Tom Swift is the name of the main character from five series of books for young readers. In most cases, he is a young inventor who uses technology to engage in adventures to exotic locales.

The first Tom Swift series was published between 1910 and 1941 and included 40 volumes. In these early tales, many of the inventions are aircraft or devices powered by electricity. Many of the inventions were contemporary to the period when the volumes were written. Some have reported that while reading the books they could believe that a clever young man could build the inventions described.

The Tom Swift Jr. series had 33 volumes published between 1954 and 1971. These are stories about the son of the original Tom Swift and Tom Swift Sr. is a character in them. Tom Jr.'s inventions are frequently vehicles for the air, underwater, and outer space. They are often atomic powered or use the then-new science of electronics. These stories are science fiction.

The third Tom Swift series was published by Wanderer, a division of Simon & Schuster, between 1981 and 1984 and had just 11 volumes. These stories are set in the far future and are more like science fiction.

The fourth Tom Swift series was published under the Archway imprint of Simon & Schuster with volumes issued between 1991 and 1993. There are 13 numbered volumes plus 2 combined adventures with the Hardy Boys called Ultra Thrillers. These books are set in the then-present day and largely advanced technology of the time.

The Tom Swift Young Inventor series was the fifth series published in 2006 and 2007. The 6 volumes in this series were told in the first person point of view, unlike the third person used in the previous series.

2010 is the 100th anniversary of the start of the first series. Tom Swift has been influential to many people, leading them to careers in science and invention. This convention will look at the history of the series and its writers, its influence, and other topics of interest to "science-minded boys and girls" and also the men and women they have become.

This question is more interesting than you might realize. The books list the author as "Victor Appleton" ("Victor Appleton II" for the Tom Swift Jr. series). However, Victor Appleton is not a real person. That name is a pseudonym. Tom Swift was the invention of Edward Stratemeyer, a writer from New Jersey who also invented Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and many other children's series characters. Edward Stratemeyer ran something he called the "Stratemeyer Literary Syndicate."

While "Syndicate" sounds ominous to those of us familiar with gangster movies of the 1940s, the term comes from the newspaper industry which hired writers to write stories under fake names, or pseudonyms. The writers would be paid a flat fee for writing and the syndicate would own the work, taking all the risk to see if it can be successful.

Edward Stratemeyer was enormously successful with this model. In addition to a large number of stories which he wrote personally (160), he also invented series characters and created outlines for book plots. These outlines would be sent out to a ghostwriter who would write the story based on Stratemeyer's guidance. Stratemeyer would then edit the story, handle all dealings with the publisher, and work on the marketing of the story or series. Some stories failed; others did very well.

One series which did very well was Tom Swift. That is why there have been a total of five incarnations of this character, taking it through the time when Edward Stratemeyer was alive, to when his daughters took over the syndicate and finally to when the current owners of the Syndicate properties, Simon & Schuster, continued it. There is talk of a Tom Swift movie currently under production. If we are lucky, Tom Swift might be influencing people to find science and invention cool for another 100 years.

The easy answer is that the person who planned the convention lives in San Diego but there are actually even better reasons than that.

1. Glenn Curtiss is often spoke of as the inspiration for the character of Tom Swift. While his main home was in Hammondsport, N.Y., he had a training school in San Diego and was often here during important parts of his life. (In 2009 a small Tom Swift meeting was held at the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport, N.Y. in anticipation of this larger 100th anniversary celebration).

2. Charles Lindbergh and other important aviation figures have strong ties to San Diego.

3. Edward Stratemeyer, the creator of Tom Swift and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate responsible for these books and others (such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, etc.), visited San Diego in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. The tour which we are holding on Friday will follow partly in Edward Stratemeyer's footsteps and let you see the San Diego he experienced.

4. Again, the organizer of the event lives in San Diego and has some items he wishes to display which cannot be easily transported so location was a factor.