The first time I visited Chicago was in the early ‘90s with my then boyfriend—whom I’d soon marry—during a long layover on an Amtrak trip we’d taken from Virginia to Whitefish, Montana, where I learned to ski. It was mid-December, and we had the wild idea to hike over to Grant Park to see Lake Michigan. As the wind whipped across the water, this shuddering Virginia girl decided she’d had enough of the cold.

My second dance with Chicago was early in my career for the Adobe Summit, when companies were trying to figure out this thing called the World Wide Web, and a colleague and I used to hunker down in a chilly server room and “hand code” html without the benefit of a WYSIWYG web editor on the one server that hosted our organization’s simple website. We dined at Lawry’s The Prime Rib (sadly, it closed last year) on Ontario Street and visited Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Wacker Drive because we were huge fans of the “Olympia Tavern” Saturday Night Live skit with John Belushi, Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd. Cheezborger!

On later trips, I got to do all of the touristy things—and had not so touristy experiences like getting caught in a flash flood in a rental car. Just this past summer I had the pleasure of visiting Chicagoland and The PRIDE of St. Charles, where Mario Spina, owner and CEO of The PRIDE stores and Parent Petroleum, and his team warmly welcomed the NACS Ideas 2 Go crew. Adjacent to the convenience store sits Spina’s Urban Counter restaurant, a spirits store (which features a mind-blowing selection of beer, wine and liquor) and 93 Octane Brewery. There, I was shocked to discover the best craft beer on tap—and made on site—that I’d ever had outside of Belgium. That day I sampled the American Sour ale flavored with Earl Gray tea (win!) and the sour ale flavored with blackberries and habanero peppers. Amazing! If you are ever near Geneva, Illinois, this is a must stop.

The upshot of this is to say that I’ve always loved Chicago, and I am thrilled to return to the city for the 2021 NACS Show, October 5 to 8. It’s been way too long since our industry came together, face to face, to see what’s new and what’s possible—and what’s next.

Cheers, my friends!