About Brainstorm Nashville
If you’re here, it’s because you care about Nashville.
Based on conversations with community groups, government leaders, churches, grassroots organizations and others, The Tennessean has identified a need for a common brainstorming and collaboration platform allowing groups to connect more efficiently.
At the same time, we’ve seen a desire among businesses and institutions to reach the community’s most influential people in more engaging, creative ways that inspire positive change and deeper connections.
Brainstorm Nashville seeks to build community in the digital age. We felt The Tennessean offered a unique ability to accomplish this based on our reach (100,000+ unique visitors each day), audience (the most engaged, influential, active adults in Middle Tennessee), and ability to moderate, distribute and offer context on important topics.
Several of our community advisers have described Brainstorm Nashville as the “editorial page of the future.” We like the way that sounds, and hope you like the way it works.
A short walk-through
Think of Brainstorm Nashville like a gallery of issues facing the local community — (i.e. Tennessee’s perennial ranking on “most obese kids” lists, or our lack of public transportation). The issues are big ones, but our aim is to present them in an “eat the elephant one-bite-at-a-time” way.
Users present potential solutions to pieces of the problem as dissected by The Tennessean and others in the community. They comment on solutions, arrange and join events and groups to help make solutions a reality.
Users are rewarded based on their participation, with real-life action receiving more incentive than online commenting (though we value that, too). We plan to reward contributions in a variety of ways: print publication, badges, invitations to events, etc., and will establish a protocol for that in the months to come.
The first topic
We are launching Brainstorm Nashville with the issue of childhood obesity because we know it to be one of much importance to many groups in Middle Tennessee. Our intention is to add new topics as we build our Brainstorm community and get a sense for what drives passion and action among its members. From the home page, users can offer suggestions for future topics.
Who’s behind Brainstorm Nashville?
The Tennessean’s Digital Team is responsible for the launch, maintenance and moderation of Brainstorm Nashville. The Tennessean’s journalists provide context and depth to the topics presented here. Our editorial writers may join the greater Nashville community in offering their solutions to presented problems. As Brainstorm Nashville grows in the number of topics and participants, we will provide opportunities for engaged community members to manage topics, as well as for committed businesses and institutions to offer sponsorships. To contact a team member directly:
- Knight Stivender, Senior Editor | Digital
- Karen-Lee Ryan, Director of Online Content
- Erin Cubert, Brainstorm Nashville Manager | Tennessean Social Media Director
