October 5, 2011: Alliance Retailer Summit

Many distributors hold retailer summits, gatherings of the region's retailers, usually to a location near the distributor's warehouse, for socializing and some presentations from publishers. The bigger the distributor, the bigger the show. The ACD Games Day last month was an excellent example of a "big show" with a couple hundred retailers in attendance (and being in John Kovalic's stomping grounds made it even better for us).

October has the Alliance/Diamond show. Alliance is the largest hobby games distributor in the US; Diamond is the distributor of comics. As one would expect, we get to talk to plenty of retailers who are interested in either getting into games, or in expanding their games selection. It's a good show.

To make it a great show, SJ will be there, and will be signing -- well, pretty much anything you put in front of him. If you can't attend, talk to the manager of your friendly local game store. If they're sending someone, perhaps they'll put something in front of Steve on your behalf . . .

-- Paul Chapman