Monday, May 4

Small Business Week Kick-off

The City of Savannah, Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Business Association, Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center, Savannah’s Waterfront, StartUp Savannah, Buy Local, Savannah Master Calendar, and the Metropolitan Savannah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are celebrating the heartbeat of our community, Savannah’s small businesses.

Show your support, meet your neighbors, and make a commitment to Shop Small in Savannah all week long. Because when you shop small, you’re not just making a purchase, you’re investing in the people and places that make Savannah home.

Tuesday, May 5

2026 Savannah Business Summit

The 2026 Savannah Business Summit kicks off with a red-carpet welcome followed by a full day of connection, learning, and inspiration. Dive into sessions on leadership, financial analysis, recruiting and retention, digital marketing, and the habits that fuel resilience — all while building meaningful relationships with community leaders and professionals. At the Summit, success isn’t a solo journey – it’s a collective movement.

This year’s summit features powerful Keynote Sessions alongside a series of dynamic breakout workshops. Participants may choose from focused tracks in Finance, Marketing, or Human Resources, ensuring a tailored learning experience that meets their goals. Throughout the day, enjoy networking opportunities designed to help you build meaningful connections with fellow business owners, other career professionals, community leaders, and industry experts.

Whether you’re building a business or building your career, the Savannah Business Summit offers the strategies and connections that help you grow.

Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Time: 8:15 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Savannah Convention Center |1 International Dr., Savannah, GA 31421
Registration: Savannah Business Summit Registration

Small Business Week Mixer

Celebrate Small Business Week at Savannah’s largest collaborative networking event. The Small Business Week Mixer brings together entrepreneurs, business owners, and community leaders for an evening of connection and conversation.

Hosted by the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Business Association, the Hispanic Chamber, and Savannah’s Waterfront, this mixer reflects the strength and diversity of our local business community. Join us for open networking, new connections, and a shared celebration of the small businesses that drive Savannah’s economy.

Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Location: The Park at Eastern Wharf | 101 Port St., Savannah, GA 31401
Registration: Savannah Business Mixer Registration

Wednesday, May 6

City of Savannah 2026 Mayor’s Small Business Conference

The Mayor’s Small Business Conference (MSBC) is a one‑day signature event hosted by the City of Savannah’s Economic Development Department in partnership with Mayor Van R. Johnson, II. This annual event brings together our community’s best local business leaders, innovative entrepreneurs, and advocates for a full day of informative workshops, presentations and networking — all designed to promote small business sustainability and growth opportunities in Savannah!

The conference also features a Reverse Trade Show, connecting small businesses directly with government agencies, corporations, and organizations seeking local vendors and partners.

MSBC is the signature event of the 2026 Savannah Small Business Week, which runs from May 4th through 8th.

Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.| Reverse trade show 2:00 – 5:00 pm
Location: MLK Civic Center |301 W Oglethorpe Ave., Savannah, GA 31401
Registration: www.savannahga.gov/msbc

Thursday, May 7

City of Savannah Purchasing: Business Opportunity Breakfast

This event, featuring breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and a 9 a.m. presentation, connects local, small, and minority businesses with City procurement opportunities, including networking and insights into upcoming projects.

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026
Time: 8:30 a.m.
Location: MLK Civic Center |301 W Oglethorpe Ave., Savannah, GA 31401
Registration: www.savannahga.gov/msbc

Start-Up Savannah: GRIT Pitch Event

15 entrepreneurs. 3 minutes each. $5000 total cash prizes.

You don’t want to miss out on the chance to witness these game-changing ideas pitched live on stage! Join Startup Savannah during Small Business Week 2026 on May 7th at The Clyde venue, to see the action for yourself! You’ll even get the chance to vote on the Audience Selection Prize, worth $500.

Date: Thursday, May 7, 2026
Time: 5:30 – 8:00 pm.
Location: The Clyde Venue | 223 Martin Luther King Blvd., Savannah, GA 31401
More Info: Purchase Tickets | Apply to participate

Friday, May 8

DBA Downtown Clean Up

Join the Savannah Small Business Week Downtown Clean Up Friday May 8 from 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. by meeting at Chive, 4 West Broughton Street. All equipment will be provided on-site. including gloves, safety vest, and bags. Show your love for our downtown community by cleaning it up together.

Date: Friday, May 8, 2026
Time: 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Location: Meet outside Chive | 4 West Broughton St., Savannah, GA 31401
More Info: Downtown Clean Up

Turning Connectionsinto Achievements
Discover a group that elevates your business through strategic connections, productive meetings, and exclusive benefits. With state-of-the-art software, we track the success of our group’s to ensure tangible results.

SODA meets every first Wednesday at 11:30 at Barnes on Waters Avenue! Comme join us for great networking and a great meal!

Climb aboard the UGA Aquarium’s research vessel, the R/V Sea Dawg, for a trawl in Wassaw Sound! Participants will actively contribute to marine sampling efforts by working alongside marine educators to collect, sort, and identify a variety of marine organisms collected as part of the trawl. All data collected contributes to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ marine inventory record, supporting long-term monitoring of local species.

This program also introduces Trawl to Trash, an initiative aimed at preventing marine debris from entering coastal ecosystems. Participants will learn about the negative impacts of marine debris on wildlife and habitats and explore the use of Trawl to Trash bags, created from recycled shrimp nets, to collect and remove debris. Each participant will have the opportunity to construct their own bag to take home and use for collecting trash along Georgia’s coast.

Cost: $20. Registration is required and includes admission to the UGA Aquarium. Children ages 10 and up are welcome but must be accompanied by a registered adult.

Let your imagination run wild at this weekly drawing workshop for aspiring creatives focusing on the basic principles of art and design. Seek inspiration in the galleries, meet new friends, and begin preparing a portfolio of your work as museum educators offer tutorials to perfect your drawing skills.

This workshop for middle school and high school students is free and open to the public.

To RSVP or for more information, email Hannah Thompson, manager of museum visitation and programming, at hthompso@scad.edu.

Weekly market produce, fruit,sweets, sauces, quail eggs, breads, candles, crafts, and more!

Energizing, beginner friendly African dance class open to all ages. Traditional African dance class with live drumming every other Wednesday and Afro-fusion class every other Wednesday.
Explore culture and experience well-being through social connection and physical movement.

Join us as we celebrate the grand opening of our newest branch in the heart of downtown Savannah! Located at 120 Drayton Street, this updated, community‑focused location is designed to offer convenient banking and exceptional service to the Savannah area. The event will feature a ribbon‑cutting ceremony with Ameris Bank and community leaders, refreshments, and opportunities to meet our team and tour our beautiful space. We’re proud to be part of the vibrant Savannah business community and hope you’ll join us in celebrating this exciting milestone.

Truckin Happy Hat Co. grand opening party inside Sea Love Savannah. Drinks, give away and exclusive shopping

Historic Savannah Foundation (HSF) – the leading nonprofit cultural institution dedicated to saving the buildings, places and stories that define Savannah’s past, present and future – will continue its annual tradition of recognizing projects, individuals, organizations and companies representing excellence in preservation in Savannah and Chatham County.

A highlight of National Preservation Month, the HSF Preservation Awards is an inspiring, community-focused awards ceremony. HSF will honor noteworthy projects that were nominated by community members and selected by a jury of local professionals from the fields of architecture, preservation, academia and urban planning.

RECEPTION DETAILS:
Our reception for Jack Leigh and Parker Stewart will take place Thursday, May 7th from 6 to 9pm. Krazian food truck will be on-premises.

A first-of-its-kind exhibition at Laney Contemporary pairs the work of two Low Country landscape photographers who captured an evolving coastline — through industry collapse, climate change, and disappearing traditions — over the course of half a century.

“Jack Leigh & Parker Stewart: In Place”
On View: May 1 – August 1, 2026
Reception: Thursday, May 7, 6-9pm

Separated by time but connected by place, photographers Parker Stewart and the late Jack Leigh capture landscapes and communities in the outer reaches of coastal Georgia and South Carolina. Laney Contemporary’s “Jack Leigh & Parker Stewart: In Place” brings their work together for the first time in Savannah, this spring and summer.

Co-curated by Stewart and gallerist Susan Laney, “In Place” is the first time Leigh’s photos have been shown alongside a living photographer working in the same tradition, and the first exhibition of Leigh’s work in nearly a decade.

Savannah-born Leigh is known for his three-decade canon of rural and coastal photography. The novelist Pat Conroy once wrote of his “uncanny yet perfectly composed and cunning” images: “He cannot raise his camera without telling me about a South I never knew was there.” Leigh’s photograph “Midnight, Bonaventure Cemetery” became synonymous with Savannah after it was featured on the cover of the bestselling novel “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” In dialogue with Leigh’s haunting landscapes is the work of Stewart, who also photographs the coastal region and has found himself again and again at many of the same off-the-beaten-path sites that caught Leigh’s eye a generation earlier.

Stewart, a SCAD graduate who settled in Savannah, began photographing the tidal landscapes of coastal Georgia and the Savannah River Basin in early 2020. On long, meandering scouting drives through rural Georgia and South Carolina, Stewart explored tidal waterways, shrimping docks, and primordial, fog-cloaked marshes. Later he recognized that Leigh travelled similar routes and visited the same sites, though the two never met. Leigh died of cancer 22 years ago, at age 55. Inspired by the place, and the spirit of Jack’s work, Stewart began to think of Leigh’s photobooks as “treasure maps.”

Stewart photographed an Estill, South Carolina water tower framed by silos, only to later discover that Leigh had shot the same scene 30 years prior. “I was tickled to find Jack had made the exact same photograph,” Stewart said. “Almost nothing had changed.” Other times, it was all but suggested by the scene. Returning to a McIntosh County shrimping dock that Stewart had photographed multiple times, he saw a boat he’d previously photographed was now half-submerged. “Immediately I thought of Jack’s image ‘Sunken Shrimp Boat,’ which was made on that same dock 40 years earlier, and set up my tripod to make my own.”

“In Place” examines a coast in constant flux. Industries that once supported the economy buckle under the pressures of climate and market change. Georgia’s shrimping fleet has diminished by 96 percent, from roughly 1,500 boats in Leigh’s era to fewer than 60 today. Similar trends have befallen the oystering communities Leigh photographed, and Gullah/Geechee families along the coast face compounding threats — among them, development and property loss. “He saw the condos being built, the rapid development of his home and the coast, and he acted with intention to preserve these places by documenting them, and doing it beautifully,” Stewart said of his predecessor’s work. “Leigh’s ability to find the quiet in the chaos is unsurpassed.”

Laney, who once ran the Jack Leigh Gallery and now represents his work, finds kinship with Stewart’s talent and sensibilities. “When I first saw Parker’s work, I recognized the same eye for environmental character and atmosphere,” Laney said. “Previously, I’ve shown Jack’s photographs alongside the artists who influenced him. Stewart is carrying the work forward, in the same places, with his own voice.

“Working with Jack for over 15 years,” continues Laney, “I was given the opportunity to know his process, how he was inspired, and how dedicated and connected he was to his work and community. I see a similar connection, passion, and drive in Stewart. The landscapes and passing ways of life that Jack captured have changed, yet much remains.”

Laney Contemporary is the exclusive representative of the Jack Leigh Collection. In 2014 at the SCAD Museum of Art, Laney co-curated “Jack Leigh: Full Circle, Low Country Photographs, 1972–2004,” which Hyperallergic named one of the country’s top five best exhibitions of the year.

“In Place” runs through August 1, 2026. An opening reception is slated for May 7 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Savannah Stress Reset is a weekly guided breathwork class at Daffin Park designed to help you release stress, regulate your nervous system, and sleep more deeply.

This is a beginner-friendly, experiential class focused on simple breathing exercises that help you feel calmer in real time. Perfect if you’re stressed, overstimulated, tired-but-wired, or just need a weekly reset.

We meet by the fountain near the tennis courts. Just bring yourself and dress comfortably.

Thursdays at 6:30 PM
Daffin Park, Savannah
1 hour • $15
Register: https://savannahbreathreset.com/stressreset

We are welcoming Trivia to the Shuk Atrium on Thursday Nights!
In collaboration with Pubstar Entertainment we are excited to present a night of fun and competition.
Prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place!

Join the Savannah Small Business Week Downtown Clean Up Friday May 8 from 8:30 a.m.-10 a.m. by meeting at Chive, 4 West Broughton Street. All equipment will be provided on-site. including gloves, safety vest, and bags. Show your love for our downtown community by cleaning it up together.

Date: Friday, May 8, 2026
Time: 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Location: Meet outside Chive | 4 West Broughton St., Savannah, GA 31401
More Info: Downtown Clean Up