“Bet Your Bottom Dollar You’ll Lose the Blues in Chicago”

Next month, the 2024 NAST Annual Conference is coming to Chicago. As your president, I can’t wait to welcome my fellow treasurers and their staff members to a city the late Anthony Bourdain called “a colossus right smack in the middle of the country.”

Chicago has been around for a while, with the first permanent non-indigenous resident, trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, arriving in the 1770s. The federal government built Fort Dearborn in 1803 a couple blocks away from the conference hotel. You can spot bronze markers in the pavement. Chicago is a resilient city, rebuilding itself after a rather significant fire in 1871 you might have heard about.

We will learn and collaborate during the day. The keynote will be delivered by Austan Goolsbee, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. You also may know him from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. You’ll learn low- and no-cost hacks for IT Security and Fraud Prevention and find out the latest on AI hype. There will be panels on attracting and retaining millennial and Gen Z talent as well as what to do to lead an organization through a crisis.

We’ve got some fun planned at night. There’s dinner at the Museum of Science and Industry, where there are exhibits on 007 (James Bond) Science, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, and U-505 submarine. On Tuesday night, Sept. 24, you can take part in a Chicago River cruise, seeing one of the country’s best architectural cities from a fantastic vantage point. This tour is very popular among locals all summer long.

Chicago is a food town. Steakhouses abound downtown, including one bearing the name of the greatest basketball player of all time. If you’re a fan of FX’s “The Bear” and want to try an Italian beef sandwich, Al’s #1, Portillo’s, and Luke’sare short cab rides away. The latter two also sell Chicago-style hot dogs, and we won’t judge you if you put ketchup on them (but some locals might).

Deep-dish pizza is a hallmark tourist attraction, and you can walk to Lou Malnati’s from the Swissotel. Locals favor the tavern-cut style --- small squares of thin-crust pizza. Labriola is within walking distance.

Really, though, you can find almost any type of cuisine you can imagine. If you’re into fancy food, Michelin’s guide has you covered.

South of the river along Michigan Avenue, there’s the Art Institute of Chicago, where you can see “American Gothic,” “Nighthawks,” Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist,” a van Gogh self-portrait, and re-enact the famous scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” in front of the large “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte” painting.

The outdoor wonders of the Chicago Botanic Garden are a train ride away. The Lincoln Park Zoo is a few miles north. Last year, Chicago got its first and only casino, which has a temporary home in the old Medinah Temple building in River North while its permanent spot is developed.

I can’t wait to welcome you to Chicago next month as we collaborate, share best practices, and trade ideas during the annual NAST Annual Conference!