CTPA Chicago Tour-Guide Professionals Association upcoming events

CTPA at the Brand Museum (8 Oct 2026)

Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

CTPA at the Chicago Brand Museum

Join us for an afternoon at the Chicago Brand Museum on October 8, 2026, from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm. Fred Richards, founder and curator will lead us through his passion on how this museum was brought together and how it lives today. The museum features several exciting exhibits including the following:

Your favorite breakfast cereals
Soft drinks
Beer bottles
Detergents
Toothpaste from yesteryear
Any brand you could imagine
And a tribute to Andy Warhol

Here are the event details:

Begins at 1:00 pm on Thursday, Octobber 8, 2026.
Fred will be available to guide us through the museum.
After the tour concludes, CTPA members are free to explore all of the exhibits found throughout the museum.
The Chicago Brand Museum is sharing this experience for free with the CTPA, so please consider making a donation or buying something from their gift shop.

The museum is located at 2412 South Michigan Avenue. Find your way to a Green Line stop. Exit at the Cermak McCormick Place stop. walk east to Michigan and then south to 2412 South Michigan Avenue. Any Michigan Avenue bus that goes as far south/north as Cermak is another option. Capacity is limited to the first 30 registrants, and a waitlist will be enabled. If you can no longer attend the event, please cancel your own registration on the calendar tab of the CTPA website or through the WildApricot app. If you have any questions, please reach out to the event's organizer, CTPA member Dave Zino (chicagoman20@comcast.net).

I hope you can join us at the Chicago Brand Museum for this special experience!

NFTGA Conference Kick-off (15 Oct 2026)

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 00:30:00 GMT

NFTGA Conference Kick-off

Thursday, October 15

Starting at 8:30 pm EST / 7:30 pm CST / 6:30 pm MST / 5:30 pm PST

Register to get the Zoom instructions for this virtual event

Learn about the NFTGA biennial conference in Salt Lake City on January 13-15, 2027 from Conference Chair Kevin Earl of the Utah Tour Guides Association, and then get ready to register. Kevin and his planning team will introduce us to Salt Lake City, the speakers and venues, the activities and tour opportunities, and the pre- and post-conference tour options. Here’s a sneak peek of what he will cover:

Keynoters Pete Sands, a Filmmaker, Musician, and Cultural Advocate, and Marilyn Jackson, President and CEO of the American Alliance of Museums
A panel on telling forgotten stories featuring experts on Utah women’s history, Black history, Indigenous Utahns, and WWII Japanese internment in Utah
Visits to the famous Temple Square and the new Museum of Utah
A multi-day tour to Utah’s "Mighty 5" National Parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion

At the end of the session, Kevin will open the registration app, which features discounted conference rates for early registrants.

If you are unable to attend the live-stream, the recording will be available to watch for the following 30 days and that recording link will be sent to your designated tour guide association contact(s). If you have any feedback, including changes to the contact information for future NFTGA Education Programs, please email Mike McMains (mike@tourswithmike.com) from the Chicago Tour Guide Professionals Association.

NFTGA Education Program - Inside U.S. Embassy Operations (27 Oct 2026)

Tue, 27 Oct 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Inside U.S. Embassy Operations

Tuesday, October 27

Starting at 7:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm CST / 5:00 pm MST / 4:00 pm PST

Register to get the Zoom instructions for this virtual event

Join us Tuesday, October 27, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. EDT for a live NFTGA webinar exploring how U.S. embassies are structured and operate. Three highly accomplished and respected U.S. Foreign Service Officers—with more than 100 years of combined experience—will share practical insights especially valuable to tour guides, tour directors, and tourists traveling abroad. Find out the type of emergencies which warrant contacting the U.S. Embassy, the kinds of helpful information and assistance which embassies can provide, what do in the event of a lost passport, what steps to take in the event of the death of a person, abroad, and how to deal with other contingencies. A generous Q&A will follow.

Can’t attend live? A recording will be available for 30 days, and the link will be sent to your tour guide association contact(s).

Ambassador Cynthia H. Akuetteh — A Foreign Service Officer for nearly 35 years, she retired from the State Department in 2018 after serving as Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe (2014–2018). Earlier roles included Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Africa (2012–2013), Director for Africa in the Bureau of Energy and Natural Resources (2011–2012), Deputy Chief of Mission in Burkina Faso (2005–2007) and Côte d’Ivoire (2007–2009), and Director for Central Africa (2009–2011).

Ambassador Shaun Donnelly retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2008 after a 36-year career focused on international economics, trade, and development. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives and as Deputy Ambassador in Tunisia and Mali. He also held three Deputy Assistant Secretary positions in the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, serving a total of eight years, and was Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East.

Senior Foreign Service Officer Sigrid Emrich (Economic Cone) retired from the State Department in March 2025 after a 35-year career. Her overseas assignments included China, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, and Mexico. In Washington, she worked on North American trade policy, Mexican economic issues, Ecuador, Central European affairs, and human resources. She also taught orientation courses for incoming Foreign Service and Civil Service employees at the Foreign Service Institute.

For feedback or contact updates for future NFTGA Education Programs, email Mike McMains of the Chicago Tour Guide Professionals Association at mike@tourswithmike.com.

NFTGA 2027 Conference (13 Jan 2027)

Wed, 13 Jan 2027 06:00:00 GMT

The Utah Tour Guide Association invites you to join tour guides from across the country in Salt Lake City, January 13-15, 2027, for the next National Federation of Tourist Guide Associations conference. This conference will help you hone your skills as a tour guide, give you the chance to network and socialize with your peers, and connect you to Utah’s natural wonders and curious history. Engaging sessions, interactive workshops, and interesting panels will feature speakers from all backgrounds and many areas of expertise from museum officials and historian authors to tour guide partners and passionate advocates. Sessions topics include vetting sources our information comes from, sharing forgotten stories, using genealogy to enhance your tours, working with online travel agencies (OTAs), issues facing guide associations, and more. You won’t want to miss a single one.

Here is the agenda:

https://www.nftga.com/conference/