TCA Campus Visits
TCA’s vision for our campus in Nashville has always been for the campus to serve as a concrete showplace and a hands-on learning lab for all things concrete. Ten different events were held at the TCA campus in 2015 with a total attendance of over 160 people. In addition to these events, more than 40 individual decision makers and over 30 TCA members visited our campus in 2015. Events included Lipscomb University Masters of Sustainability class, University of Tennessee Architecture class, UT Summer Studio Architectural Review, Urban Green Labs (see Innovation section), USGBC TN Chapter Board, Nashville Civic Design Center reception, TN Society of Professional Engineers staff, TN-ASLA Tour, and the Ragan-Smith landscape architecture department.
Take a quick tour of the campus and its many concrete features with Executive Director Alan Sparkman, Certifications Director Darla Sparkman and listen to Dr. Gwen Griffith, Program Director of the Cumberland River Compact, discusses the TCA campus' focus on sustainable practices and TCA's educational activities that extend beyond the TCA campus.
TCA’s promotion efforts for 2015 included 100 different events, presentations, live demonstrations or seminars that carried the concrete message to over 2700 people with nearly 800 of these identified as decision makers. Our work in 2015 brought statewide and national recognition to TCA and we increased utilization of ready mix concrete products in Tennessee.
We present to you here five examples of our 2015 promotional efforts.
PROMOTION for Tennessee's Concrete Community!
Websites & Social Media Presence
www.tnconcrete.org and www.getconcrete.org are TCA’s "official" websites. We also maintain an active Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tnconcrete.org that is tied to our Twitter account.
Tennessee Concrete Magazine
TCA's flagship publication, founded in 1987.
Our flagship publication, founded in 1987. Our direct circulation is about 4000 individuals. While TCA members receive the publication, the primary target audience is the concrete customer. A PDF copy of our 2015 Winter issue featuring a cover dedicated to the MTSU CIM program’s 20th Anniversary can be seen here.
US Green Building Council
Alan Sparkman was elected to the Board of Directors for the newly merged USGBC TN statewide chapter in 2015 and serves as Treasurer. TCA is a national member of USGBC and a statewide Silver sponsor. Mr. Sparkman also attended the national USGBC Convergence event in San Diego as a Tennessee representative in 2015. See a message from USGBC’s TN Director Holly Meadows-Baird.
The Concrete Foundations Association featured TCA’s Net Zero building on the cover of its Winter 2015 edition and Director Sparkman wrote the feature article tracing the construction of this unique building from start to finish.
The Nashville Civic Design Center hosted a reception for students completing the UT College of Architecture's Summer Studio Program. The reception was held on the TCA campus and allowed the students to display their work for the community.
TCA regularly exhibits at tradeshows and conferences on a number of concrete related topics.
The Concrete Foundations Association featured TCA’s Net Zero building on the cover of its Winter 2015 edition and Director Sparkman wrote the feature article tracing the construction of this unique building from start to finish.