WOA 50th ANNIVERSARY -- Sowing The Seeds

Basore agrees. "The vendors have done a heck of a job over the past 10 to 15 years," he praises. "They've really raised the bar in the heatset industry."

Getting Stronger

The result is that the new and improved association came back stronger than ever. By the early 1990s the association's conference attendees peaked at 1,500 registrants. "We had a mild recession in 1991, and we dropped down some, but we've grown back up to about 1,100 participants," Basore says.