In the final stages of preparation for this fall’s Conference in the Millennium—Cato’s 13th annual "International Annual Report Conference," with visitors from South Africa, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Australia and the United Kingdom—he was surprised by a reservation from an attendee at the very first Cato conference, held in New York City in 1988. Nancy A. Fuller, now a senior vice president for branding company Addison, attended that initial event.

He said "it appears that, for the first time in 13 years, it won’t be necessary" to make a mailing to the Fortune 500 to sell out this fall’s event, to be held Sept. 20-22 at the Park Hyatt San Francisco. He said his conference is "nearly full" with return attendees—those who’ve attended earlier events.

One, DTE Energy’s Lonnie Ross, was at Cato’s earlier conference in San Francisco 11 years ago—in 1989. Manitowoc Co.’s Steve Khail attended the Chicago conference in 1990, every one since.

Cato said in the May issue of his monthly Newsletter on Annual Reports that "preliminarily, Ford appears to have as perfect a report as humanly possible."