I am not downtown, so I have to ask a few questions.
1) Does Gen Con have areas established for napping? I am a night shift worker, and due to my life schedule, I may need a nap in the middle of a day. Since my hotel room is not in downtown, I can't just walk back to the room to nap.
2) Does Gen Con have a safe deposit box area to store items? If not, I suggest you establish an area in coordination with a shipping company. Use shipping boxes as drop off boxes to store people's stuff. Assign the box to the owner's badge account and ensure address is shipping address. Collect a fee for using service plus a deposit fee to cover packing material and shipping costs. Left over deposit money is either added to badge's account or donated to charity. The idea here is if the owner does not claim the box by Monday, they are packed and shipped.
I know there may be a problem with item 1, getting a lot of attendees who don't have housing that use the napping area to sleep, but I would consider this an opportunity for the local, state, and regional emergency management groups in testing emergency housing. I am very certain there will be a lot of volunteers in Gen Con for testing out disaster housing, with a small fee for cleaning up damages.
I'm sorry, but Gen Con does not provide either of those services, napping or storage.
We have in the past had a shipping partner onsite, but we did not have that last year, and I'm unaware of any plans for that this year, but it's possible.
Marian McBrine Event Coordinator Gen Con LLC
Hopefully out of my disappointment, these can become suggestions for later years. I would say both will greatly aid the housing situation in their own ways, if permitted.
The JW Marriott has a UPS store next to the Starbucks near the skybridge, though, if you need to have anything shipped home.
Westin also has a FedEx store.
Napping area! Best idea I've ever heard of ! :)
There is a quiet room, but I don't think it's set up for napping.
For what ever it is worth, I saw lots of people using available floor space in the hallways next to windows and walls as napping spots.
Just lay down somewhere....BOOM! napping area! :P
The Hyatt Regency might have a few good spots in some of the less used banquet rooms to crash for a little while...a friend told me.
It's just not Gen Con until you spot someone napping.
I can verify that the police don't allow you to sleep outdoors along the streets either.
... don't ask how I know this.
Ok, jokes aside: I have nodded off while sitting in the ICC lobby chairs before waiting for people. And I was not ever disturbed. But at the same time, if it's against the convention center's rules, it's obviously something that shouldn't be done.
It occurred to me that with one university and one small college somewhat nearby, someone pretending to be a student might get away with a nap at the respective libraries. I mean, who hasn't seen any college's common spaces littered by students catching some quick z's, right? Unfortunately, I found through a Google search (literally, "napping at IUPUI") that the large university has a specific written policy against that:
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/about/policies/sleeping
Excessive sleeping and camping in the IUPUI University Library are prohibited. For purposes of this policy, “camping” includes: sleeping for an extended period of time (not including incidental napping), lying down and sleeping on a couch, bench, floor or other surface, with or without one’s belongings...
As far as the small college: It's really small, as in single building. I don't know if someone would get away with slipping in and snoozing in whatever passes for their library.
So... nuthin', I'm afraid. :(
As an aside - The Indiana University April Fools Joke about "sleeping pods" was hilarious: https://www.indiana.edu/campaigns/nap-pods.html
Yes, confirmed: That was a joke. But it had me going for a minute. :D
Sorry, I know none of this helps a person find a napping spot. I just thought I'd take a shot at what I could find out and discovered some mildly amusing stuff.