Real Places Conference
Real Places is where ideas and inspiration for preserving Texas history are born. Anyone interested in protecting our past can work directly with industry-leading experts to learn practical, actionable solutions they can apply in their community. It is not only a place for keeping up with preservation trends, but also for being an active player in their creation.
To get a better idea of what’s in store for the conference, view or download our 2022 or 2021 programs.
Convince Your Organization or Company
If you’re at all interested in protecting our state’s great history, participating in Real Places is an obvious decision.
- Become educated on top-level trends, best practices, and hands-on techniques in sessions designed to ensure that your preservation efforts excel.
- Earn continuing education credits from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) or American Planning Association (APA).
Elevate Your Community's Preservation Efforts
Learn from educational sessions presented by experts from Texas and out-of-state covering heritage travel, visitor experiences, building maintenance, and conservation.
- Improve the fundraising for your organization’s preservation efforts.
- Take advantage of the historic building maintenance and materials conservation expertise of the Texas Courthouse Stewardship Workshop—even if your building isn’t a courthouse.
- Improve the hospitality efforts and visitor experiences for your community, historic site, or museum.
- Make your organization and efforts more inclusive and representative of the state and your community.
- Make better and more informed preservation decisions.
- Leverage the state and federal tax credits to cover up to 45 percent of your building’s rehabilitation costs.
- Refine both the economic and emotional arguments for historic preservation.
Get the latest on specific preservation issues such as funding, marketing, diversity, emerging technology, and cemeteries.
Make Valuable Connections for Your Community
- Build relationships with your peers from nearby and across the state, including fellow County Historical Commission members, city preservation officers and landmark commissioners, facilities managers, museum and historic site managers, local Friends and affiliate groups, downtown revitalization professionals, architects, historians, and archeologists.
- Take the opportunity to meet and talk with more than 100 Texas Historical Commission staff members from dozens of programs and disciplines all in one conference, and meet many of our partner organizations.
- Learn how TxDOT isn’t all about roads and may be able to help your preservation efforts.
- Connect with colleagues in your region facing similar challenges, and network with people involved with your Texas Heritage Trail Region.
- Learn what it takes to become a Texas Main Street city, Certified Local Government, or part of the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.
What Others Say
“The conference provides a wealth of knowledge and resources to aid in preservation and restoration of historic assets. I was especially grateful for the opportunity to do hands-on learning about masonry cleaning and paint removal. This was my second year attending the conference and I again returned home empowered with new information to assist my community in its efforts to preserve its heritage.”
“Agenda was chock-full of relevant topics and excellent speakers. Networking was most valuable to me and very competitive price for the content!”
“I truly appreciate that this conference offers so many topics under the preservation umbrella.”
“The sessions were quite informative, and I appreciate that the topics varied from historic preservation to museum practices to narrative storytelling. I think the presenters all did a wonderful job reminding us that our job isn’t just to save the history around us, it is to share that history in meaningful and engaging ways so it won’t be lost.”
“I love the networking opportunities. Keynote speakers were all excellent, informative, and passionate about their areas of expertise. They changed my perspective on the story of who we are.”