated five different buildings on the campus. It had just opened its latest round of buildings and was talking about another set of buildings, hotel and an energy center with a monorail connecting.

 

And it all sounded cool. It looked Y areone kid’s diaper and the other kid, who’s maybe, say, four,cool on paper. I mean, you’ve seen those architectural drawings for many projects, and we’re like, dang, this looks really awesome. But I had spent the earlier part of the day in the museum, so in the big concrete building that was the MOSI main building for many years. And I had watched as a mom with two kids, was sort of in between the IMAX building and the big main MOSI building, and she was on the third floor and the third floor connected gallery space throughout the big building and the IMOSIX building with all kinds of walls. And there was a big exhibit and she’d stopped with her toddler or her little one who was in a stroller to change a diaper. And I have now really learned, but on the third floor of that stretch, there are no bathrooms anywhere close.

 

There’s no bathrooms on the third floor of the IMAX building, and bathrooms in the main building are way at the other end of the building. So she stops outside this exhibit near an elevator to change the one kid’s diaper, and the other kid who’s maybe say four takes off. So she’s elbow deep in dirty diaper with a kid she can’t leave, other kid is gone, she can’t see him, she’s screaming for him. There’s nobody around, there’s no staff around, there’s no anything around. It all worked out. In the end, the kid eventually came back and thought, I can only imagine how scared she was. And then we go into a meeting where they’re talking about a monorail and all this other jazz. And I remember raising my hand and I said, wait a second, I just saw this and there’s this, and it’s already exhausting to walk from your classroom building down to this new building you opened and now you’ve got this.

 

And there was an autonomous vehicle kind of running in the parking lot. The parking lots are massive. And I thought, how is this? Are you worried about your customer? What’s that mom feeling? Does she want to come back? And I was told you just don’t understand the vision. And I remember looking at one of the guys everythingwith me, and I said, clearly, I do not understand the vision. And I said, and from now on, I’m just going to write down all the things that I think I shouldn’t ever do here. Fast forward 15 years later, now I’m brought in to fix many of those things that I had witnessed back then. So it had always nodded me that I felt like the missteps that most had made, and this is not a crack on any individual person or leadership or whatever.

 

The staff is awesome. I inherited a great team. It’s a great brand in a great community. It felt like the chess pieces were maybe moved out of order or a little too fast or whatever the case might’ve been. And I felt like with experienced leadership at the top, we had the opportunity to do something special. I know what the aquarium was in Tampa 20 years ago, and I know what it’s today. And a lot of that’s Leadership Zoo Tampa, same way. There was no Glazi-er Children’s Museum 20 years ago. I mean, certainly not in the same way that it is today.

 

And if Tampa’s going to be a world class community, which we all think it should be and want it to be, it has to have a world-class science center. And I say that because every World-class community has a world-class science center. So it’s not a coincidence. And it just struck me that, yeah, it’s going to be a lot of work, but I was bored where I was. It had been fixed, and it was easy and comfortable. I didn’t want my kids to live there for their entire youth, and it seemed like a great opportunity to do something big in this industry before I ride off into the sunset. So that’s kind of the why I question it on a regular basis and say, man, it would’ve been a lot easier if I had stayed there. But I will tell you, my family is super happy. They love Tampa. It’s an awesome place to be. So even when the struggles are real, there’s a lot going for it.

 

Joe Hamilton :

Well. That’s amazing. So now I, would you say fair to say, you’re kind of in that pivot point now where you’re not worried about the lights staying on and you’re kind of now peeking into growth and starting to reopen things, and you’ve earned the right now to kind bring back some of the more visionary elements and say, here’s some cool stuff we can do now that we’ve built the foundation or got the foundation healthy again. So for you personally, what are some of those rights that you’ve earned now to move into the positive end of the spectrum? How does that show itself for you?

 

John Smith :

Yeah, so along the way, we’ve done a couple of things strategically that like you alluded to earlier, play on the nostalgia of MOSII can’t wait to Unshackle yourself from some of the things that you had to deal with when you first started. Now you’re two years in, and I’m just seeing where it goes. I appreciate you sharing your insight. Thanks for having me. It was a great opportunity. John Smith, M, but also look to the future. So one of the things that was always very popular in old MOSI was the butterfly garden. And the butterfly garden, in my opinion, wasn’t really done necessarily the right way initially. They tried to bite off more than they could chew. We’ve reopened a butterfly garden that is a butterfly garden. That’s what it’s, it’s a native species butterfly garden with native plants, native butterflies, mosquito fish in a partnership with the Hillsborough County Mosquito control. And that’s what it’s, the old one was also a wastewater treatment plant. Okay, that’s a little more complicated than I’m willing to bite off. Let’s just make it a really cool butterfly garden. And so that’s been a huge hit. So we’ve done stuff like that.

 

We’ve invested into Mission Moon Base, which has always been a real highlight of the MOSI experience, but had been sort of unloved for a while. We invested in there. So we’ve brought back some of those favorites, improved upon those, and now it’s looking toward what I think is the next iteration of moi. So it’ll always be moi. But one thing that it’s always struck me, and I grew up in Chicago where there’s a museum of science and industry, I would call it the Museum of Science and Industry, they call it MSI. And it’s actually got a new name recently, but it’s still the Museum of Science and Industry. We don’t do industry in the same way Chicago does industry. Tampa doesn’t do industry in the same way the city of Chicago does industry. So I’m looking for the future OSI to really be the Museum of Science and Innovation, and that’s what Tampa does well, that’s the future of the Tampa Bay region is innovating, being a disruptor, finding new ways to do things differently and better.

reason people are coming to live here. And so part of being a center of innovation is that it’s not just a traditional museum experience, but we also can’t call ourselves the Museum of Science and Innovation unless we’re actually innovating. And that’s kind of a key. So as we continue to grow, and again, opening an eight K digital dome theater experience in a showpiece building that is an already iconic structure in Tampa, I think will send the message that most is back. It’s back on its growth trajectory. That’s a thing that kids can do and learn from, that adults can do and enjoy, that families can do together. Again, it all feeds into that beast that I’ve talked about. It utilizes our campus all the time, because you might be seeing planetarium shows in the Saunders Planetarium from nine to five, Monday through Friday, and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights from 6:00 PM to midnight.

 

There might be laser music shows, there might be sporting events, there might be interactive theater. My old planetarium in Pennsylvania, we did Jazz Under the Stars. I mean, what a cool experience. So unique opportunities to come Experience M as a science center. We’re not also then trying to be a shopping mall. We’re trying to be a hair salon. We’re leaning into being a science center, but doing it to where you get to come and experience it on your terms, on your schedule, in the way that you want to. So maybe it’s as part of a wedding, maybe it’s for a beer fest, maybe it’s for this September. We’re hosting our second annual science of the Cuban Sandwich. So nothing is more Tampa than a Cuban sandwich, and nothing is more on brand for MOSI than science of the Cuban Sandwich. It’s a great festival. It sells out. It brings in an audience that may not experience mostly for a field trip or a family event, but hey, wants to come and have a beer and try a bunch of Cuban sandwiches and be outside in beautiful Tampa weather. So doing things creatively that way, trying to innovate our business model as well as innovate in the ways that we’re teaching people.

 

Joe Hamilton :

Wonderful success bets success.

 

John Smith :

That’s the plan. Love

 

Joe Hamilton :

It. I’ve enjoyed the conversation. Can’t wait to into unshackle yourself from some of the things that you had to deal with when you first started. Now you’re two years in, and just to see where it goes. Appreciate you sharing your insight.

 

John Smith

Thanks for having me. It was a great opportunity.

 

Joe Hamilton

John Smith, museum of Science and… Innovation.