At upcoming networking and tech conference Run for the Unicorns, Kentucky’s fine bourbon will be mixed with more than just soda or ginger ale. As well as the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and Kentucky Bourbon Trail Craft Tour, this year, the spirit leads to blockchain. The technology will be featured in Run for The Unicorns, a forum focused on the future, particularly the convergence of blockchain and gaming/virtual reality technologies (http://ccw.fm/kBb7h). The event will be held from April 29 to May 4, 2019, to coincide with the Kentucky Derby Festival, which culminates with the Derby – “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” – on Saturday, May 4.
The Kentucky Bourbon Trail, now in its 20th year, tours Kentucky’s top-line distilleries, which, at present, include Angel’s Envy Distillery; Bardstown Bourbon Company; Evan Williams Bourbon Experience; Four Roses Distillery; Heaven Hill; Jim Beam American Stillhouse; Lux Row Distillers; Maker’s Mark; Michter’s Fort Nelson Distillery; Old Forester Distilling Co.; O.Z. Tyler; Rabbit Hole Distillery; the Stitzel-Weller Distillery; Town Branch; Wild Turkey Distillery; and the Woodford Reserve Distillery. Kentucky is home to dozens more whiskey manufacturers, some 13 of which are craft distilleries. The rise of specialty distilleries prompted the Kentucky Distillers’ Association (“KDA”), which hosts the Bourbon Trail, to expand the Bourbon Trail franchise in 2012 to include a separate ‘Craft Tour’ focused on craft distilleries.
Andrew Prell, CEO of Convergence and event organizer of Run for The Unicorns, thinks that the Kentucky Derby Festival has an economic potential on par with that of the South by Southwest (“SxSW”) extravaganza held annually in Austin, Texas. Attended by about 200,000 people over 10 days, SxSW generates an estimated $315 million in economic activity, or $1,575 per capita, while the Kentucky Derby Festival, which attracts 1.2 million visitors over two weeks, creates just $128 million, or $106 per capita. Moreover, the annual SxSW conference and festival is credited with putting Austin ahead of Silicon Valley as an incubator for tech startups. As such, Run for the Unicorns could be the start of something big. See and be there – April 29 to May 4, 2019.
For more information, visit the event’s website at www.RunfortheUnicorns.com