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I have a friend in the St Louis MO area that I want to go see at some point in the future.

I'm figuring that a convention let's me kill two squirrels with one shotgun shell. I can attend and network for McDougall Designs, and then go hangout and see my pal.

You could check meetup. If one isn't on there, warhammer group members might know where.

I am from St Louis and there are a few game conventions here you can check out, this is not a complete list just off the top of my head.
For board games, we have "Geekway to the West" which is actually this weekend (May 18-21)
"Die Con" in June is more RPG based but usually has different types of games
"Archon" at the end of September, one of the oldest running conventions in the area, LARP, RPG, you name it.
"War Fair Weekend" November is More tabletop leaning toward Privateer Press stuff but has a ton of other stuff.

As for Game Stores, we have the home base for Miniature Market with two locations, great for warehouse overstock and dings and dent stuff.
Game Nite is a great local store that is nice to check out and Fantasy Shops has a number of locations, depending on your friend's location
you can find a ton of shops to hit besides the conventions.

Can't really recommend DieCon or Archon. The former is pretty much a dying shell of its former self, and unless you like niche historicals you're not going to find much of interest.

Archon is NOT a gaming convention: It's a costume and sci fi/fantasy convention with a drinking problem. Budget for a hotel room on site, as a large portion of your ticket price is covering the free kegs of natty light.

Warfaire Weekend is pretty great, with a wide variety of games. The big draws these days are Infinity and Crisis Protocol, and of course the Iron Gauntlet invitational for warmachine. Plenty of painting classes and such as well if you're not interested in tournaments.

There's also the Gateway Open in August if you're just looking for 40K/AoS tournaments. No classes or panels, but it's a 5 round competitive tournament if that's your thing.

Laughing Man wrote:
Can't really recommend DieCon or Archon. The former is pretty much a dying shell of its former self, and unless you like niche historicals you're not going to find much of interest.

Archon is NOT a gaming convention: It's a costume and sci fi/fantasy convention with a drinking problem. Budget for a hotel room on site, as a large portion of your ticket price is covering the free kegs of natty light.

Warfaire Weekend is pretty great, with a wide variety of games. The big draws these days are Infinity and Crisis Protocol, and of course the Iron Gauntlet invitational for warmachine. Plenty of painting classes and such as well if you're not interested in tournaments.

There's also the Gateway Open in August if you're just looking for 40K/AoS tournaments. No classes or panels, but it's a 5 round competitive tournament if that's your thing.

I'm a retailer from Florida. I mostly play AoS and historicals, but I'm up for 40k.

Game Nite has a pretty huge AoS community, and you'd be able to find players on pretty much any Sunday (although games are mostly scheduled in advance via Discord rather than pick-up games).

You might enjoy DieCon for historicals, but I couldn't tell you what the heck they're playing. It's definitely not the big names like Flames of War or Bolt Action.

The Gateway Open has already been mentioned, but I'll add to that recommendation if 40k or AoS is your thing. I've been to the event twice in the past and it's run by a super nice group of guys who really know how to put on a good tournament. In addition to the aforementioned 40k and AoS tournaments, they also run an unlimited 40k Apocalypse game, which while I've never personally participated in it always looks like a lot of fun.