DeLorean Convention and Show (DCS_2018) Event Details

[Rich W]

Dates Confirmed.

The DCS Planning Team is happy to announce that J. Patrick Wright
will be joining us at DCS 2018 on Friday, 8/17 and Saturday, 8/18.

The DCS Planning Team has adjusted the tentative presentation schedule
for Friday evening, to highlight many of the authors who will join us at
DCS 2018, including both returning authors and new VIP Guest authors.
Patrick will make a great addition to our group of authors at DCS 2018.

Thanks again to Tamir, who provided the DCS introduction to Patrick.

[Rich W]

DeLorean Owners, Fans and Enthusiasts,

Thanks to those of you that have Event Registered since
my post-Tax Day post. As many of you know, Event Funds
are the key to making many of our VIP Guest invitations
possible, by funding VIP travel, hotel rooms and dinners.

If you have not Event Registered yet, please make an
effort to do so by next weekend, since our second of 3
deposits is due on May 15, and a few of our VIP Guests
have asked for advanced funds to book their DCS flights.

DCS 2018 Link: http://www.deloreanconvention.org/

We are finalizing details now for two more DMC VIP Guests
and we hope to announce them as the details are confirmed.

Thanks again for your continued support of DCS 2018
and to DeLorean Convention and Show over the years.

Regards,
Rich W. [for the DCS 2018 Planning Team]

[dtavres]

Please fix / redirect the www.deloreanconvention.COM link to point to the registration page. It's VERY confusing to many people.

Regards,
Rich W. [for the DCS 2018 Planning Team]

[Rich W]

Please fix / redirect the www.deloreanconvention.COM link to point to the registration page. It's VERY confusing to many people.

Sorry for any confusion, but I have been mentioning the .org URL in this thread since Post #27 in December
and mentioned it earlier via PM's & emails even earlier, to those who expressed possible concern. As I have
mentioned in the PM's and emails, I do not have ownership or control over the .com URL, so all I am able to
do is "request" (again) that the website volunteers try to fix this fix issue, when they have some free time.

While I agree this should be addressed, I do not believe it's very confusing to many people. If it was really
that confusing, the same people would not have found DMCTalk.org after the issues with DMCTalk.com URL.

However (full disclosure) I have received one email about this issue, about a week ago. (different Dave)

[Hank]

While I agree this should be addressed, I do not believe it's very confusing to many people. If it was really
that confusing, the same people would not have found DMCTalk.org after the issues with DMCTalk.com URL.

Hi Rich,

I just want to add that the .com domain is very confusing. I've attended every DCS since 2000 except for 2016, so I wasn't on the email list for announcements. I also sold my Delorean in 2014, so I don't regularly visit DMCTALK any more either.

But as I was still planning on going to DCS 2018, a few months ago, I did google 'delorean convention' and quickly got to the .COM version of the website which had nothing posted about registration --- until today when it changed with the registration link. (And I had been checking the site every other week or so looking for updates.) If you google any combination of 'delorean convention show 2018' the .ORG site doesn't show up at all. I mentioned that there was nothing at the DCS website at the Long Island Delorean tech meetup last weekend and they told me everything was on DMCTALK.

I never knew or heard about the .ORG website until today, in this thread.

However (full disclosure) I have received one email about this issue, about a week ago. (different Dave)

I wouldn't even know who to email! I also didn't know you were now the main DCS contact. I didn't know there was a problem of a different domain until I found this thread thanks to Tom and Dave last weekend.

It's also additionally confusing because the "Event Registration" button on the .ORG takes you back to the .COM page (https://deloreanconvention.com/registration-2018.php)! So why use the .ORG domain at all?

I don't know when the hotel and event registration links first became active, but if they were on the .COM website, I would have signed up as soon as possible, and not today.

Doing the google search again today, I did find the Facebook group which does have the .ORG domain listed, but I don't use FB much anymore (#deletefacebook) and the DCS FB page wasn't posted on any of the other Delorean pages I am a member of (DMA, Deloreans for sale, PJ Grady, DMC Houston, etc) -- or at least that I saw.

Maybe it's too late for this year, but for future years, I would strongly suggest finding a way to work with whoever owns the .COM domain and just using that for everything. That way, people who aren't on DMCTalk or on the mailing list and who might just use a search engine, will easily find the right place, the first time.

Or even better, simply put in a domain redirection to redirect all .COM calls to the .ORG. That would take 5 minutes at the domain registrar and that would be a permanent fix. If you can't do that and still want to use the .ORG domain, then just put this at the top of the page on the .COM index.php page:

<? header("location: http://www.deloreanconvention.org/"); exit; ?>

(there are also several other ways to do this if that's not an option.)

Thanks, and looking forward to the amazing line-up of VIP guests this year.

-Hank

P.S. Also, an HTTPS version of the .org website should be available, or at a minimum, redirect back to the HTTP version. Right now, it just stalls and never loads a page. I do see the .COM has a valid SSL certificate, another reason to just use the .COM.

[Rich W]

Hi Hank,

Sorry for the confusion. If you need some additional details regarding why certain things are going
the way they are going with DCS 2018 (with a significantly reduced volunteer staff), you can check
the DMCTalk thread [DCS 2018?], which was closed once DCS 2018 was confirmed. Earlier details
about DCS 2018 have not been copied over to this thread and probably will not be, but if you have
not been checking DMCTalk much in the past year, you probably missed most of those posts.

In summary, most of the posts on [DCS 2018?] thread explain changes in the DCS Planning Team,
the pace of details for finalizing a location and some general reasons for some changes and delays.
While I openly share some details of my personal reasons for delays, I try not to share too many of
the details of my DCS 2016 volunteers who are unwilling or unable to volunteer for DCS 2018. The
smaller DCS Planning Team and the smaller number of local volunteers are for a variety of reasons.

So, for now, all I can do is repeat what I have stated before about .com URL (it's out of my hands).
If you would like a better explanation, feel free to ask me in person at DCS 2018 and I will try to
explain as many as the details that I can (without too much speculation). At this point in time, I am
happy that the volunteers continue to work on their areas of expertise and that others have stepped
up, so DCS details can be referenced (on Forums and Social Media) and the Event Registration is up.

As for our volunteers unable to assist at DCS 2018, I would like to take a moment to thank someone
who was both a very good friend and a DCS Planning Team member who volunteered for many DCS
tasks over the years, especially in his retirement years. Similar to Ken K. having a Cliff S. for many
years of DCS, I had been helped by Jim Leonas for logistics and transport assistance of my vehicles
for DeLorean events on both coasts, as well as fundraising for DCS 2016 and early DCS 2018 plans.

Jim Leonas passed away in late March after an extended battle with cancer and he will be missed by
myself and the members of our local DMC Club, as well as many in the DeLorean community who had
met Jim over the years (at every DCS since 2006 or at EuroFest 2011). Jim owned the "sister car" to
my garage queen DeLorean, and unlike my garage queen, Jim drove his DeLorean from coast to coast
to each DCS since 2006, including Vegas and Florida. Jim will be missed at DCS 2018 and beyond.

RIP-JL-2018.jpg

Thanks again to all the DCS volunteers and to those who have offered to volunteer for DCS 2018.
I will be working on placing volunteers in tasks over the next few weeks, so stay tuned for emails.

Rich W. [for DCS Planning Team]

[Hank]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate all the work you and the other volunteers have done, and yes, I am woefully ignorant of the changes since 2014, and I apologize for that! I'll go back and look for those threads for the back history. If there are ways I can help with these website changes or hosting issues, I'm happy to volunteer. I spend all-day, every-day working on websites from top to bottom. But I suspect the problems aren't all technical.

I'm off to register now. See you in Chicago. Thanks.

-Hank

[Rich W]

DCS 2018 ... the "Two for Tuesday" Update

Second Deposit for DCS 2018 due today (and paid) Tuesday, May 15.
Second DCS Event hosted at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL.
Second of "back to back" Car Conventions at Resort in August 2018.

Two more months for Regular Event Registration, up until July 15.
Two more months for Discount Hotel Registration, up until July 15.
Two more DMC VIP's expected to confirm, within the next two weeks.


Other Resort Updates, from late Winter and early Spring ...

Swimming Pools have been refurbished and repainted, ready to swim
Carpeting has been replaced in many of the halls and common areas
Lobby area of the Mega Center has been refurbished and re-carpeted

[Rich W]

Returning DMC VIP Guest - Michael Knepper - former DMC PR Executive

The DCS Planning Team is pleased to announce that Michael Knepper
will be joining us at DCS 2018. Michael was a VIP Guest at DCS 2012
and he is looking forward to sharing many of his DeLorean Company
stories in our smaller break-out room sessions, where DCS attendees
can interact more closely with him. As many of you know, Michael
became the Public Relations Director for DeLorean Motor Company in
September 1980, after being interviewed personally by JZD. Michael
had worked previously at Car and Driver Magazine in the 1970's.

Thanks to Matt Sommer for his ongoing efforts with Michael Knepper.
Matt has been instrumental in helping contact many DMC VIP Guests
over the years, on behalf of DCS, and his long term friendships with
many former DMC Executives has made DCS a success for 2 decades.

[dmc-4625]

Looks like a nice place to have a convention! My wife and I are planning on attending along with 4625! I assume the majority of attendees will be staying at the resort. Is there a referral code that we need to give to make reservations?

Thanks,
Ken
dmc-4625