DeLorean Owners, Fans, and Enthusiasts,
Thanks to everyone who has supported DCS over the years. Without your help,
DCS Events would have faded into DeLorean history, especially after DCS 2014.
Although DCS continues to evolve, the core intent of DCS has remained the same;
DCS is a gathering of the DeLorean community to celebrate all things DeLorean.
With the successes of the past two DCS events, we have decided to pursue the
process of organizing and running at least one more DCS Event ... DCS 2020.
The DCS Planning Team began exploring this process after the local British Car
Show and it completed an initial venue location review by the end of 2018.
After reviewing a half dozen possible venues for DCS 2020, we have 3 finalists
that we will be focusing on, over the next few months. Of the 3 finalists, they
all have the possibility of being used for future DCS events, but no final decision
has been made yet (including DCS 2020), as we wait for additional cost details.
There are many criteria that go into the selection process, but we have used
a similar formula for both DCS 2016 and DCS 2018, to have an indoor car show
(so weather is not an issue) with an adjacent hotel, again, to take "weather"
out of the equation, whether it's rain or just the heat of the Midwest Summers.
Keeping costs low is a key goal, so we work very hard to keep guest rooms at
$99 (or less) with the host hotel, and we prefer most DCS attendees stay at the
host hotel, to cut down daily travel to the convention, reducing late arrivals
for daily events. Each hotel has an adjacent expo center or convention center.
DCS dinners have been used to gather attendees together, have a good meal and
listen to Keynote Speakers and Presenters. Cost of dinners and presentations
help pay for most of VIP costs, including their travel, room and meal expenses.
We have been quite successful bringing in many VIPs with this current formula.
As many attendees of DCS 2018 already know, I have current family obligations
that do not allow me to be away from home for more than a day or two, so this
will limit the locations for DCS 2020. The only way I can continue with DCS,
for now, is to base a DCS Event within an hour or so from home (Chicago area).
With all this in mind, 2 of the 3 finalists are still in the running, but since
these 2 are each about 4-5 hours from Chicago, it's unlikely either is chosen
for DCS 2020, based on their proximity. One is in Southeast Michigan and the
other is in Southwest Ohio, relatively close to Northwest Kentucky.
The current first place finalist was the runner-up location for DCS 2018. The
reason it was not used for DCS 2018 was because a new hotel was not built yet.
The hotel is currently under construction and the grand opening is anticipated
for Labor Day Weekend 2019. We plan to have DeLoreans at the Grand Opening.
The brand new hotel would be less than a year old for DCS 2020, so it should be
a great venue for our event (with any 'new kinks' worked out by then, lol). The
hotel is a Best Western GLO (the company's latest line of hotel chains) and it
is only a 10-15 minute ride to Midway Airport or a 30 minute ride to O'Hare.
While this new hotel (with 70+ rooms) is adjacent to an Expo Center, there is
also another brand new hotel going up about 10 minutes away, with another two
very well established Best Western hotels 10-15 minutes away, all for overflow.
You can even stay in downtown Chicago, since you will be only 30 minutes away.
Since it will be several months yet before any contracts are signed, I will
not be naming the exact specifics now, since details are yet to be finalized,
but there has been significant effort put into keeping the DCS Event "alive",
and we hope to be able to report some additional good news by this Summer.
Thanks,
Rich W.
(for the DCS 2020 Planning Team)