10 Reasons to Apply for Vanguard Lexington

If you subscribe to any of our newsletters or follow us on social media. In that case, you’ve likely seen that we’re accepting applications for Next City’s 2024 Vanguard conference, which is happening in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 23-26, 2024.

Vanguard is an immersive, experiential conference that gathers 40 urban leaders for four days of inspirational cross-sector collaboration.

Here are 10 reasons you should apply for this year’s convening.

Get to know 39 other rising urban leaders in your generation, all doing amazing work in cities across North America and beyond. Plus, you’ll connect with Vanguard alum, Next City staff and some of our board members.
Learn from experts in urban planning, community development, environmental justice, transportation, philanthropy, design and more about what’s working and what’s not in their fields of practice… as well as what innovations inspire their work.
Experience Lexington, a mid-sized city in Central Kentucky that serves as the main population center for much of Central and Appalachian Kentucky. It recently decided to expand its Urban Services Boundary for the first time in a generation. The first-in-the-nation boundary, a planning tool that separates urban and rural spaces in the city, will be one of the many touchpoints during Vanguard Lexington.
Meet the people leading the change in Lexington and the wider Central and Appalachian Kentucky region.
Take yourself on a tour of the murals around town. There are more than 50 of them!
Get a feel for a city that blurs the line between urban and rural. We’re planning conversations and tours that will show the rural-urban interconnectedness within Lexington and the city’s nuanced, complex relationship with rural Kentucky. In Lexington, city dwellers rely on people and places in rural parts of their region and vice versa.
Form deep and lasting connections within an influential network of your peers.
Trek 39 miles south with us to Berea, a small town near the edge of central Kentucky’s Blue Grass Region.
Learn about Lexington’s nonpartisan city-country governance structure.
You work hard all year — why not join us for four days in Kentucky’s second-largest city? It’s popularly known for its bourbon distilling and identity as the Horse Capital of the World and has more recently become known for its booming healthcare and agricultural industries, innovative planning practices, vibrant music, literary, and culinary communities, and its prominent LGBTQ culture.