by Josh Crawley

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Josh Crawley

I once again made the trip to Chicago this past weekend for the Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) and the retailer summit that immediately preceded it. As I may make a few comparisons to my retailer summit experiences last year, it may not hurt to reread the column I wrote about that first. I’ll have more about C2E2 in the coming weeks.

The retailer summit seemed a bit shorter than usual this year. Part of that was due to cutting out the second day of programming, which was held Friday afternoon & during the convention last year. I wasn’t a fan of that, so I did appreciate that aspect. However, it was probably also due to missing the first 2 panels (which had no opposite programming, unlike the afternoon session). “Why did you miss them?” you ask? Good question. Someone apparently decided it was a good decision to wait until just weeks before the summit to add a new panel to the schedule after having released the tentative schedule about a month earlier. I understand not wanting to spoil the announcement of Diamond Digital prior to the ComicsPRO retailer meeting, but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t have very easily been a “To Be Announced” panel as a placeholder in the schedule so that those of us who had to make travel arrangements could properly plan.

There was also a Dialog with Diamond panel, too, but between being behind schedule due to a flat tire and being in a pretty good mood, I didn’t want to sour that mood by being in a panel that would no doubt get me irate somehow, and all the good news I knew I’d find out about soon enough from friends who were there.

As for the afternoon sessions of panels, one of them I’d gone to the year prior and was pretty sure there was very little chance of much change in the discussion. It is a panel I think any retailer could get something out of and should go to, but I wasn’t about to sit through it again. The other two panel choices weren’t so hot in my mind, but I chose one and sat through it. It was a bit of a summary of this year’s ComicPRO meeting and the benefits of ComicsPRO. While we are a member, I wasn’t at the meeting this year and thought I may get a few tidbits out of it due to different focuses from different people in the company.

There were also the usual “focus group” panels after that, which I’ve decided definitely have the potential to be great but rarely ever are. Most publishers in their allotted twenty minute time frame spend only five of that on Q&A; the other fifteen on the equivalent of a press release. One publisher, though, does the opposite. It’s great, really, though somewhat redundant when that same publisher says you can email or call him personally when you have something you want to talk about; so a big “Thank you!” to Nick from Dynamite Entertainment.

On the other hand, while another publisher had a much better Q&A this year – as opposed to trying to sell us their web-building suite (this is comics, not web design) – I really wasn’t a fan of the continued justification for issues retailers seemed to have. Something may cause sales on items to go up, but that’s not indefinite, and keeping your clients in the dark (we retailers) will turn around to bight you on the bum.

All in all, I appreciate the time that goes into putting something like this together, but after someone mentioned to me that it seemed like a rush job this year, I’d be hard pressed to disagree. Let’s hope next year is a marked improvement and ticks like clockwork.

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That’s all for this week! Good journey!

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Josh Crawley may or may not be the keyboardist for Everclear. He strongly suggests you not bet that he is.

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