The 2008 Diamond-Alliance Summits, which just wrapped up with the Fort Wayne event last weekend, were up over last year’s, driven by strong attendance at the Las Vegas event, according to a company spokesperson.  The Fort Wayne Summit, which was held several weeks into the financial crisis news, had heavy walk-ups, with an unusual number of attendees waiting until the last minute to decide.  Fort Wayne was down vs. 2007, but not as much as Vegas was up. 

The Vegas event, held at the Bally’s venue that’s been hosting GAMA Trade Show (see “Diamond Summit Heads to Vegas”) drew considerably more attendees than the Baltimore event last year, which put the total up despite a decline in Fort Wayne.  The '08 event in Vegas was the first time there since 2004, as far as we can tell (see “Diamond Looking at 05 Summit Options”). 

The charity auction take was also up for the two venues combined.  Bidders could designate their winning bids to Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Hero Initiative, or Literacy Volunteers of America.