Tennessee RiverLine Summit

The Tennessee RiverLine Summit is the annual convening of partners from around the region who are invested in the realization of the vision for North America's next great regional trail system. The Summit is an interactive forum that connects people and communities by building shared understandings and a common language, exchanging lessons learned and building a dialogue around Tennessee RiverLine priorities areas.

Going Virtual For 2022

As our planning for the 2022 Tennessee RiverLine Summit progressed it was clear that we were once again going to need to hold a virtual event. Our experiences planning and executing our 2021 Tennessee RiverLine Virtual Summit allowed us the confidence to reach for something bigger and better! Our 2022 Tennessee RiverLine Summit was even more successful than our last, with again over 160 partnership members, community partners, river stakeholders and representatives from allied initiatives around the region and the nation convened under this year’s theme: Connected by Purpose. Our online platform also enables us to share recordings of our presentations and discussions. Now, those unable to attend can listen and learn, and those who attended can revisit its valuable content. Watch our 2022 Summit sessions below!

Tennessee RiverTowns Stage Two Workshop

What does it mean to be a Tennessee RiverTown? Join this session to provide your insight to what it should mean for a community to earn the Tennessee RiverTown designation, and your feedback to the first draft of proposed benchmark requirements for Stage 2 – Connect of the Tennessee RiverTowns Program. Participation by at least one member of each community’s Local Leadership Team is encouraged.

Summit Welcome - Year in Review

Welcome to the 2022 Tennessee RiverLine Virtual Summit! In this session we will share an overview of the Summit agenda’s live and asynchronous content, as well as share insights to the features and many ways to engage Summit content and attendees through our interactive online meeting platform. This will be followed by a summary of our shared progress toward realizing the Tennessee RiverLine vision in 2021 headlined by an exhilarating year of programming facilitated by our Tennessee RiverTowns communities, as well as insight to our priority areas for the years ahead.

Keynote Address: 1300 Miles in the Footsteps of the Cherokee

From March to June 2019 Ian Finch and Jamie Barnes followed the Cherokee Trail of Tears. The 1300 mile removal route began in the ancestral lands of the Cherokee in the Great Smokey Mountains and ended in Tahlequah Oklahoma, the modern day home of the Cherokee. 400 miles of the route was hiked, 900 miles was canoed, including 500 miles on the Tennessee River. Join us for this keynote presentation as Jamie and Ian reflect on their journey across this landscape and the legacies embedded therein while provide insights to their ongoing endeavor to share the story of the trail through carefully thought out photography and culturally-sensitive, authentic storytelling. Read more about their journey at Sidetracked Magazine.

Stories Worth Telling: Effective Communications and Advocacy for the Tennessee RiverLine

The stories of the Tennessee RiverLine are stories worth telling! During this session we will reflect on successes and challenges facing partners who seek to tell their Tennessee RiverLine story, and share strategies and tools that will help us all achieve our unique and shared communications goals as a part of the Tennessee RiverLine initiative.

Risk Management in Flatwater Paddling & Outdoor Recreation

Managing participant safety is one of the most important - and overwhelming - aspects of facilitating outdoor experiences and events. Knowing where to start, and what to do can seem like a daunting endeavor on its own, and the looming thoughts of liability and potential legal issues that can come with outdoor recreation programs adds to the challenge of managing those aspects responsibly and effectively. In this session, we will talk with outdoor recreation and paddling industry professionals to shed light on best practices for risk management while hosting outdoor recreation and flatwater paddling events, build tools to implement risk management techniques, and gain clarity about legal liability as event hosts.

Potential Economic Impact of the Tennessee RiverLine

As a destination for flatwater paddling, the Tennessee RiverLine users will benefit Tennessee River communities economically through increased visitation and spending, supporting existing businesses and opportunities for new entrepreneurs that offer supplies and services in support of user experiences. The Tennessee RiverLine will also contribute to physical well-being and lower health-care costs by providing a multitude of free and low-cost recreational activities to the general population. Join this session for the unveiling of a report by the University of Tennessee Baker Center for Public Policy about the Tennessee RiverLine’s projected economic impact. Presenters will also discuss strategies that are proven to optimize water trail user experience and position communities to maximize the realization of their potential economic impacts. These strategies will inform future effort and investment priorities for the Tennessee RiverLine and Tennessee RiverTowns communities.

Supporting Entrepreneurship on the Tennessee RiverLine

Entrepreneurs will be essential partners in offering positive user experiences on the Tennessee RiverLine and the initiative’s ability to realize its potential for economic impact in Tennessee RiverTowns. By offering supplies, supporting services and guided excursions to residents and visitors who seek to experience the Tennessee RiverLine, this ecosystem of existing and new businesses creates jobs while helping accelerate a culture of outdoor recreation in your community. During this session we will visit with entrepreneurs from Tennessee RiverTowns communities and peer initiatives to understand their stories and how communities can promote sustainable entrepreneurship on the Tennessee RiverLine.

Engaging with Diverse Communities Through Inclusion, Cultural Competency, and Humility

In 2022, Tennessee RiverTowns Program enrollees will launch the programming and events funded by the first round of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Community Impact Grants. Local leadership teams were challenged to think about which groups within their communities are often left out of river engagement opportunities and how the group can go the extra mile to ensure that the Tennessee RiverLine progresses as an inclusive project dedicated to providing equitable access to the economic development, public health and resource stewardship benefits it brings. To inform this work moving forward, Tennessee RiverTowns local leadership teams will join Lorna Hollowell, Assistant Director of Education and Development for the University of Tennessee’s Office of Equity and Diversity, to explore best practices on welcoming and inclusive community engagement – how to identify unwelcoming behaviors and thought patterns, such as unconscious bias and microaggressions, and work towards correcting and preventing them in sincere and effective ways

Welcome Back + The J.E.D.I Path: Progress, Growth Opportunities and a Framework for the Future

Welcome back to the 2022 Tennessee RiverLine Summit! The Tennessee RiverLine is committed to its guiding principles of diversity, equity and inclusion, and collaborating with Tennessee RiverTowns communities to establish river experiences and spaces that are welcoming and accessible to diverse residents and visitors. This commitment requires deliberate effort to identify and overcome barriers to inclusion, particularly among communities typically undeserved by outdoor recreation opportunities. Using the outline of strategies put forward by last year’s Summit keynote, Gerry James, we begin this session by sharing an update on our progress on the J.E.D.I. path, including regional initiatives and reflections on DEI-driven programs by Tennessee RiverTowns communities in collaboration with organizational partners. Insight will also be shared to the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable’s Together Outdoors Initiative, which the Tennessee RiverLine is adopting as a framework for its ongoing J.E.D.I. journey.

A Hero’s Journey: Reflections and Insights from a 652-mile Trip on the Tennessee RiverLine

From April 11 through May 15, brothers Jeff and Jon Wunrow completed the journey of a lifetime by paddling the entire Tennessee RiverLine in one continuous trip. As the first individuals known to complete this feat since the Tennessee RiverLine vision was announced in 2019, Jeff and Jon’s 35-day journey is one that we aspire to optimize for generations of ‘hero users’ for generations to come. During this session you will gain insights to their journey, as well as their reflections on ways that communities and public land managers can optimize existing and invest in new amenities, services and information resources to enhance this experience for future paddlers on the Tennessee RiverLine.

The Great Miami Riverway: An Engine for Economic and Community Investment in Riverfront Communities

The Great Miami Riverway is more than just a river. This regional destination in southwest Ohio includes more than 99 miles of paved trails and connected communities where you can surf the river, cycle the bike trail, and find your way through charming downtowns. The Riverway is located along the Great Miami River, the only designated National Water Trail in the State. The Riverway is accelerating new economic development and tourism while inspiring new investments in riverfront communities – from urban to rural – that make them welcoming gateways to and from the river and experiences it offers. In this session you will learn how the Great Miami Riverway riverfront communities are experiencing economic impacts by increasing use of existing recreational, historical and cultural assets, and through new investments that benefit community residents and visitors.

River Animation: Successes, Challenges and the Future of Events on the Tennessee RiverLine

In 2021, more than 700 people experienced the Tennessee RiverLine through animation events hosted by Tennessee RiverTowns communities and the Tennessee RiverLine staff. During this session, community partners will reflect on the successes, challenges and strategies that drive their effort to animate their “River Park,” and share insights to the future of events locally. The Tennessee RiverLine team will conclude the session with a look ahead to emerging plans to facilitate regional events that promote economic development, public health, resource stewardship and equity of access.

Stewarding our Most Valuable Natural and Cultural Resource

The Tennessee River is home to some of our nation’s most important histories and most diverse, yet fragile ecological treasures. Tennessee RiverTowns communities are stewards of this natural and cultural heritage, and are offered an opportunity to showcase that which makes their reach of the river unique through River Stewardship programming. During this session, community partners will reflect on their river stewardship experiences in 2021, and our partners at the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area and the Tennessee River Basin Network will share ideas and resources to help Tennessee RiverTowns communities continue growing their connection to the Tennessee River, our most valuable natural and cultural resource.