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Learning Labs

Learning Labs incorporate in-the-field participation, hands-on study, and reflective time for a new look at experiential learning through travel.

Find out how to orchestrate immersive, local and compelling experiences for your travelers, wherever the destination.

The experiential models in all these learning labs provide you with framework for asking the right questions; and prompts you to become a reflective practitioner in selecting and designing your travel offerings. However, the process of reflection in these models always remains personal – only you can decide what works for your own institution.

For the third year running, Janet Ferguson will serve as lead facilitator on the reflective piece closing each Learning Lab. In addition, the outstanding cadre of local professionals and experts will orchestrate unique learning experiences. With signature Chattanooga hospitality, each Lab will also have a local hostess accompanying attendees to/from the Learning Lab venues.

Sunday, February 2nd, 1-4pm
Learning Lab I – The Tennessee Aquarium: Take a Deeper Dive on Your Next Experience
$45; pre-registration required; limited to 18 pax

to people of all ages , whether it’s out in nature or at a museum. Dr. Brooke Gorman, Director of Science Education, will lead an action learning experience at the Tennessee Aquarium, the highest rated aquarium in the country for guest satisfaction and the only one to reveal in such stunning detail the fascinating web of life supported by fresh water. Dedicated to the understanding, conservation, and enjoyment of rivers and their related ecosystems, Aquarium educators are changing the way people engage with this living laboratory to help foster a more curious, observant, thoughtful and analytical approach to nature. Upon departing from the Aquarium the option to extend the learnng lab until 5:00 pm and engage in a second action learning experience during a sneak peek at the new Charles H. Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, which opens on February 20th. As an engaging bricks and mortar storyteller, this museum uses innovative technologies to combine the sights and sounds of the Medal of Honor narratives with a vibrancy and immediacy of real-life stories to demonstrate extraordinary heroics under the most difficult circumstances – Patriotism, Citizenship, Courage, Integrity, Sacrifice and Commitment. Learn how you can help build a foundation that could ultimately help travelers to make informed decisions, take personal responsibility, and be part of a global citizenry that cares for the world in which we live.

Monday, February 3rd, 8am-12pm
Learning Lab II – The Civil War: From Battles to Reunion, “Reconciliation,” and National Memory
$45; pre-registration required; limited to 18 pax

For us, Chattanooga provides the perfect place to examine the history of the war that transformed our nation. In this Learning Lab, historian Jim Ogden will guide us through the story of the Battle of Chickamauga at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. After a guided tour of the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center with a powerful film and Civil War timeline time is spent on the battle field in the shadow of Lookout Mountain. We’ll learn about the history leading up to the September 1863 battle and how (and why) that battle, as part of the first National Military Park, has been and is remembered as one of the most extensively commemorated events in our nation’s history today.

Explore in-depth a part of the war that pitted brother against brother and the tiny town with the potential to cripple the Confederacy. We conclude at the Kentucky Monument erected by the Bluegrass State to commemorate both its Confederate and Union soldiers followed by a refreshment stop and facilitated discussion around historic issues still in the news today. Learn how to enrich profound action learning opportunities at historic sites in destinations worldwide with action learning techniques incorporating guided reflection.

Monday, February 3rd, 8am-12pm
Learning Lab III – Farm to Table: Southern Traditions Renewed, Not Lost
$45; pre-registration required; limited to 18 pax

New bakeries, coffee roasters, and eateries bring the traditions of southern food to life with an emphasis on a longstanding history of community gardens, family dining, and fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. Explore the complex traditions and histories of iconic southern food with two of Chattanooga’s most exciting chefs and a resident cheesemaker. Learn how they bring tradition alive by focusing on procuring food through partnerships with organic and community farms. Each one specializes in milk, beef, or pork production and raising obtuse herbs or fresh produce to deliver great southern cuisine all with an expression of the local “terroir.”

Chef Kenny Burnap from Kennys’, one of a new generation of breakfast and lunch spots, in collaboration with Padgett Arnold, co-owner of Sequatchie Cove Creamery will pair the famous southern biscuit with a Sequatchie Cove Creamery cheese to kick off the morning culinary experiences. Then onward to the Feed Company featuring tavern to fine dining options where Chef Charlie Loomis is joined with Sara McIntyre, a grower at one of the area’s most diverse organic farms, Crabtree Community Farm. Sharing personal stories and tools of their trade – fresh forage, a dash of artistry, a good bit of culinary and science skills, and the Tennessee mountain air and sunlight – these interactive discussions dive deep into how history, tradition, and inspiration make their way from farm to table into every dish. You’ll walk away with a rich understanding of the origins of southern cuisine, flavor and the Tennessee culture and how to authentically incorporate in any destination farm to table experiences into your travel programs. And perhaps, some uniquely Chattanoogan recipes to take back to your own kitchen.

Wednesday February 5th, 12:15-3pm
Learning Lab IV – Innovation at the Local Level: Creating exceptional destination experiences through Public/Private Partnerships
$45; pre-registration required; limited to 18 pax

Within this highly interactive learning lab, you’ll hear about community visioning efforts and the leadership that has helped to turn this city into “one of the 20 coolest towns in the US”. Local stakeholders will share how vibrant, and culturally respected spaces reinforce tourism. You’ll gain insight into how authentic and unique downtown experiences were developed to appeal to local residents and visitors alike. Find inspiration, hear about current challenges and learn how you might similarly partner to create a destination with strong appeal to the educational travel market.

Chattanooga is riding the crest of international acclaim from a three-decades resurgence, including $1 billion dollars of private investment since 2014 and a $120 million riverfront development initiative in the 2000’s. During this lab you’ll hear from several stakeholders including leaders of two private, non-profit groups that have been at the heart of the city’s renaissance – River City Company and the Chattanooga Design Studio. Eric Myers, Executive Director of the Chattanooga Design Studio, is a highly-respected architect and urban designer who has worked for the past 30 years to ensure quality at all levels of design, planning and construction. Kim White, the CEO of River City company, will share how public private partnerships have leveraged economic impact, and how the community’s economic, social and cultural growth has advanced as a result

Local hostesses provided by Sweet Magnolia Tours

Learn the true meaning of experiential learning

Changing interest in travel and learning styles means that educational travel has become an exciting and ever expanding field. How can you address the different needs of the growing educational travel market? What does it take for Planners and Operators to develop and promote “hands on” destination experiences that result in enjoyable, enriching and informal learning? How will you design a program to allow for organic connection to place and people?

ETC’s Learning Labs consist of well-designed and carefully organized pod-learning experiences that will include opportunities for reflective harvesting of learning through story-work. Each of these carefully crafted hands-on experiences draw on the best of Chattanooga to lead to rich discussions and insights by asking the right questions. Activities will be structured so participants are fully immersed with time slated for reflection on the experience, the learning they extract, and where they can apply ideas in their own programs.

Learning Lab Objectives

We have constructed these labs to demonstrate how to infuse the experiential learning components into affinity travel/tours. As such, this is not a FAM trip or tour but rather a learning platform through which to attendees will expand their understanding and:

Learn how to create unique and mission focused tours and experiences by working with local people and resources.
Learn the true meaning of experiential learning.

As an essential part of the Learning Lab module, time is allocated for personal reflection and group discussion on what fosters and cultivates effective learning through travel. What kinds of experiences are most important to design for our own travel programs? How might your travelers benefit from a more engaged/reflective and inquiry based approach to educational tourism? And, based on this learning lab experience, what will you design differently in your travel programs going forward?

Participants will be able to:

1) identify what it takes to design and organize experiential educational travel programs;

(2) describe the personal and collective impact and value of full immersion in a specific educational travel/tour experience; and

(3) use insights and learning from full travel/tour immersion experience to extend personal and organizational competence in the professional practice areas of educational tour and travel development

_______ is a proud member of the Educational Travel Consortium (ETC). ETC is a membership organization dedicated to promoting lifelong learning through travel and advancing the field of alumni and affinity travel. ETC offers professional development, mentoring, and networking opportunities for the travel planners at alumni associations, zoos, museums, cultural, and conservation organizations who are responsible for alumni, member, and donor travel programs. ETC also serves the tour operators, travel suppliers and country/regional destinations serving this sector of special-interest and lifelong-learning group travel. www.educationaltravelconsortium.com

When displaying the ETC logo to showcase your membership within the Educational Travel Consortium, members are required to adhere to the following professional terms and conditions:

1. The ETC logo may be displayed by user ONLY while the user is a current, fully paid ETC Member (hereafter called “Member”).

2. The ETC logo must be displayed exactly as provided.

3. The user agrees to cease using the ETC logo if his/her ETC membership lapses or if, in the sole discretion of ETC, the use is not in accordance with the current policies of ETC.

4. Member agrees NOT to use the ETC logo and/or ETC Name (a) in connection with explicitly or implicitly promoting their commercial enterprise or (b) in any manner which would indicate or appear to indicate ETC’s endorsement of any activity or product not expressly endorsed by ETC in writing. This includes, but not limited to, marketing materials such as websites, emails, brochures, or external company communications.

5. Uses not covered above will be considered on a case by case basis upon user request. Email Bethany Morris with requests.

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Learning Labs

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