In 1999, Pennsylvania State University convened an event entitled "Best Practices in Outreach and Public Service: The Scholarship of Engagement." Attracting more than 300 participants and offering more than 70 sessions, the meeting established that there was broad interest in the subject matter and set the stage for an annual conference. Over the next decade, other universities joined Penn State in hosting the event, which grew to be called the National Outreach Scholarship Conference (NOSC). In 2009, the partnering institutions formed a non-profit corporation in order to sustain the conference, expand programming, and invite other institutions to participate. Reflecting a growing membership inclusive of institutions from across the globe, that corportation, now called the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC), retired the name National Outreach Scholarship Conference with the close of its 2012 annual meeting.