Event Production Services
For cities, developers, chambers, tourism organizations, and destination venues. We produce festivals, artisan markets, holiday programs, and recurring community event series across Chattanooga and Southeast Tennessee — from concept through closing weekend.
Who We Work With
Our work is in public events — festivals, artisan markets, farmers markets, food festivals, holiday markets, seasonal programs, destination experiences, and recurring community series. The kind of events that bring a region together, draw consistent foot traffic, and become part of the local calendar year after year.
The Differentiators
Hiring a producer for a public event is a serious decision. Here's what sets this engagement apart — a regional vendor network of more than 2,100 businesses, a recurring-program operating model, and the twenty-five-plus years of founder event-production experience behind every project.
Organizations hire us to launch new events — and they trust us to steward events that already have history, reputation, and public expectations. We currently steward Ketner's Mill Fair, entering its 48th year, and Down Home Days, entering its 52nd year. Inheriting a heritage event is a different responsibility than starting from scratch, and it's a responsibility we take seriously.
Access to a regional vendor network of more than 2,100 artisan, food, farm, and specialty businesses, built over five years across the Tennessee Valley. Your event launches with the right vendor mix already in reach — not assembled from scratch.
Every vendor we place on the floor has been screened for craft quality, fit, and reliability. The lineup at your event reflects that standard, not whoever happened to fill out the form first.
Public-event production is a different discipline than wedding or private-event planning. Shop the Market At's entire portfolio is in this lane, and the founder's twenty-five-plus years of experience is rooted in market and festival work — Chicago, New Orleans, Asheville, Knoxville, and now Chattanooga. That focus is what makes our work different.
If you want a bi-weekly market, an annual signature festival, or a multi-weekend holiday series, we have the operational depth — and the regional familiarity — to run sustained programs across multiple venues and cities. We already produce events across eight venues from Whitwell to Collegedale to Signal Mountain.
Robert Davis — twenty-five-plus years of event-production experience — personally oversees every project from concept through closing weekend. No agency handoff, no junior account team. You're working with the founder, not a brand account manager.
Capabilities
Six core capability areas. Each one is a real, in-practice operating function we run today.
Before logistics, we shape the event itself.
Includes:
End-to-end execution from planning to breakdown.
Includes:
The depth that sets the engagement apart.
Includes:
The operational depth public events require.
Includes:
Live music, performers, family programming, and activations.
Includes:
Sustained programs, not just calendar dates.
Includes:
Sponsorship strategy is its own discipline — we cover sponsor packaging, brand-fit matching, and direct sponsor relationships on the sponsorship page.
Selected Work
Four anchor examples that show the range — heritage festival stewardship, multi-venue holiday series, full festival production at a private venue, and recurring program operations across the growing season.
Heritage festival stewardship · Entering its 48th year
Ketner's Mill, Whitwell
One of East Tennessee's most legacy-rich destination fairs. We steward its full operational production — taking over an established event with public expectations, a multi-generational audience, and decades of community memory. The kind of responsibility most event producers never get the chance to handle.
See the eventSignature holiday market · Multi-venue · Recurring annual program
The Commons · Signal Mountain · Coolidge Park
Our European-inspired holiday market runs across three venues each November, our most-anticipated annual program. Demonstrates multi-venue, multi-weekend production at scale.
See the eventSignature summer festival · Two-day production · Family destination event
McDonald Farm, Sale Creek
A full festival produced at a private working farm — vendors, music, contests, family programming, on-site bar. Proof we bring complete production to a client venue, not just to our own.
See the eventBi-weekly recurring program · May through September
Chattanooga Choo Choo
A sustained farmers market program at the historic Chattanooga Choo Choo across the full growing season. Recurring program capability in practice — booth management, vendor rotation, audience continuity.
See the eventHow We Work
Four stages, no mystery. The first conversation is exactly that — a conversation.
01
We learn your goals, audience, venue, budget, and timing. No pitch, no pressure — just a conversation about whether the fit is right.
02
We recommend the event shape: format, scope, single date vs. recurring program, vendor mix, programming, and engagement model.
03
Full operational execution — vendors, logistics, permits, programming, on-site oversight from setup through breakdown.
04
Post-event review, vendor and audience feedback synthesis, and recommendations for the next iteration or season.
Frequently Asked
A Note From the Founder
My event production work goes back to 1999, when I started producing markets in Chicago. In 2015 I expanded into New Orleans market production, with additional event work in Asheville, North Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee along the way. Twenty-plus years of public events across very different cities, audiences, and venue formats before I founded the current company in Chattanooga in 2022.
I started Shop the Market At in 2022 because I wanted to produce the kind of events I'd want to attend — well-run, well-curated, and worth the trip. The current company is five years in, but the operational experience behind it is twenty-five-plus. I still personally read every vendor application, lay out every booth map, and show up on the grounds at every event we produce.
That same standard is why other organizations have trusted us to take over events they've spent decades building. Stewarding a 48-year heritage fair, or stepping into a 52-year community tradition, isn't something I take lightly — it's an obligation to everyone who was part of those events before us, and everyone who'll be part of them after.
That hands-on production experience is paired with formal business training — an MBA with a concentration in marketing — which shapes how I think about audience growth, sponsorship alignment, and building events people actually want to attend.
When you hire us to produce your event, you're not handed off to a junior account team. You're working with me, directly, from the first conversation through closing weekend. That's the entire model.
If you're considering an event — whether it's a single signature festival, a recurring program built into your venue's calendar, or a heritage event you're looking to entrust to new operational leadership — I'd genuinely like to hear about it. Every inquiry comes to my inbox and I reply personally, usually within twenty-four hours.
— Robert Davis
Founder, Shop the Market At, LLC
Let's Talk
Whether you're a city events coordinator, a developer planning a destination program, or a venue owner exploring a recurring series — start with a conversation. Every inquiry goes straight to Robert.
