Festivals Extra: ComicsPRO Plans Meeting For Portland In February

The retaielr group ComicsPRO has set next year's annual meeting for February 19-21 in Portland, Oregon -- one of the crucial hubs for comic book making in North America and also a city with a variety of well-run direct market retail locations. I'll just run the bulk of the press release here for an idea of what's in store.

ComicsPRO Annual Meeting Set for Portland, Oregon
Retailers, Publishers and Suppliers to meet February 19-21 2015

ComicsPRO, the retailer trade association, brings its 9th Annual Meeting to Portland, Oregon February 19-21, 2015, bringing together comic book retailers and vendors to discuss major industry issues and to develop ways to improve the comic book specialty market. The venue for this year’s event is the Portland Hilton and Executive Tower.

"We're very excited to be headed to the Pacific Northwest for the next ComicsPRO Membership Meeting. Not only is Portland the base of operations for Dark Horse and Oni -- two very supportive ComicsPRO sponsors -- it is a city with an enormous breadth of creative talent and solid retail stores," said Thomas Gaul, President of the Board of ComicsPRO.

All comic book retailers with storefront locations are invited to the conference. Every attending retailer will be presented with a gift bag including graphic novels, toys, promotional items and comics. Publishers will create exclusive comics for ComicsPRO, many with very low print runs. To register as a retailer, please visit www.comicspro.org/register15.

Thursday, February 19th, retailers will meet with Platinum sponsors Dark Horse Comics and DC Entertainment. In the morning, Dark Horse Comics will present major creators including Mike Mignola, Brian Wood, Geof Darrow, Chuck Palahniuk, Eric Powell, and Matt Kindt, featuring highlights in their 2015 releases. In the afternoon and evening, retailers will shift to discussions with DC Entertainment's top brass, including segments about DC Collectibles, DC Digital and Sales and Marketing.

Another two dozen other comic industry vendors will join the meeting on Friday, February 20th and Saturday, February 21st for presentations, roundtables, and workshops. Roundtable sessions give each of the participating vendors face-to-face time with each attending retailer in a small group setting.

Meeting highlights include:

* An opening reception sponsored by Dark Horse Comics on Wednesday, February 18, 8-10 PM.
* Comic Book Legal Defense Fund reception and benefit auction, Friday February 20.
* Things From Another World store visit and lunch, sponsored by Dark Horse, Saturday, February 21.
* Comic book store tour sponsored by Oni Press, Saturday, February 21.
* Closing reception sponsored by Oni Press and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Saturday, February 21, 8:00 PM.
* Workshops with Q&A sessions led by industry professionals.
* Visits from comic artists and writers to discuss their upcoming work.

The ComicsPRO Annual Membership Meeting is the only annual retailer-driven event in the industry, often cited as the most important business-focused event of the year. ComicsPRO's current projects and plans will also be discussed.

For more information on attending the conference as a retailer or sponsoring the conference as a publisher or vendor, please contact Marco Davanzo, Executive Director of ComicsPRO at [email protected]. Information can also be found at www.comicspro.org/meet15.

ComicsPRO is a non-profit trade association dedicated to the health and progress of direct market comic book retailers. ComicsPRO allows retailers to speak with a unified voice on important industry issues, provides educational and mentoring opportunities to current and future retailers, and provides ways for members to reduce fixed costs.

There are not a lot of focused shows like this one, so I hope those of you eligible to attend this one are doing so.
 
posted 3:35 pm PST | Permalink
 

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