2021 convention details

The 2021 convention location and dates have not been determined or announced yet. Did you mean to ask about the upcoming 2020 convention happening this summer? If so, those dates are July 29 - August 2, 2020 and it will be located in Brookfield, Wisconsin. My family and I are hosting the event and can answer any questions you may have. If you are already a member of the NDC, the January-February magazine (due to be sent out in about a month or so), will have a detailed article and a registration form with most everything you would need to know and register. If you have not been to a national convention, I highly recommend attending one. The people are great, you'll see a bunch of DeSotos, and I guarantee you'll have fun and learn a thing or two! Like I always say, come for the cars, stay for the people! If you're not a member of the club, there is a link at the top of the page where you can easily join.

Hello David,

Thank you for your detailed response.  Yes, I did mean 2021.  However, I have made a tentative hotel reservation for this year’s, not knowing yet if I’ll be able to attend.  My father and I enjoyed our first DeSoto convention experience last year in Hutchinson, which was a blast.

I live in Ontario, Canada and I am not committing myself to anything here, but would love to consider hosting such a convention north of the 49th parallel.  I don’t know what the members’ interest would be of driving here (whether in their DeSotos or not, and the need to have a passport), not to mention all the logistics required to pull off such a feat.  Anyway, it’s nice to dream.  Do you know if it’s ever been done?

Thanks again for answering my question.

Kevin, #5893

I'm glad you enjoyed your first convention last year and I can guarantee this year will also be a blast! I hope you'll be able to make it as this Wisconsin convention has been a long time in planning for us! There's also no better way to get a good feel for the logistics than to attend as many conventions as possible and seeing different ideas people have for doing things.

The NDC did have a convention in Canada in 2005 (six months before a passport was required) that took us to the Niagara Falls area. It was one of my favorite conventions and was (in my opinion) very successful. I'd like to think that there would be strong interest in crossing the boarder a second time, but I would also anticipate the passport requirement may discourage a few from attending. I for one would be excited to see what kind of location and itinerary you come up with!

Simply out of curiosity, have you heard any rumblings of discussions for 2021?

I don't know of any planning that may be going on and have been caught up in my own planning, but I know that as of last summer they did not have anything presented at the annual board meeting for 2021. If you are strongly considering putting in a bid, I would recommend that you reach out to convention chairman Bill Noble, who is also the liaison to the rest of the board regarding convention topics. His info is in the front of every magazine.

Speaking from experience, if you were to tentatively start making plans for 2021 and later found out someone else also had plans, holding off an additional year can be a blessing in disguise as it gives you a really good jump on things. For example, I originally planned to host in Wisconsin in 2019, but at the 2018 convention board meeting, there was also a bid from Tim to do Kansas in 2019. I was in a position where I could have (needlessly) rushed to pull off 2019 or let Tim do his and postpone mine until 2020. Doing it that way not only worked better for the club by covering two years, but knowing I had 2020 locked in and pre-approved allowed me to have the hotel contract put together and revised such that I was able to get it signed prior to this year's convention and come to the meet ready with more specific details than we often times have a whole year in advance. Then I was able to later devote more focus on the other convention aspects.

@davidfrank

Hmmmm, ok you’ve given me “food for thought”.  I’m certainly nowhere close to committing in the way of a bid, still a lot to consider.  Thank you for the pertinent information though, greatly appreciated!  So much to think about, it’s quite an undertaking.  Don’t know how you have been able to and Tim was able to swing it!

@kevin-stiles

Besides the years of attending conventions and understanding how they generally operate as a good starting point, I have to give a lot of credit to people who have helped, even in small ways, such as proofreading, taking on tasks (handling registrations, arranging national sponsors, moving materials, etc.), providing guidance, input, and reference documents, etc. Even still, I would be lying if I didn't say it wasn't a lot to handle while also working more than full time.

Hopefully you'll get some other input here regarding interest in another Canadian convention!

@davidfrank

No doubt to all of the above (especially doing all of this planning while working at your full-time job and consuming a lot of your personal time).  If I ultimately decide to take a project of this nature on, don’t be surprised if I come knocking to rely on your expertise (and that of others too) ????.  But I imagine that it’s such a rewarding and satisfying experience!

Thank you David.  Hope to see you next summer!

Kevin

If at all possible...we attend Airventure (Oshkosh) every now and then. We REALLY would like to see the convention when it is near the Great Lakes to be the week before or the week after Airventure so we can hit both. We did that some years ago, Frankenbuth I think, and it made for a great two week vacation.

James.