The whole SELEM idea started back in 2006. We were thinking about doing it in Atlanta, so Spec was looking for a venue. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out, as all the places he found were stupid-expensive, plus they didn't like the idea of fog machines. So we cancelled the event for 2006.
Then, in the fall of 2006, we started kicking around the idea of a meet in Florida. Clandestiny offered the meeting hall in Orlando, and we were off to the races, with the first FLEM taking place in January of 2007. Here a
link to that first FLEM thread.
After the rousing success of FLEM, I decided that SELEM just had to happen in 2007, so I went on a mad hunt for venues in North Carolina. If you'll recall, we were originally shooting for a date in July, but the initial venue I had found (The Catawba Science Center) wasn't available for the 2 full days we had planned.
With time running short, we pushed it back to August, and about the same time we decided to try to use the Pisga astronomical observatory as a new venue. But that turned out to be prohibitively expensive ($3000!) so I kept looking... Fortunately, I found the auditorium in Newton shortly thereafter, and after a quick road trip up there to check the place out, I decided that this was the perfect place to hold SELEM. And the rest is history...
Adam