RWA Annual Conference - 1990 San Francisco

The 1990 Romance Writers of America Annual Conference was held in the City of San Francisco. The event was coordinated by Board Member Alfie Thompson. The first conference to be held in San Francisco (the organization returned to the city in 2008 holds the distinction of being the first RWA conference to exceed 1000 attendees (Thompson indicated the actual number of attendees was 1004).

The 1990 San Francisco conference also hosted the inaugural "Readers For Life" Literacy Autographing, which has turned into a mega-event where hundreds of authors sign books donated by their publishers. The proceeds are donated to literacy organizations.

Finally, the tenth-anniversary conference saw two other major changes: the Golden Medallion award was officially renamed RITA. Winners received golden statues for the first time as well. The "Favorite Book of the Year" honor was also introduced at the San Francisco contest. The first recipient was LaVyrle Spencer.