Nearly a decade ago, New York-native Martha Donato took a big chance during one of the hardest economic times in the country’s history when she launched a comic book convention in Long Beach.<\/p>\n
The year before Donato organized Long Beach Comic Con in 2009, she and most of the other employees for Wizard Entertainment (a comics publishing company that now produces fan conventions) were let go. By early 2009 she started her company MAD Event Management, which produces the comic con.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started it, I thought I would be able to do consulting work for people that needed event expertise and, well, guess what, there were no clients in 2009 because the recession was still in full range,\u201d Donato said. \u201cSo when no clients came, immediately I started Long Beach Comic Con.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the launch, Donato has also gone on to create the Long Beach Comic Expo held each February and a comic expo counterpart in New Jersey, along with multiple other non-comic conferences throughout the years.<\/p>\n