This article was written with the assitance of AI.
The science brings you to ISHI. The destination is what stays with you.
Over the next two years, we’re headed to two of the most exciting cities in the country — a sun-soaked SoCal bayfront and the beating heart of American music. If you’ve been on the fence about making ISHI a regular fixture in your professional calendar, let this be what convinces you.
Here’s what’s coming.
ISHI 38 | November 1–4, 2027 | San Diego, California
San Diego in November. Let that sink in.
While much of the country is bracing for grey skies and the first frost of the season, you’ll be on the waterfront in one of the most consistently beautiful cities in the United States — with temperatures in the low-to-mid 70s, unobstructed views across San Diego Bay, and a destination that has earned its reputation as one of the most sought-after conference cities in the country.
ISHI 38 will be held at the brand-new Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center on the Chula Vista Bayfront, just seven miles from downtown San Diego. The resort opened in 2025 as the largest hotel in California and sits directly on the water, with bay views from nearly every angle. Think of it as your home base — the sessions, the dinners, the networking — all of it set against a backdrop that makes it genuinely hard to complain about Monday morning.
But step outside the resort and you have the full breadth of San Diego at your disposal. La Jolla Cove — where sea lions lounge on the rocks and the coves are some of the clearest water on the West Coast — is a short drive up the coast. Balboa Park, one of the most remarkable urban park systems in the country, houses more than a dozen museums including the San Diego Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and of course, the world-famous San Diego Zoo. The historic Gaslamp Quarter offers nightlife, dining, and live music into the late hours. The USS Midway Museum — a decommissioned aircraft carrier turned floating museum — is a full day on its own.
November is also when San Diego’s tide-pooling season kicks off, when low tides reveal the rock pools along the La Jolla coastline. Sea stars, anemones, hermit crabs — it’s the kind of unexpected afternoon that tends to show up in people’s highlight reels from the trip. And if the Mexico border is a new experience for you, Tijuana is just 20 minutes south of the resort — a short cross-border trip for tacos and street food that locals will tell you is non-negotiable.
Come for the conference. Stay for the coastline. Leave with a tan, a longer contact list, and a very strong case for why your travel request the following year should be approved even faster.
ISHI 39 | October 23–26, 2028 | Nashville, Tennessee
If San Diego is the place you go to decompress, Nashville is the place you go to feel alive.
Late October in Music City is something special. The fall foliage is in full color, the air is cool and crisp, and the city is humming with energy in every direction. Broadway’s Honky Tonk Row has live music pouring out of every door from noon until well past midnight — no cover charges, no reservations, just some of the best live country, rock, and roots music you’ll hear anywhere. It’s the kind of place where you walk in for one drink and walk out two hours later wondering how that happened.
ISHI 39 will be held at the legendary Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, a sprawling property in the heart of Music Valley that functions as a destination in its own right — nine acres of lush indoor garden atriums, cascading waterfalls, and winding waterways all under glass. But step outside the resort and the full weight of Nashville is right there.
The Grand Ole Opry is next door. Running since 1925, it’s the world’s longest-running radio broadcast — a live country music show that rotates legends and rising stars through the same famous stage circle. Backstage tours run daily and are worth every minute. The Ryman Auditorium, the Opry’s original downtown home and often called the “Mother Church of Country Music,” has perfect acoustics and a history that runs from Hank Williams to Jack White. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is a serious archive — over 2.5 million items documenting how Nashville shaped American popular music.
For those who want something quieter, Cheekwood Estate & Gardens at the end of October is in full Harvest mode — 75,000 pumpkins, chrysanthemum displays, and evening lantern events across a stunning 55-acre estate. The Nashville food scene, fueled by James Beard-recognized chefs and a thriving independent restaurant culture, is one of the best in the South — hot chicken, smash burgers, farm-to-table everything, and some of the most creative cocktail bars in the country.
Late October also puts you right in the middle of Nashville’s fall festival season. The city fully leans into autumn — street festivals, rooftop bars, outdoor concerts, and the kind of collective energy that makes a work trip feel like something worth telling people about when you get home.
Two Years, Two Coasts, One Community
Chula Vista and Nashville could not be more different from each other — and that’s the point. ISHI has always taken seriously where it lands. The conference programs are built for the work. The locations are chosen for the experience.
Both dates are worth locking in now. Registration details for ISHI 38 will be announced in the coming months — and if travel approval timelines are a reality at your institution, earlier is always better.
Start planning. You won’t regret it.