Chattanooga Community Catalog
What To Do In Chattanooga is a free, independent guide to the city's small businesses, trails, events and nonprofits, with no paid placements. We built it, we run it, and it is where we try ideas before they reach a client site.
Visit whattodoinchattanooga.org ↗The Challenge
Finding good things to do in Chattanooga means wading through review sites ranked by who paid, event listings scattered across dozens of Facebook pages, and trail information that lives in a different app again. There was no single place a local would trust to send a friend.
What We Built
A fast, mobile-first guide with one rule: nothing gets listed unless someone has actually been there, and nobody can pay to be included.
- A curated directory of local businesses, sorted by what you want to do (eat, drink, shop, stay), by category and by neighborhood. It opened empty on purpose rather than padded with places nobody had vetted.
- Outdoors for trails, climbing and paddling around the Tennessee Valley.
- Events, from the weekly markets to the festivals at Ross's Landing.
- Give Back, a guide to local nonprofits and volunteer matching.
- A map and guides that tie the listings together by area and occasion.
- Submissions from the community, so anyone can suggest a spot for review.
The Stack
- Next.js 14 (App Router) and TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Deployed on Vercel
Results
The guide is live at whattodoinchattanooga.org. It serves as both a genuine community resource and a working demonstration of what we build, and we use it to test new techniques before rolling them out to client sites.
Why We Built It Free
We believe in giving back to the city that supports our business. The catalog costs us time, not much money, and it earns us goodwill, real search visibility, and a portfolio piece that shows exactly what we can build.