While Kentucky is known far and wide as the capital of bourbon and thoroughbred horse racing, the state offers much more for the meetings and conventions world. But yeah, you’re gonna want to sip some amber nectar and sidle up to a pony or three when meeting in the Bluegrass State.
Here are some of the major new happenings in four Kentucky meetings destinations, with plenty of horses and a shot or two of “the good stuff” poured in for good measure.
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Louisville
Kentucky’s largest city, Louisville, offers the amenities of a metro but also the genteel Southern charm best embodied by the finest bourbon in the world and the world capital of horse racing, Churchill Downs, home of the legendary Kentucky Derby.
“I know the word authenticity is thrown around a lot, and you can buy a bottle of bourbon in any city in the country, but you can get the experience here,” said Cleo Battle, president and CEO of Louisville Tourism. “Bourbon is the only native American spirit. The experience and the culture, the craftsmanship, the history around that has really done well for us. When I moved here in 2013, there were zero bourbon experiences in downtown Louisville and right now we have 21 bourbon experiences and by the end of the year we’ll have 24.”
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Newly opened bourbon experiences include Green River Tasting Room, Pursuit Spirits Tasting Room, Whiskey Thief Distilling Co., Bardstown Bourbon Company, Buzzard’s Roost micro distillery and Monk’s Road Boiler House, with WhistlePig Vault & PiggyBank and Chicken Cock Whiskey opening soon.
Of course, the marquee Louisville event is the Kentucky Derby, so many groups visiting the city stage events at Churchill Downs, as MPI WEC did in 2024.
“Churchill Downs is just an iconic facility, and what’s really neat about it is they only race four months out of the year,” Battle said. “The rest of the time, it’s a full-on meeting facility. They’ll do opening or closing receptions there. So, it’s almost as if we have three downtown convention centers. We have the Kentucky Exposition Center, the Kentucky International Convention Center and Churchill Downs in terms of large facilities.”
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The Kentucky Exposition Center is undergoing a $400 million renovation over the next couple of years that will result in it becoming the sixth-largest facility of its type in the U.S.
Other renovation news includes a $500 million project at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport that will convert the facility to geothermal energy and upgrade ticket counters, the baggage claim area and jet bridges and walkways.
Hotel Bourré Bonne, part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, opened in April and offers 168 guest rooms, 11,000 square feet of meeting space and Steakhouse Bourré Bonne and the fifth-floor Rooftop Bourré Bonne bar and restaurant. The 130-room Tempo by Hilton Louisville Downtown NULU opened in the trendy NuLu neighborhood in 2024 with 7,500 square feet of meeting space in two meeting rooms and also offers a rooftop restaurant.
One very interesting Louisville offsite venue will be the Dot Experience Museum at the American Printing House for the Blind, which is undergoing a $55 million renovation and expansion targeting 2026 for completion. When finished, the venue will total more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space and feature the interactive Dot Experience Museum, which will share first-person stories of blindness and the human experience, with exhibits that will include Helen Keller’s desk and archives, Stevie Wonder’s piano, original Braille machines and José Feliciano’s guitar.
Lexington
The state’s second-largest city and home of the University of Kentucky, Lexington is known for its bourbon and horses but also boasts a very compact convention district that makes meeting planners smile.
“We’re so fortunate it’s a tight campus,” said Marci Krueger-Sidebottom, vice president of sales and services for VisitLEX, adding that the convention district also offers a number of local restaurants that are great for group dining. “We don’t have many chains downtown—we pride ourselves on that.”
The city built the Central Bank Center convention facility in 2022, which offers a 100,000-square-foot exhibit hall and another 100,000 square feet of flexible meeting space, including 24,300 square feet of ballroom space in three rooms.
“We can go after larger groups that we weren’t able to do before,” Krueger-Sidebottom said, adding that the attached Rupp Arena is often used for concerts, keynotes, activations and even prayer rooms for faith-based events.
There are seven hotels within walking distance of the Central Bank Center complex, representing major brands such as Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton, along with a 21c Museum Hotel and the independent The Manchester. Krueger-Sidebottom said many planners will put smaller room blocks in different hotels so attendees can take advantage of hotel loyalty programs.
Just opened on the convention campus is Gatton Park on the Town Branch, a privately funded park with an amphitheater and tiered lawn that is great for music programs.
Ten minutes outside of the convention core and great for self-contained meetings is the 408-room Marriott Lexington Griffin Gate Golf Resort & Spa, which boasts a Rees Jones-designed 18-hole championship golf course.
Lexington also serves up its share of bourbon experiences as well as 32 events-friendly horse farms nearby.
“Of course, you have to mention horses and bourbon,” Krueger-Sidebottom quipped. “We have a bourbon distillery in downtown Lexington and groups can rent horse farms for events to experience a working thoroughbred horse farm. They’re blown away because it’s something you can’t do in any other city.
“We’re the horse capital of the world,” she added. “If you couldn’t get on a horse farm, that would be pretty sad.”
Bowling Green
Located a little more than an hour north of Nashville, Tennessee, Bowling Green is a midsize destination that lives in the fast lane with its popular National Corvette Museum.
“We’re not too big and we’re not too small, so meeting planners really love our size because they’re a pretty big fish in a small pond when they meet here,” said Marissa Butler, hospitality services director for the Bowling Green Area CVB. “When events come to town, we’ll still have businesses put welcome messages on their marquee signs to show we know you’re coming; we’re ready for you. We have a very good spirit of collaboration here.”
The city offers the Sloan Convention Center, a 60,000-square-foot facility with 35,500 square feet of meeting space, including a nearly 20,000-square-foot grand ballroom. A total of 444 hotel rooms are in the Hartland Development near the convention center, including the 218-room Holiday Inn University Plaza, a Courtyard by Marriott with 93 rooms and a Hilton Garden Inn with 133 rooms. The city also offers the Nicely Conference Center, which is affiliated with Western Kentucky University.
The most popular offsite venue is the National Corvette Museum, which offers its own conference center.
“They will open up the galleries for after-hours events with their facility rentals, and they have catering onsite there with their Stingray Grill or preferred caterers,” Butler said, adding that across the street from the museum is NCM Motorsports Park, a 3.2-mile performance driving racetrack that can also be used for teambuilding and receptions.
“There’s tons of space up there for outdoor activations, with high-speed karting availability as well at NCM Kartplex,” Butler added.
Oak Grove
About 60 miles west of Bowling Green, Oak Grove offers the Valor Hall Conference & Event Center, with more than 16,000 square feet of meeting space in its Valor Hall.
The home of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, its 101st Ballroom was recently outfitted with a new audiovisual system and upgraded wireless fiber network.
“One of the unique things about Valor Hall is it’s in the center of Oak Grove Memorial Park and Butterfly Garden, so it’s great for photos and relaxation to take break from a meeting,” said Britnee Ohman, executive administrator for Oak Grove Tourism Convention Commission.
A popular offsite facility is Oak Grove Racing and Gaming Facility, which is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated and offers horse racing, concerts and Las Vegas-style gaming.
“A lot of our groups not only go there for the activities, but also to eat, because there are multiple restaurants there,” Ohman said. “It also has a hotel, so a lot of groups will stay and play, and then go to the conference.”
And this being Kentucky, there’s never a distillery too far away, with MB Roland Distillery serving up private elevated tasting experiences for groups.
