What's Nearby? Start Here (And watch for UPDATES!)

Heed Emerson's words of wisdom. Enjoy Charlotte's trails and greenways!

Just across the road from our conference hotel is North Carolina's 3rd largest university. UNC Charlotte is home to 30,000 students, and the campus boasts a variety of running and walking trails. Take a break and explore one of the many greenways or stroll through the lovely botanical garden.

The link below will take you to a 10K run that includes UNCC campus trails, the botanical garden, and a pond.  You can shorten the trail or extend it as you'd like. 

(Maps and instructions for shorter options will be available at the registration desk).

Or just meander through the lovely 1,000 acre campus.

Take a break and drink some wild air!

 Malvolios not welcome at CEA! University Place has unlimited places to indulge any culinary desire.

Grab a honey-butter croissant at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. Plop on the patio for drinks and BBQ at Boardwalk Billy’s. Never tasted REAL soul food, then you gotta got to Sol’Delish. Want a quick lunch between sessions, grab a papusa (Papusa 503) or a banh mi (Banh Mi Brothers). You can eat Greek at Yassou’s or Mediterranean at Mezeh or Korean at KPot Korean BBQ and Hot Pot. Slurp some ramen at Tora Izakaya or pho at Pho@University. Too many great options and not enough days to try them all.

Plus, there's a food court at UNCC's Cone Center. I mean, seriously, who does not LOVE a food court?

 All of this a mere five—yes, FIVE—minute walk from the Hilton. 

Edna St. Vincent Millay would love the UNCC BOTANICAL GARDENS (and they are FREE!)

The UNCC botanical gardens serve as a living classroom for biology students and as a horticultural and botanical resource for the campus and greater community. Although UNCC does not have a formal horticulture or botany department, the Gardens' founders believed a university campus was not complete without the educational and cultural resource of a botanical garden.  (Check out the Dinosaur Garden with its living fossils and prehistoric vegetation. The Carnivorous and Bog collection features native plants that prey on insects.) You can visit the gardens from dawn until dusk- in Charlotte in March, that's between 6:30AM and 6:30 PM).

Stop by and smell the flowers!

Although one can't be alone or lonely at CEA, there's never a bad time to go, as Petula Clark advised, downtown. Except in Charlotte, UPTOWN is DOWNTOWN!

Just across the street from the hotel the Lynx Light Rail Blue Line will take you (for a mere $2.20) UPTOWN, Charlotte’s hub for culture and commerce, dating back to the trade routes of the Catawba tribe. Visit one of the city's world-class musuems: the Bechter Mureum of Modern Art or the Gannt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Showing at the Blumenthal Theater in March: Black Girl Therapy. Or take in some jazz at Middle C. Watch here for more of what's coming!

Look right to learn about Charlotte's other cool neighborhoods! 

There’s always something happening UPTOWN.

Grab your blue Converse Skidgrips and your cardigan & VISIT CHARLOTTE"S ECLECTIC NEIGHBORHOODS (all on the Light Rail Blue Line)

NoDa:Located along North Davidson Street, NoDa is the destination for eclectic restaurants, live music venues, colorful murals, and vintage and boutique shopping. 

South End: South End is a vibrant and bustling destination rooted in history and dating back to the discovery of gold, on what is now West Morehead Street, in the 1800s.

LoSo: The Lower South End exemplifies what happens when a city converts underutilized industrial buildings and half-forgotten strip malls into restaurants, breweries, and clubs (like the Comedy Arts Theater and Goldie's for live music every night)   

Let's make the most of these beautiful days!

Sure, Hunter S. Thompson made this observation about Las Vegas. But there must be plenty of good folks in 

Charlotte, because it is a BEER MECCA. 

Charlotte boasts more than 40 breweries (and who knows how many pubs!). Plan a crawl using the  link below. One of the best crawls is in NoDa and includes Divine Barrel, Salud Cerveceria (named Best Beer Bar in the country by USA Today 3 years in a row!), Heist, Protagonist, and The Chamber. 

And if beer isn't your jam, many breweries offer options including mixed drinks, ciders, and ginger beer. Prefer the fruit of the vine?

Right outside the Hilton is The Wine Vault, where one can enjoy a wine flight, light snacks, and live music.

As Thompson warns, at the end of his observation, "Bad people drink bad beer"