WikiFur:Today's featured article/September 19, 2005

ConFurence was the first and (to date) longest running annual furry convention in existence. Initially headed up by two SoCal furs, Mark Merlino (convention chairman) and Rod O'Riley (programming), control was transferred to Darrel Exline after ConFurence 10. Starting in 1989 as a test-run called ConFurence 0, it was usually held at the end of January in various venues around southern California.

ConFurence ran for a further fourteen years, reaching its zenith in 1998 (ConFurence 9) with over 1200 attendees. Attendance dropped sharply after this, due in varying parts to a schedule change, overly-optimisitc hotel contracts, competition from Further Confusion, and the dot-com bust. It ended with ConFurence 2003 and was succeeded by Califur in 2004.