2024 Conference Location: Louisville, KY

Louisville is changing the way people think about Southern destinations. This is a city that’s truly unique and different. A city that combines heritage with innovation, authenticity with originality and quirkiness with friendliness. A city full of sights, sounds and sips all its own including its official cocktail, the Old Fashioned, and the one-and-only Urban Bourbon Experience, a citywide adventure that includes distilleries, endless craft cocktail bars and Bourbon attractions and exhibits.

There are seven bourbon attractions within walking distance of downtown. These are Angel’s Envy, the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, (the first bourbon businesses to return to historic Whiskey Row since before Prohibition). Kentucky Peerless Distilling, Michter’s Fort Nelson Distillery, Old Forester, Rabbit Hole and the best place to start your bourbon education - the Frazier History Museum’s Welcome Center for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Other attractions to open in Louisville include the Stitzel-Weller distillery and a rock-n-roll spirited brandy distillery in Butchertown – Copper & Kings.

Additional authentic, iconic visitor experiences compliment the incredible unique attractions that Louisville has taken pride in for years, including the century-old Belle of Louisville, the Kentucky Derby Museum and Churchill Downs – home of the Kentucky Derby, Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, Kentucky Science Center, Louisville Mega Cavern – the world’s only location for underground zip-lining and mountain biking, Frederick L. Olmsted designed park system and many more.

Louisville owes much of its authentic culture to the many African American men and women who labored to make it so. Their experience is the American experience and we are honored to share it straight and unfiltered, exploring the stories of some extraordinary people that built the Louisville experience we know it today through the Unfiltered Truth Collection. Visit any one of the collection’s experiences that pay homage to Black jockeys, baseball players, bourbon industry greats and other trailblazers to hear their stories.

To top it off, Louisville’s culinary scene is cooking and it’s caught the attention of people all across the globe. Travel + Leisure, Garden & Gun, Bon Appetit, Saveur, National Geographic, Southern Livingand many others have taken notice that the city has positioned itself as a foodie destination. Louisville was named “Best Up-and-coming Food City” by Thrillist, one of “America’s Best Cities for Food” by Travel + Leisure and one of the “Nation’s Best Local Food Scenes” by USA Today. From farm-to-table to modernist cuisine to country cooking, top chefs and top shelf, Louisville has a lot to bring to the table.