The two day event was hosted by Kathleen Lennon Clough, a New York local, and Peter Gijsberts, a resident of the Netherlands who up until two months ago had never seen a real rocketbelt. Kathleen’s father, Tom Lennon, had been one of the premiere photographers at Bell Aerospace during the rocketbelt dynasty. Kathleen brought to the convention a powerful look of nostalgia and joy as the legacy of her father and his coworkers was passed to the eager enthusiasts in the audience. Well, at the very least, her look portrayed a sense of accomplishment given that her and Peter had managed to throw the convention together in less than 6 months – a feat made even more impressive by the list of VIPs.

Among the attendees and guest speakers were his eminence, Harold “Hal” Graham, first to fly an un-tethered rocketbelt and quite a showman (he played the ukulele while singing a rather heartfelt song about his lost days as a sought after test-pilot); Peter L. Kedziersky, the second Bell rocketbelt pilot; William “Bill” Suitor, who has flown the rocketbelt in excess of 1200 times, including stunt-doubling for James Bond and the opening ceremony in the 1984 Olympics; and John Spencer, who flew POGO, the rocketbelt that allows you to stay standing.

The rocket belt is perhaps the world’s longest gestation vapourware, first entering the public consciousness in the 1920s through the newspaper-syndicated Buck Rogers scifi comic strip, and first attempted by the German Army during WWII as the "Himmelstürmer" (Skystormer).

The first working rocket belt was built by Bell for the U.S. Army in the 1950s. It created mainstream awareness in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball and raised expectations of consumer versions when it was used in the opening ceremony of the 1984 Olympics. But 50 years after the Bell Rocket Belt was built, only a handful of people have flown a rocketbelt, only one commercial version is available (at US$250,000) and only two companies (here and here) have successfully commercialised demonstrations.