Celebrate & Accelerate at the Buckingham Leadership Conference

Another Buckingham Leadership Conference is in the books, and our team members had a blast Celebrating & Accelerating at The Alexander Hotel. From a networking scavenger hunt and foundation initiative building bikes to learning from conference speakers and celebrating outstanding team members at our Awards Ceremony, we had a great time connecting with peers and gearing up for a productive year.

Celebrating 35 years as Buckingham Companies, our COO, Scott Sladek, took us through an interesting journey of the evolution of the mobile device from his car phone to the iPhone. He showed us that over time things change but the change is usually better than it was before. Another huge thanks to the Pacer’s drum line for introducing Scott and giving him a proper closing!

Everyone’s favorite speaker from the conference kicked off the event with a moving presentation on the importance of play in the workplace. His story of adversity from a young age to the roles he’s held at multiple Fortune 500 companies, Kevin brought the energy for our team along with many lessons, including:

·       It’s easy to be transactional, but you need to be transformational

·       Find time to have fun. Play is serious business

·       Who’s your CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer)?

·       Always be in BETA as yourself

·       Stay motivated

·       High performance teams are the way they are because they collaborate and are encouraging to each other

·       If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough

Other speakers included Beth St. Claire, who discussed the importance of collaborating in the workplace, DJ KB, who walked us through managing difficult conversations, Dr. Rob Bell, who conveyed the value of hinge moments, and Jay Baer, who walked us through the value of Talk Triggers, which Buckingham is rolling out this year.

Our Buckingham leadership team, including Josh Landry, Scott Sladek, and Brad chambers, joined Theresa Rhodes on stage for the Buckingham Insight. Each member talked about what’s to come in the next few years for Buckingham and what we’ve accomplished so far in 2019. A key takeaway from the event was Brad’s community initiative this year with Challenging Heights. Buckingham Foundation is working with the Chambers Family to install a functioning water faucet to a city in Ghana. This will be a year-long project with a lasting impact on the community there.

Our annual conference wouldn’t be complete without our awards dinner. Buckingham team members are nominated by their peers for each award category, and one award is given out to the winner in each department. Congratulations to our award winners!

·       Customer First

• Accounting Team, Operations (Johanna Bastin, Sean Carothers, Beth Cash, Mike Hassell, Shannon Johnson, Jane Kennedy, Jennifer Macaluso, Chris Myrvold, and Carmen Sporleder)

• Sean Morrison, Production

• Evan Corcoran, Site

·       Teamwork

•  Nicole Wetzler, Operations

• Jennifer Salemme, Production

• Vanessa Smith, Site

·       Positive Attitude

• Christina Bledsoe, Operations

• Angela Combs, Production

• Kristin Haggard, Site

·       Community Involvement

• Kellie Linzner, Operations

• Kristen LaPorte, Production

• Harold West, Site

·       Exceptional Leadership

• Nicole Crosby, Operations

• Nate Stoops, Production

• Holly Jordan, Site

·       Outstanding Performance

• Debi Fougerousse, Operations

• Dave Joyce, Production

• Kristin Edmonds, Site

Other team members that were recognized at Leadership Conference include our Blue Door Society members. This elite group of individuals have been with Buckingham Companies for over five years. Their tenure and dedication to our team is invaluable. Congratulations to the following team members:

Five Year Members:

·       Justin Brown

·       Jeff Clark

·       Justeen Conner

·       Doug Hart

·       Kevin Kilcoyne

·       Rosey Morgan

·       Sean Morrison

·       Chuck Newton

·       Tera Odom

·       Scott Sladek

·       Shannon Sorrells

·       Nicole Wetzler

·       Brian Zawadzki

Ten Year Members:

·       Tony Anderson

·       Tom Clark

·       Helenann Klukowski

·       Rodney Neubauer

·       Buddie Nichols

·       Ebony Oliver

·       Brad Reed

·       Katie Reed

Fifteen Year Members:

·       Tim Hinds

·       Jennifer Macaluso

·       Rose Rigdon

·       Jennifer Salemme

Buckingham team members wrapped up the Annual Conference with our Buckingham Foundation Q2 project – building bikes for kids in foster homes with our partnership with Together We Rise. Kids in foster homes may not have as readily available access to toys and personal items to call their own, especially the beloved bicycle. Buckingham Foundation aimed to change that for 80 kids who would be given a brand-new bicycle thanks to the generous donation of Buckingham Foundation and the time and talent of our team members assembling new bikes.

Kudos to our Leadership Planning Committee for their time, energy, ideas and flawless execution to make it an exciting experience for all. We’ve already begun planning for 2020, so if you have any ideas or want to be involved, please contact Becca Manolov.

With another successful conference under our belt, our team is ready to put into place key takeaways we learned from our guest speakers and executive team. We enjoyed celebrating wins and look forward to the bright future of Buckingham. Some say, ‘the best is yet to come’ and we couldn’t agree more!

Off the Wall Coverage in Nashville Lifestyles

“Off the Wall on Charlotte Avenue”

Featuring the work of 14 artists, Off the Wall brings a new wave of creativity and inspiration to Nashville.

BY SYDNEY WAGNER

OCTOBER 8, 2018

Photo By: Blu Sanders

Mural By: Sarah Tate

It all started after Tinsley Dempsey heard the phrase “creative place-making” at a Nashville convention.

The phrase can be described as “being creative about how you’re utilizing a space,” whether it’s a patio on which vendors can set up spaces or creating more outdoor walkways and areas. The Georgia native, who has a background in art and murals, marks that as the moment her wheels began turning. Four years later, Off the Wall, a 1,200-foot wall made up of 14 murals, stretches down Charlotte Avenue for thousands of passersby to enjoy each day. 

Dempsey says Off the Wall’s mission is to promote creative place-making, public art, and development.

“I feel like revitalization and using the built environment that’s already there is an important message, and the art can be really impactful,” Dempsey says. She also explains the domino effect of beautifying a community, saying, “If an area attracts people in a community, it’ll attract businesses and people walking around, so that creates a thriving community in and of itself.” 

Off the Wall is located near the new ONEC1TY center and could certainly play a role in the area’s growth.

“It was important to me, for the integrity of curating all the different murals that are on there, to involve contemporary artists because I didn’t really see a lot of that here,” Dempsey says.

The first mural was completed in 2014 by artist Seth Prestwood. The last mural, finished on Labor Day, is by Nashville artist Tess Erlenborn, who plays with the idea of dualities in her art: order and chaos; growth and decay. Her mural consists not of bold, punchy colors but, instead, a softer, muted range of pastel pinks and cool blues balanced out with grays and golden yellows. 

“My work is taking ownership over and claiming these feminine symbols and colors and various patterns I find in biology books that represent diseases and decay and making them colorful and light,” Erlenborn says. 

The hazy, dream-like mural by another Nashvillian, Julia Martin, can be placed on the other end of the color spectrum with its mix of aqua blue faces and purple legs.

“The majority of my thinking while working on [the mural] was community, community, community—but I still wanted to have a little edge and be a little abstract,” Martin says. 

In today’s world of social media saturation, Dempsey acknowledges the exposure a platform like Instagram can give to Off the Wall.

“With Instagram, it goes across the world, and people will come to a place to seek something out, to take a picture in front of, and it’s just amazing.”

She hopes the walls become “a revolving gallery of contemporary mural art.” Dempsey wishes for Off the Wall to inspire future projects in Nashville.

“I hope it puts a thought in people’s minds when they are developing. Maybe developers, maybe commercial owners around here take notice. That’s my real hope, and that green space and public art is included with every project that begins here in Nashville.”

Charlotte Ave; offthewallnashville.com

Source: https://nashvillelifestyles.com/living/community/off-the-wall-on-charlotte-avenue/