Detroit Homecoming is an invitation-only event sponsored by Crain Communications and designed to enlist the efforts of Detroit natives in improving the city. It began in 2014 with a commitment to be an annual event for at least 3 years.
The first Homecoming took place in September, 2014, with an invitation list focused on what the Detroit News described as, "the elite: billionaires, sports stars, company presidents, venture capitalists, journalists and entertainers." Among the event's planned highlights was a conversation between DanGilbert and Warren Buffett entitled, “Why I’m Bullish on Detroit.”
Interviewed during the Homecoming, Rachel Jacobs, a Detroit expat living in New York said, “Detroit doesn’t need ideas. It has phenomenal ideas. It needs doers,” referring to her own organization, Detroit Nation, a web-based group of former Detroiters working to help their hometown.