The Buzz is one of Footprint’s strategies for creating connections with people who work in the areas of creative culture, social justice, environment, and learning.

 
 

The Buzz is a multi-day learning journey meant to bring together a diverse group of people to learn from and about another city as well as each other. Traveling by bus, we visit cities in our region and use the bus as a classroom-on-wheels.

The purpose for The Buzz is two-fold:

  • To take a group of diverse leaders from Chattanooga to another city and study various efforts there. Our hope is that by going out of town and hearing about another city's challenges & opportunities, one might be inspired and sparked with new ideas for his/her/their own work.

  • To cultivate relationships and encourage cross-sector work among good people doing really important work in our city.

What makes The Buzz special is the unique combination of site visits, learning opportunities, collaborative exercises, and time for connection.

The Buzz creates and strengthens connections by spending out-of-town time in thoughtful discussion with a group of fellow Chattanoogans. The cities we visit are backdrops for relationship building and learning. We seek to include people working in the intersections of social justice, creative culture, environment, and learning so that we may bring their stories to light and elevate the important (and hard) conversations we are having as a community. And we strive to make sure the agenda is as diverse and thought provoking as the group attending.

We meet with people who are working for greater inclusivity and diversity, people who are using creative thinking to create progress and hope, people who are already working to connect those who have opportunity and those who don’t, people who understand healing and reconciliation are imperative to our progress as a nation, a region, a state, a community.

With The Buzz, we seek to highlight stories from local historians, grass roots organizations, community advocates, and other leaders. We discuss topics such as equity, food access, integration, affordable housing, implicit bias, etc. with a mix of civic leaders, community activists, creative organizations, and social enterprises.

Since 2016 we’ve taken four cohorts, approximately 80 people in total, to visit the cities of Asheville, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Montgomery for this unique relationship-building and connection-creating experience.

The Buzz Themes and Cities

The theme for the first Buzz in 2016 was Sense of Place and we visited Asheville NC to explore how craft culture, arts, urban design, food & farm, and the brewing industry have impacted the city’s uniqueness.

This trip was well-received but participants suggested that future Buzzes be used to explore the more pressing matters we face as a city and individuals - matters concerning race, social justice, and economic mobility. With that feedback, the theme for the next Buzz(es) focused on Opportunity and Inclusion and we then visited Louisville KY (2017) and Cincinnati OH (2018).

In its fourth year, about half of the existing Buzz network traveled to Montgomery AL to dive deeper into conversations about Race and Equity and explored our Southern history, racism, segregation, and the impacts these things have had on society and the livelihood of people. Additionally, each Montgomery Buzzer completed a two-day workshop by Greensboro NC’s Racial Equity Institute as pre-work for the trip. This provided the shared framework and level-setting necessary to guide meaningful and challenging conversations on the Buzz trip as well as back in Chattanooga.

Buzz Participants

Participants in The Buzz include a mix of Footprint grantees, potential grantees, and influencers - they represent grassroots organizations and advocacy groups, civic leaders, community organizers, local activists, clergy, city employees, artists, and more. 42% are BIPOC; 100% bring diversity of thought, experience, work/sector, backgrounds, age, and gender.

Planning Team

Lisa Pinckney, Footprint Foundation (ASH, LVL, CIN, MONT)
Christine Ageton, Christine Ageton Consulting (MONT)
Jeff Cannon, Tucker Build (ASH, LVL, CIN, MONT)
Rondell Crier, Studio Everything (LVL, CIN, MONT)
Martina Guilfoil, CNE (LVL, CIN, MONT)
Caleb Ludwick, 26Tools (ASH, LVL, CIN)
Simran Noor, Noor Consulting (MONT)
Daniela Peterson, Trust for Public Land (CIN, MONT)