The 25-year-old Alliance Open House has a new name, a new owner, and a new pitch to retailers: it's free. Universal Distribution announced this week that the long-running publisher and retailer networking event will run as the Universal Summit US at Fort Wayne's Grand Wayne Convention Center from 27-29 August 2026, with all registration fees waived for the inaugural show.
Looking for board gamers near you? Browse local communities and find your next game night.
Find events near youThe rebrand follows Universal Distribution's $49.6 million acquisition of Alliance Game Distributors roughly a year ago. Alliance ran its open house every August in the same Indiana venue, drawing publishers, game shop owners, and the kind of buyers who decide what ends up on UK shelves three months later. Universal officially renamed the US business Universal Distribution US in January 2026, and the show has now followed suit.
The format is staying broadly the same: game demos, panels, workshops, a vendor exhibit hall, and the after-hours drinks where most actual deals happen. CEO Angelo Exarhakos told BoardGameWire that waiving fees is a deliberate marketing call rather than a one-off: "We generally don't charge vendors to attend these shows... this is a very good marketing expense."
Run game nights? Backseat Gamer handles RSVPs, waitlists, date polling, and game voting so you can focus on playing.
Start organising for freeFor UK shop owners, this is a useful early sighting of what's coming through Asmodee, Hachette, and the other big distributors later in the year. Several titles that broke at past Alliance Open House shows have shown up at UK Games Expo and Dragonmeet within months. Registration closes on 15 May 2026.
If you're heading to a UK con this summer and want to see who else is going, find a community on Backseat Gamer and compare schedules.
Sources: BoardGameWire
