What made you start
the convention?
I had always wanted
to put a conven-
tion on in this area.
I thought Wildwood
(NJ) had potential
but I discouraged
myself because most
conventions were
inside of a convention
center that was at-
tached to a big hotel
with a big ballroom.
Everybody could just
stay there and go
down to the floor or
go back to the room
and not have to drive
anywhere. The other
thing that was very
discouraging for me
was it was so far
away from an inter-
national airport.
So I thought how many people are going to want to fly into Philly, take
a taxi for an hour and a half or whatever. There are only one or two air-
lines that fly into Atlantic City (NJ) so I thought I was only going to get a
draw from the Tri-State area. For years I kept talking myself out of do-
ing it. Then I had a guest artist visit and we were driving around. He saw
the convention center and said he thought it would be a cool place for a
convention. I told him that I had thought that too. I told him about the
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