Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation And viewers like you Thank you On today's show well feature two nonprofits making an impact in our community One helps foster innovation and collaboration in the technology space The other is dedicated to connecting people and nature We're stronger together, Chattanooga Stay tuned to learn more Welcome to Chattanooga: Stronger together I'm Barbara Marter Eric Collins of Chattanooga Tech Council is with us The organization makes connections for a thriving tech ecosystem in Chattanooga Welcome, Eric I'm so glad you're here with us Absolutely Thank you You know, this has been this show has been the most informative for me about a lot of our nonprofits I didn't know anything about there's a technology council here in Chattanooga What is that all about?

So let's start out What is Chatt Tech?

Sure Yes, ma'am So the Chattanooga Technology Council has been around since 2002 So we've been here in Chattanooga quite a while Our, you know, our mission statement and, and our breadth has changed throughout, you know, the last 23 years But our focus has been, you know, one main, one main approach is that collaboration and being that central tech hub for the community in the surrounding ecosystem And when you talk about the tech hub, one of the things, I found interesting in kind of thinking about and doing some homework on this and everything, and talking to you previously is, we chit chat in a tech council has evolved in the 23 years It had to But people don't really realize Chattanooga is a really tech community Yes, ma'am We have, over the years, have a lot of businesses and corporations and companies that come in that need tech people Yes Absolutely But now let's just break it down What is a tech person?

It's not a coding person Correct?

Yes It's what a lot of people think of So tech could mean what?

Yes, absolutely So you could when people hear tech, they think, you know, even my own family thinks I maybe work at Geek Squad, right?

Can you fix my laptop?

Can you fix?

Yeah My router is not working Yeah So it's so many things And what people don't realize is that you have to understand your business and whoever you're serving to be successful in technology So there is a bridge there that that gets disconnected in a lot of people's minds So, you're right, we have large industries here We have entrepreneurs here, and we have individuals that have remotely or moved, excuse me, to Chattanooga during Covid and those times where they just they don't have a connection to people They may be working for industries or businesses elsewhere, but they are here in Chattanooga and so that is one of our main missions, is to to bring people together to to learn and collaborate and, you know, further their careers and their capabilities So there are young people coming in that need mentorship that need, to be able to have almost like a think tank where you're going to enough to kind of think of the tech council is almost like a mentorship, a think tank, because you've got people from all over, like you said, coming in from outside, this day, moving in down here, better quality of life Of course, you know Sure Get four seasons Oh, yeah As they overlap each other But you get to know or change or change, you know, you don't like today Wait for tomorrow Exactly But you have all the way up to senior technology people that have a wealth of knowledge They have issues They have problems They want to have a group that they can bat ideas and things back and stuff And so the council actually kind of defers to each one of those Right?

Which I think is really cool Yeah We try Absolutely We try to foster that as much as possible I always say you can never stop learning, right Unless unless you choose to And this the technology, the IT industry, so to speak, is so ever changing that if you if you're not continuously learning, you're, you know, kind of falling behind with the evolution of technologies and to your earlier point, you know, we're we're not out to just fine software engineers or programmers, right?

There are business analysts that have to to understand the business and, and then talk to the it teams to, to make that happen, to make industries run and businesses run You have project management that has to understand how IT projects need to execute And so there are so many, roles and capabilities that that just saying it, you know, doesn't consider typically or people don't consider And you know, we are we try to be that conduit for wherever you are in your career all the way from students to seasoned professionals You can like I said, you can always learn and our programing throughout the year helps us to to to reach those individuals to to teach, to learn, to mentor, to upskill, to change roles You might you might be in one role today You might want to do another role tomorrow And so we are trying to be that connective tissue to, to Chattanooga's community Yeah So you mentioned students Yes, ma'am So where does that play in all of it?

Yes So in a lot of different facets, but I'll talk about two Specifically, we have very strong partnerships with UTC and, and Chatt State and all the surrounding, you know, colleges and universities, to make sure that we are preparing those about to enter the workforce, make sure they're as skilled and prepared as possible with, like I said, the ever changing technology And then we also, have programing that reaches younger students that allows them to be exposed to STEM-related environments where they may not have that exposure Previously I could see you working with colleges because you could have books, but if you don't have real world experience, sure, the two won't mesh or anything like that So you could actually work with the professors in the colleges on the curriculum It's like, okay, that's old school This is what is changing This is what's going on right now These are the companies that are coming in, and this is the talent that they need in this specific area this specific year, because I can really see that working together Yes, ma'am And and with the the evolution since, since we've started and the evolution of technology and just in people in general is very rarely are there roles where you're just left alone and heads down programing you have to interact with people, you have to interact with business stakeholders When you're building these programs that allow these businesses and, and, and, startups to run So you have to have that, those soft skills, those behavioral skills And so it's not just about the technology that we're trying to teach It's about that collaboration and that interaction with people that we also try to bring to the table And I like that because the collaboration leads to I think you're you are a membership council Yes, ma'am And so what are the benefits of being a member?

Sure And then who can be a member Yeah So anyone and what we also try to promote is that even if you're not in the IT industry, if if the word tech scares you away, you know, come talk to us and visit our website Because it's not only about that You know, there are a lot of, you've seen, you know, over the last 4 or 5 years this upskilling or these career changing, these, these early career professionals that are that are changing from one industry into tech And so that capability is there But our members benefit from a few different things that culminate from what we've already talked about is, is that connection?

Right So they are connected to all of the programing opportunities that we put out through the years So, those range from, specific technology meetups to, you know, industry meetups, to, to larger programing, that we do throughout the year So they, they have that to build their network Their the to further your career is, is a lot about networking, right You know, learning to showcase what you can do and what, you know And then, another benefit of our membership is, is that combination of learning So going to going to our senior city summit event and, and, and hearing people that are further along in their career, how they taught themselves this technology that interest them or something like that So, lots of lots of different memberships, but that that collaboration, that growth, that learning mentality that we bring from our mission is, is is key to our members So do you have like in the spring, summer, fall, do you have like programs that you put on bigger programs?

Yes, ma'am I can talk a little bit about that So we have things going on throughout the entire year So, so, so even on a monthly basis, we have, coffee and code meetups where people will grab coffee and talk about a specific programing language You know, when you get down to the coding or the software programing We have, digital marketing meetups, we have Tech Talk Tuesdays So there's something always going on All of those events can be found on our website But we have three pillar events that we, that we perform throughout the year, for our for our members and our sponsors and our partners in the community So, in the spring, we have an event called STEM for Her We host that typically at Chatt State So they're there again, our partnership with our, our local college And we, we put that on for sixth to 12th grade young females and then in the surrounding communities to, to give them exposure to STEM So any kind of science technology, engineering and math type, you know, type careers potentially they might want to go into and that's a day long event where they, they come, they learn, we put on activities to showcase, you know, robotics or all kinds of different things We have keynote speakers, and then we have all of our partners They have booths So the young women can come and talk to individual companies about what they actually do day to day to excite them and, you know, ignite that, that passion that might be there, that they might not know about So that's our that's our, our spring key event Then in the summer, we have I mentioned Scenic City Summit and that is a, a three day event where it is, it can be classrooms, it can be speakers And then our final day was actually a hackathon We hosted this summer So people actually get to showcase their skills and, and compete Right?

So we're all competitive and, you know, in nature So, so that was that was that was pretty cool And then our fall event is, what we call the Tech X Awards, and that is, where we, we, we showcase the greatness that we have in the, in the tech ecosystem here So we have different award categories There are ten different award categories And we're just, celebrating people and celebrating, the community, celebrating businesses So it's it's a, it's a really great And that's our, that's our annual fundraiser to keep all of this great programing going Yeah That's that's amazing You guys stay pretty busy, don't you?

You've got something going all the time We do We have a fantastic board of directors, from all different industries, businesses, startups and and and and corporate alike It's it's it's fantastic to work with, with all these individuals because, everybody's really passionate about it Well, the passionate about it But you got to keep your eye focused on what's what's next, what's coming down the pipeline Sure What businesses are coming in, what skill sets are they requiring in the IT area?

And then are we still relevant to what's going on and how do we stay true to our mission or do we kind of, like, need to exit right or exit left or whatever, like, you know, right Just to stay relevant with it and everything like that right?

Yes, ma'am So so a couple of things there, you talked about the the ever-changing landscape and how do we stay relevant?

I mean, we we have so many experts and all of these evolving, technologies I mean, you can't talk to anybody in the tech industry without somebody saying AI these days, right?

And we we have so many experts that are around the community and we ask, you know what?

We want to be our givers We want to be givers more than we are takers So how do how do you an individual, a business, a partner of today, how do you give you know more than you receive, right That that's the mentality that we try to set We we our board of directors do annual planning every year So we get together and say, are we relevant or do we need to change our programing?

What is working?

What is not working?

Where do we need to go?

I mean, to veer right, veer left And you know, people people love being connected Even if you're an introvert, you know, we're built to to be connected And what we want is, is someone's quality of life that moves here, that may not be connected by their, their office or their business being here Well, they still have that sense of, I, I want like minded individuals, I want to be around those people And so that's what we're trying to to build in and exposed to, to, you know, such an awesome, awesome community I love it Thank you, Eric, so much I've learned a lot So I really appreciate this Yeah And tech is not so scary now Yeah yeah good Yeah This is be is it But anyway so thank you for coming in I really appreciate ma'am Thank you Up next, we'll have Mark McKnight from Reflection Riding and Arboretum Stay with us We want to know how you serve your community Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering, and we may feature it on a future episode Email stronger at wtciTV org or use the hashtag #StrongerWTCI on social media Welcome back We're joined by Mark McKnight, CEO of Reflection Riding and Arboretum This organization is dedicated to conservation, preservation and hands on learning Mark, it's so great to have you with me today Barbara, thanks so Much for having me Off of a screen, when we were talking and everything, the history of how this reflects your writing, the concept of somebodys idea over 100 years ago I want you to share that story with our viewers Yeah, absolutely So this is one of the things that I really got into and did a deep dive on when I started a little over seven years ago The, the concept of the idea started, as you said, about a hundred years ago And I say About on Purpose Because John Chambliss, who put the The property together He actually was up on sunset Rock He bought a little farm down in the valley It was seven ish acres And the way that he writes it, it was about 1925 So it was about a hundred years ago Yeah And he had that little farm down there, and he didn't really know what he was going to do with it It was kind of just a thing that he he had a place to go play He was a lawyer downtown Big law family His father was in the Supreme Court of Tennessee So as the story goes He was up with the, Superintendent of the parks at the Time, and that was, he's looking down on the Land, and they were talking About it, and he actually saw down in the valley on what is now roughly the nature center He saw that they were cutting trees And so he looked at that, and he saw also that it was a poorly farm There was a lot of erosion down there And he said, I want to protect this land This is too important when he's looking out over this, this landscape So this is too important And there are too many stories here, to let that get clear cut and developed And what A visionary Absolutely visionary So by, 1955, when it opened, or 54 When it was incorporated 55 ish middle of Car culture In America, he opened this land to the public And he had Been kind of tinkering with it for A good amount of time He had ultimately put Together about 400 acres And we The organization Sold about 100 acres to the national Park Back in 2000 So right now, we're a little over 300 Acres and but Surrounded By thousands of acres there on the side of the mountain And of course, because it is the side of the mountain, we're bordered on one side With Lookout Creek And then the watershed is Basically the whole western side of Lookout Mountain And so We protect about Halfway up the mountain and then lookout, Mountain Battlefield is basically protecting all the rest of it And it's really fun to Keep it permanently protected for future generations Exactly Yeah So his wife Margaret was the natural plant I mean, she loved all of that Absolutely Yeah So this the reflection And the riding, these are kind of the two, contributions from the two of them So you had, John, who was A tinkerer and inventor lawyer He was here He maintains Broad correspondence With landscape architects and designers All over the world Got to see the National Arboretum in D C while it was still being built before it was open So a lot of really cool kind of influences There on the landscape architecture side From him And then you had Margaret, who really felt the spiritual Side and the, the reflective nature of kind of what you what happens to you when you spend time in nature and Specifically gardening with your hands in the ground And trading plants back and forth and all that stuff?

So, yes, it was a it was a really interesting kind of mix there And the riding Side, they did Ride horseback there But the concept There came from 18th century landscape architecture, this idea of a riding Was kind of like Central Park is the best example that I used It was a large landscape where you would ride through It was kind of it was bigger than a garden, you know But You would ride through on a horse and Buggy at the time 18th century That's what they did And so you would see different views As you came around But they were all very they were constructed Views is the way that I like to talk about it So they were they're intentional They're big openings, where you can see multiple levels from higher up on the trails So the genius of the place is really that Mr Chambliss put these trails and he stacked a Lot of trails Into what?

I mean, 300 acres sounds Like a lot, but it's over ten miles of trails in that 300 acres So there's just levels and levels and all sorts of different things To explore as you go And everything has a name, and We're working on telling some more of those Stories and uncovering that history for the general public Yeah Actually through a new app with Bloomberg Philanthropies that's come to the table with some support So we can't wait Yeah So so 100 years ago Let's fast forward What are we doing now?

we are seeing so much visitation And the way I'd like to explain that is really just Go through a timeline Of the day Okay?

So if you start in the morning, you're going to see, hikers, runners, bikers People before Work You know, you're using it as A park And, and we allow people to use it any time the sun is up So, you'll have those people using and then as the time passes, you'll see school busses come in, you'll see, Kids coming in for environmental Science, environmental education You'll also see Parents dropping off Because we host the Wauhatchie school It's an independent Nonprofit forest school Very cool There's been the kids spent all their time outside All day Unless it's absolutely like severe weather They almost never go inside It's very cool And then you'll see, as the school busses start to leave midday, you'll start to see people coming back out, you know Getting out of work early Doing that recreation stuff again And then we also host a lot of other nonprofit So you'll see people Coming in for retreats or Rentals We've had signal centers out recently We've had, the design studio, all kinds of cool collaborations that are happening And then, towards the end of the day, as the sun is going down, we actually have started doing things like Campfire concerts, where we're inviting the General public in families to come in, watch music, have a picnic, and just enjoy that sun going down over the mountains So there's, there's a such a range And then all day long, you'll see people coming in to go shop for native plants and to learn about native plants So we do a lot of classes, a lot of adult education And that's another area where we have a lot of collaboration So, organizations like The Wild Ones do the Certificate of Native Plants, which has been going on for many years, and a lot of that's happening there And then you have volunteers I mean, Master Gardeners Also, the certificate native Plants requires volunteer hours We we Have a lot of corporate groups that Come out, groups like CBL come out and bring a ton of people all at once, and they do a massive thing You have the day of caring There's just so much activity going on It's actually Yeah, it's kind of difficult to explain what we do because we do so many things So do you still have the tree house?

We do The tree actually has died So unfortunately, it was at the end of its life It was, but we think it might have been a champion tree It was certainly one of the largest It's a Quercus Lyrata Which is a, Over cup Oak So it was one of the oldest over cup oaks in the region And, we, we trimmed it down while it was still safe to climb And then, we're leaving it for A few more years as It as it naturally decays It's still a very cool Experience to go in There it is And I, actually was there for the dedication of it many, many, many years ago So I remember it It was like was kind of got some age on it and everything So you're talking about the native plants You have this cool thing with Hixson High School?

We do This is one of the coolest things this is do for us So it's it's a it was a pilot with in high school where the idea is So we have A small nursery And in, in all of our planning with, the community, what we know we don't want to become is a Giant commercial nursery So we're keeping the size We're keeping it about the size and scale that it is now But the demand for native plants Is through the roof People get it now that the best thing you can do for the environment is to take the Little space where you work, play, shop, worship and take care of it and restore it And so We have this great demand For native plants that we can't even meet But we also have all these schools And as as I visited a lot of the Schools around town A lot Of them have greenhouses And a lot of them have space Where they could be propagating So what we're trying to do now is give them the tools they need, but also coordinate the species that we need Yeah And instead Of buying from some nursery That's up in the Midwest or in, you know, western North Carolina, we can actually find local eco types here Source seeds teach the kids How to Propagate them They do it at school and they sell that to us So we're buying from them It's a fundraiser for them We put their name on it and we sell them to the public, and it's a Fundraiser for Us So it's cool It's a full circle thing that we hope to we hope to kick it off with a bunch of other schools But Hixson was the first one, and they've done such a great job And then, Of course, Howard High School Is, the Howard School is one of our kind of key close by Neighbors that we collaborate with And we have an apprenticeship program there So we have, we have five Apprentices right Now The hope there is that that becomes a job pipeline for us And they learn How to Propagate their learn how to remove invasive plants And it's this job pipeline And workforce development program So let's talk about the future plans Sure So, we went through an extensive process, in We call it the framework for the future That we launched in May of 2021 We brought Scape Landscape architects to the table, which, again, kind of playing back on that history of Landscape architecture and how important The site was Culturally We didn't talk about the Civil War or the Native American history there or any of that stuff, but, it's such a culturally important site that we wanted to go through an extensive Planning process to Involve the community To bring The, Civil War, the national Parks collaborate with everybody To figure out what this place is gonna be for the next hundred years And so we launched that, it was Called the framework for the Future And we have started implementing different Parts of it And so there will be a new conservation center coming Mentioned those buildings are 40 plus years old at this point So, new buildings, new, more welcoming space, accessible to everyone and, and providing shelter and shade so that we don't have to cancel as many of our programs We actually cancel 25% Of our booked field Trips are canceled, mostly because of rain Yeah, but as you know, in Chattanooga, half the time, if you wait 15 minutes, it's going to be great So if we can just tell people to come on, we have shelter and shade for you and you'll be safe And then if it's nice, we'll go outside That's perfect So that's all coming and lots of things And you mentioned the tree house You know, the the boardwalk is in the floodplain and it's Been hard to Keep it up So we want to elevate, take it up into the canopy And then the wildlife We didn't talk about wildlife much either, but we do this conservation Work with turtles And with endangered, American red wolf taking that stuff and getting it up out of the floodplain, is only going to be more important in the future So there's there's a lot of Moving parts there But the other thing that's going allow us to do is just accommodate more people Yeah, we see that need For nearby nature only increasing Especially as the population is, is Denser downtown, which is great for conservation To have dense, settlement But those folks are all going to need a place to go outside So we are that place and we need to be able to accommodate them So we have a lot coming Thank you Mark This has been very educational and I hope and pray that our viewers will come out and visit Absolutely, and see all the great changes that are going on and love the history there So thank you so much Thank you ma'am And thank you for joining us We hope you've learned more about the amazing work being done by our local nonprofits We'd love to hear from you Email us at stronger@wtcitv org or use the hashtag StrongerWTCI on social media I'm Barbara Marter and from all of us here at WTCI, we'll see you next time Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation And viewers like you Thank you