Fresh off a record year for attendance, the Seattle-based tabletop gaming convention has signed a four-year extension to its contract with tourism agency Visit Indy.
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The massive gaming event is expected to draw upward of 40,000 people to downtown Indianapolis from Thursday through Sunday, marking the largest convention the city has hosted since before the coronavirus outbreak.
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Gen Con—the single-largest event the Indiana Convention Center hosts on an annual basis from an economic impact standpoint—will become an online event this year. Organizers said the social nature of the gaming event made it impossible to hold in-person.
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The event, which has been hosted by the city since 2003, broke its records for exhibitors, total ticketed events, and for sales of four-day and Sunday badges.
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In a statement on Gen Con’s website, event organizers said they believe the calendar change is the “best approach both to meet the many challenges of the moment and to explore possibilities for the future.”
Gen Con President David Hoppe said “new hotel developments, along with Indy’s desire for technological upgrades, have made our decision to extend with Indianapolis an easy choice.”
The Capital Improvement Board has selected a Kite Realty Group plan from among three proposals in its effort to expand the city’s convention capacity. The CIB is expected to vote Friday to move the project forward.
Whether Seattle-based Gen Con and local officials can now reach an understanding on technology could spell the difference between Indianapolis’ hanging onto its most prized convention and potentially losing it to another city.
Event officials counted a best-ever 223,326 turnstile visits, a 9 percent increase from 2017. They also touted records for unique attendees, gaming companies and charitable contributions.
Attendees at this year’s edition of the massive tabletop-gaming confab could top 60,000, with an economic impact as high as $75 million.
The number of tourism and hospitality jobs in Indianapolis also grew—from 77,800 in 2015 to 80,600 in 2016, according to the report.
I tested dozens of tabletop games at this year’s epic event to find the most playable ones to add to your collection.
Gen Con enjoyed record attendance for the ninth straight time, officials for the annual gaming event announced Monday.
Officials announced early this month that four-day badges are sold out for the first time in the event’s history—which dates back to 1968.
Local hospitality officials are expecting the 50th edition of the annual gaming event to be one of the biggest conventions the city has ever hosted.
Gen Con this year plans to use more than 750,000 square feet in the Indiana Convention Center, Lucas Oil Stadium and in the connector between the two facilities. It’s the most space ever booked for an Indianapolis convention.
The number of hotel rooms Visit Indy booked into future years took a tumble in 2016 to the lowest level since 2013. But local tourism and hotel officials aren’t overly concerned.
The short-term extension allows the city to keep one of its largest conventions, with an estimated economic impact of $70 million, for at least another year.
After initially seeking a five-year extension that would keep the massive gaming convention in Indianapolis through 2025, Gen Con officials have changed their request.
The mission: Find 10 new games that would appeal to a range of gamers. The results: A varied lot that includes test tubes, Vikings, bomb diffusion, and a charades variant.
Total attendance for last week’s Gen Con show in Indianapolis inched up over last year’s record numbers. More hotel spaces could help the show expand, according to an organizer.
Gen Con is the biggest and highest-profile convention to use both the stadium and convention center since the 2011 expansion—and others are watching to see how it works.
The annual gaming convention, considered the largest of its kind, attracted 61,423 individuals for 197,695 visits in August, marking its sixth straight year of growth.
In its 13th year in Indianapolis, the annual gaming convention, which ended Sunday, outrolled its previous record-setting attendance by 9 percent, marking its sixth straight year of growth.
