In the wake of a successful Retailer Summit in Baltimore, Diamond is evaluating its options for 2005.  According to Diamond Vice President Marketing Roger Fletcher, 530 retailers attended the Summit in Baltimore last week, a big increase over last year's summits, which attracted around 325 each in Las Vegas and Fort Wayne.   A return to Ft. Wayne next year is 'almost definite,' according to Fletcher (facility remodeling made an event there impossible this year).  Other options under consideration include Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Memphis, in various combinations.

Fletcher said of the Summit in Baltimore this year, 'Over-all, we were very pleased with the level of participation by retailers and suppliers alike, and we'd really like to thank everyone for coming to Baltimore and supporting the event. Based on the feedback we've received, we seemed to strike a good balance between fun activities, educational retailing workshops, supplier presentations, exhibits, and informal mingling time.'

Chris Oarr of Summit Gold Sponsor ADV said of the event, 'It was way better than expected -- a fantastic use of time and resources for ADV.  We weren't prepared for how good it was going to be.'

Retailer Daniel McAbee of The Tangled Web in Spartanburg, SC attended the Summit with his store manager Dennis Schuster.  'The Summit was handled in a very professional manner by both the DCD employees as well as the Alliance representatives,' McAbee said.  'Dennis and I each attended several seminars and were very pleased with the content provided in them... I would call the Summit one of the best business trips that I have ever made in terms of value to my business.  I highly recommend to anyone in this industry who can attend, to do so.'