Forget about the Kiss, Def Leppard, Journey and all the other old white guys that are on tour this year. There's a whole 'nother set of rockstars coming to a city near you. Fidelity is taking its alternatives education on the road and hosting seminars in seven major cities in the U.S. over the course of this year.

The firm already held an event in Washington, D.C. two weeks ago and will be coming to Dallas in May. Its other events will be in Boston, Half Moon Bay outside of San Francisco, Dana Point, CA; Chicago and a conclusive event in New York on October 29 . It will be open to RIAs, broker dealers and family offices free of charge.

Executives from Goldman Sachs, CAIS and Morningstar, Fidelity's partners in its alternatives platform deal, will join on the educational seminars and discuss topics such as investment strategy, due diligence and research on alternative managers, building portfolios with alternatives, incorporating them into an advisor's practice and how to talk to clients about these investments. At the DC meeting, Stephen Siderow, co-founder of credit hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management also spoke on the view from a hedge fund manager. Nicole Abbott, a spokeswoman for Fidelity, said the hedge fund speakers will rotate as Fidelity continues to host the events.

The firm is also working on an online Product Research Center for its broker dealer, RIA and family office clients, where they can access alternatives research through a web portal online. Executives from all four firms that spoke at Fidelity's alts breakfast last week said there is still a lot of research and due diligence that needs to be done to help advisors and end clients wrap their heads around alternative investments, but they can envision these products becoming part of the mainstream among retail investors in the next few years.

Matthew Brown, co-founder and CEO of CAIS, said his firm is using Mercer for research and due diligence support on hedge funds and hopes investing in them will be as easy as buying a scarf on amazon.com one day. "Investors should be able to look at a fund online, read about it, click and buy it. We want to be the ultimate marketplace for them. But we're very far from that right now," Brown said. 

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