Official Gen Con specific only Coronavirus thread
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Posted by tarn

[This post has been removed]

Posted by mikeboozer

Stay on target. News about other events is not Gen Con specific. Other conventions sure. Save your at large discussion of other events for your social media channels.

Mike Boozer
Customer Service & Event Team Manager 
Gen Con LLC

Posted by tinabear81 tarn

tarn wrote:
All conventions will have to cancel for 2020. The latest news coming out of Spain is horrific. There is absolutely no way an event that puts thousands of people together will be safe this year. It is as if you are ringing the dinner bell for this virus. It is time to stop pretending the convention is going to happen. That is insanity. All events must cancel for 2020. It is the only way to be sure.


Ripley agrees with you. 
Yes, the news coming out of Europe is going to be bad. The news coming out of the US will be bad for a while. We know this. Let’s not put 2020 on cancel completely just yet. Let’s give it some time and see what happens with this. There’s over 100 days before hotel reservations through the block charge a night’s stay to cancel and to get badge refunds. GenCon has time to see and make decisions based on information that will be available in the future. 

Posted by brotherbock tarn

tarn wrote:
All conventions will have to cancel for 2020. The latest news coming out of Spain is horrific. There is absolutely no way an event that puts thousands of people together will be safe this year. It is as if you are ringing the dinner bell for this virus. It is time to stop pretending the convention is going to happen. That is insanity. All events must cancel for 2020. It is the only way to be sure.

As always, it's actually time to listen to the WHO and the other public health and infectious disease specialists. As opposed to 'person on the internet'. It is time to stop pretending that non-experts have the ability to make these sort of sweeping statements.

In saying this, I neither advocate for nor against Gencon actually happening, given the length of time between now and then.

Posted by loncray

Gen Con is, timewise, in an odd place.  It's far enough out that it can plausibly happen, not so far that cancellation is implausible either.  The Olympics just made their decision to postpone a year and I won't be shocked if Gen Con does the same.  As with the previous poster, I do not advocate for or against cancellation.

Posted by nascragman

OK, here's a question for Gen Con.  Let's say that Gen Con does decide to go ahead.  Then the decision is in the hands of the individual attendees and presenters.

Nascrag usually brings about 24 judges/staff or more.  I'm not sure how many I could convince to still expose themselves even if the virus is past peak.  Remember the 1918 virus had 3 peaks.  Maybe life will be back to normal by then and going to a baseball game or a convention will seem commonplace again.  But maybe not.

But what if the convention happens but I can't get enough judges to meet our commitment?
We've got cancer survivors (immuno-compromised), diabetics, and some folks over 60.  All very much at-risk.

Posted by roganca

Yep, if the Con goes forward, and I hope it does, it'll be fascinating to see what attendance looks like. Will it feel like attending Gen Con in 2006? I'm kind of excited by that idea, actually.

Posted by brotherbock nascragman

nascragman wrote:
OK, here's a question for Gen Con.  Let's say that Gen Con does decide to go ahead.  Then the decision is in the hands of the individual attendees and presenters.
Nascrag usually brings about 24 judges/staff or more.  I'm not sure how many I could convince to still expose themselves even if the virus is past peak.  Remember the 1918 virus had 3 peaks.  Maybe life will be back to normal by then and going to a baseball game or a convention will seem commonplace again.  But maybe not.
But what if the convention happens but I can't get enough judges to meet our commitment?
We've got cancer survivors (immuno-compromised), diabetics, and some folks over 60.  All very much at-risk.

This is a good concern to raise. I would guess that there would be a significant dose of "everyone please understand things may be limited, there may be cancellations, etc". I'd also think that we GMs would be asked to preemptively try to make these determinations earlier than we usually do. For example, can you guys try to get an idea now of who might not attend even if GC happens, and then scale down the tickets available--knowing you could scale them up later on if those people decide to come? We at BYOV would have a smaller but distinctly different 'similar' problem--we'd have to confirm before ticket sales which of our GMs might be at risk of not attending, and then see if individual games can still be run. But it's something we can do--take our GMs' temperature (figuratively) now and scale our offerings to match.

The attendee part of me is going to understand if I sign up for an event and it gets canceled for these reasons.

I'd also think that GenCon would be good enough to not hold cancellations this year against GMs and GM Groups for determining things like Premier Group status and scheduling priority. :)

Posted by lore seeker roganca

roganca wrote:
Yep, if the Con goes forward, and I hope it does, it'll be fascinating to see what attendance looks like. Will it feel like attending Gen Con in 2006? I'm kind of excited by that idea, actually.
 
What was that like? That was before my time attending Gen Con.

Posted by roganca lore seeker

Will it feel like attending Gen Con in 2006?
 
What was that like? That was before my time attending Gen Con.
At the time it felt like, "Wow, this convention just gets bigger every year. This is crazy!"

But in retrospect it was quaint. We were still impressed when restaurants had Gen Con themes. Housing wasn't impossible to get. The dealers hall was navigable.

Posted by mikeboozer nascragman

nascragman wrote:
OK, here's a question for Gen Con.  Let's say that Gen Con does decide to go ahead.  Then the decision is in the hands of the individual attendees and presenters.
Nascrag usually brings about 24 judges/staff or more.  I'm not sure how many I could convince to still expose themselves even if the virus is past peak.  Remember the 1918 virus had 3 peaks.  Maybe life will be back to normal by then and going to a baseball game or a convention will seem commonplace again.  But maybe not.
But what if the convention happens but I can't get enough judges to meet our commitment?
We've got cancer survivors (immuno-compromised), diabetics, and some folks over 60.  All very much at-risk.

There is a forum for this question. Where you can ask about "Events". My best advice is to plan accordingly. No matter what happens I'm sure Gen Con and the attendees will understand that you might be limited in what you can do.  

Posted by matthias9

I have been checking the housing portal periodically and, still, I don't see available downtown hotels (at least not for 4 people, which is my search strategy).  That suggests to me that, at this stage, a lot of people are still planning to go forward if the opportunity is still there.  Yeah, I'm sure there would be some event cancellations for the reasons listed above.  Maybe more than most years, but there are always some.  I think people would be understanding of these situations.

Still hopeful this Convention can move forward this year.  Starting to worry about the lasting impact of shutting down the economy for a long time.  Oh, and I've got an intact 1986-2019 Gen Con streak to maintain.  I was going to celebrate my 35th anniversary. 

Posted by buffythecatslayer

For example, can you guys try to get an idea now of who might not attend even if GC happens, and then scale down the tickets available--knowing you could scale them up later on if those people decide to come?

That may be fine for events & the GMs, but that's really not workable for the vendors.  Some vendors probably spend a good 5 figures for their Gen Con trip, and they have to make a decision early enough if the attendance will make it worth spending that much.  Even a vendor with a small booth is spending several thousand when you factor in employee travel, booth decorations, and bringing stock to sell. 

Vendors can't wait & hope for more people to sign up at the last minute.  They can't make a go/no-go decision in July.

Posted by squirecam nascragman

nascragman wrote:
OK, here's a question for Gen Con.  Let's say that Gen Con does decide to go ahead.  Then the decision is in the hands of the individual attendees and presenters.
Nascrag usually brings about 24 judges/staff or more.  I'm not sure how many I could convince to still expose themselves even if the virus is past peak.  Remember the 1918 virus had 3 peaks.  Maybe life will be back to normal by then and going to a baseball game or a convention will seem commonplace again.  But maybe not.
But what if the convention happens but I can't get enough judges to meet our commitment?
We've got cancer survivors (immuno-compromised), diabetics, and some folks over 60.  All very much at-risk.
It’s not in their hands at the moment. Both IN and OH (origins) have governors that have banned gatherings of convention sizes. Unless those orders get rescinded, no convention will be going on, even if Gencon wanted to.

See what happens with origins. If that doesn’t go forward, that’s a huge clue as to Gencon.

Posted by brotherbock lore seeker

father bloodlust wrote:
roganca wrote:
Yep, if the Con goes forward, and I hope it does, it'll be fascinating to see what attendance looks like. Will it feel like attending Gen Con in 2006? I'm kind of excited by that idea, actually.
 
What was that like? That was before my time attending Gen Con.

To be honest, and just talking about my experience--the days of 25-20k attendees was the sweet spot. The games I and my group run still always filled (a metric when you're running the sort of games we do, 25-40 players), the dealer hall was still suitably huge, but the press of people wasn't the same. To be frank, most people at Gen Con are just in most other people's ways :) Each of us have a small circle of things we're wanting to do, and most of the 70k people there are just getting in our way :D I say that in the nicest of ways, lol. Because I don't begrudge any individual person coming to the Con.

Posted by brotherbock buffythecatslayer

buffythecatslayer wrote:
For example, can you guys try to get an idea now of who might not attend even if GC happens, and then scale down the tickets available--knowing you could scale them up later on if those people decide to come?

That may be fine for events & the GMs, but that's really not workable for the vendors.  Some vendors probably spend a good 5 figures for their Gen Con trip, and they have to make a decision early enough if the attendance will make it worth spending that much.  Even a vendor with a small booth is spending several thousand when you factor in employee travel, booth decorations, and bringing stock to sell. Vendors can't wait & hope for more people to sign up at the last minute.  They can't make a go/no-go decision in July.


Well yes, vendors are in an entirely different boat. But in fact they can wait, because they have to wait. And, frankly, the spot they are in is this--if Gen Con doesn't happen, they won't have any other options either. It's not like GC would get called off and there would be another event for these vendors to go to. If GC doesn't happening, it's because nothing is happening.

So the vendors are in the same spot that we all are in that sense--they have travel plans and expenses, and if the Con doesn't happen, they'll have to do their best to cancel. And yes, they have more financially on the line than the rest of us do. But that doesn't change their options. There's no Plan B in times like this. You're right that they'll have to decide whether it's worth it, and some of them may have to decide earlier. But again, with no other place to go should GC not happen, I don't see why most of them can't wait.

Posted by cosmicpower

Listen guys we just have to wait. Worrying about it is just going to stress you out. 

Posted by nascragman cosmicpower

cosmicpower wrote:
Listen guys we just have to wait. Worrying about it is just going to stress you out. 

you're absolutely right, but we're stuck at home without a lot of stuff to do.  :-)

Posted by brotherbock cosmicpower

cosmicpower wrote:
Listen guys we just have to wait. Worrying about it is just going to stress you out. 

I agree. People who are worrying about it should try to relax. I'm just discussing it :) My position of "I am in no position to do anything other than wait and us non-experts shouldn't be demanding GenCon do anything" leaves me with no stress at all. I'm still writing my games, because that's what I have to do.

Posted by peteindc chrism


Well Ohio has done that but then Ohio State Director of Health just stated that she suspects that 1% or 100,000+ people there have Covid-19. Until testing kits are readily available and processing backlogs are cleared its going to be hard to determine whats going on, generally and for organised events
Well, the Olympics, also in August have been cancelled. And if the Indiana government still have bans of gatherings of more than 250 people, that legally prevents GenCon from happening. That has very little to do with availability of the testing kits.

It would be good to have a decision by mid-April.

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