Toledo event may draw 1,500

4/3/2001

Between 1,000 and 1,500 people, many from foreign countries, are expected to visit Toledo in the summer of 2002 for the 41st annual Sister Cities International Conference.

The conference will be held at the Seagate Centre from July 17 through July 21, said John Henry Fullen, director of Toledo Sister Cities International.

Mr. Fullen said the Toledo group began seven years ago to consider ways to attract the conference and competed for four years to secure the event.

Officials were told two years ago that Toledo had been chosen to host the conference in 2002. The conference, which is expected to attract people from more than 40 countries, will feature educational seminars, discussions, and workshops on international exchange and development.

James Murray, regional president of Toledo Edison, will be chairman of the event. At a news conference yesterday, he said the gathering will be a “wonderful opportunity for the state of Ohio, northwest Ohio, and particularly Toledo” to interact with others.

“We will open our city to people from all over the world,” he said, with programs that involve an exchange of cultures and the possibility of economic development.

He said a contingent will travel to Atlanta in July for this year's conference and will host a reception to explain the attractions in Toledo.