Robert A. Collins of Florida Atlantic University first organized the Conference on the Fantastic on an experimental basis in 1979 with a gift of operating funds donated by Margaret Gaines Swann of Winter Haven, mother of the late fantast Thomas Burnett Swann. The 1980 meeting that resulted was so successful that it inaugurated an annual celebration of the fantastic. In 1982, the task of refereeing conference papers and editing annual proceedings volumes passed from members of FAU's English and foreign language departments to members of the newly formed International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. IAFA's initial Board of Governors, with Jules Zanger as President, was composed of invited conferees.
In 1984, Collins passed the role of conference organizer, which he had filled for five years, to Roger C. Schlobin, the second IAFA President, who subsequently accepted Lamar University's offer to underwrite the sixth conference and relocated the 1985 conference to Beaumont, Texas. Marshall B. Tymn succeeded Schlobin as President at that conference and accepted support from Hap Henriksen's Museum of Fantasy and Science Fiction to hold conferences seven and eight in Houston. At the 1987 conference the attending membership voted to return the conference to southern Florida; President Tymn and Conference Chairman Donald E. Morse then accepted a bid to hold the ninth conference at the Fort Lauderdale Airport Hilton and recruited the joint local sponsorship of Broward Community College and Florida Atlantic University.
In 1988 the Association not only assumed complete responsibility for funding the conference but also began publishing the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, an interdisciplinary quarterly founded and edited by Carl Yoke, then IAFA's Vice President. In 1989, the Association held its first election to fill the seats of retiring officers; long time Treasurer Donald E. Palumbo was elected fourth President, and C. W. Sullivan III, Division Head for British and Commonwealth Literatures, was elected Vice President. After the 1991 meeting, Sullivan became President of the IAFA, and Nicholas Ruddick, former division head for Science Fiction and Theory, the Vice President. The Association also considered the possibility of relocating the conference, but after much searching and many presentations, accepted a new contract with the Fort Lauderdale Airport Hilton. From 1995 to 1999, Bill Senior served as President; Len Hatfield was elected in 1999. After the end of Hatfield's term in 2002, the board faced some difficulty in filling the position of President; Past Presidents Sullivan and W. A. Senior agreed to take on the responsibilities of the role for alternating years. The situation has since return to normal. Currently, Farah Mendlesohn is IAFA President, with Christine Mains and Robin Reid as Vice-Presidents.
Celebrating its twenty-eigth year, and preparing to move from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando, the Conference on the Fantastic is one of the most diverse, energetic, provocative, and delightfully addictive interdisciplinary gatherings in the world. Its primary sponsor, the IAFA, maintains a listserv, publishes an annual membership directory and the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts.