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Posted by katy.randall

Hello everyone! I am new to Gen Con and this beautiful gaming world. My husband is a life long gamer and has now recruited me to help. He has created a game called British vs Pirates which we would like to bring to Gen Con this year. I am putting together the events and marketing but need to know if there is a "best time of day" to do events? If you have any suggestions or insight please let me know.
Thank You,
Katy

Posted by kamus73

I have success all times of day. I'd say try to run multiple events daily if possible.

Posted by derekguder

My advice is basically that there are so many attendees and so many events going on that it's not really worth worrying about specific times unless you are trying to run a really, really large event. For anything that is a few tables or smaller, wrap it up before midnight or so, focus on making it an awesome experience for everyone involved, and run it when it's convenient for you, basically.

Timing is unlikely to cause any kind of problem finding a dozen or so players to try out your game. Niche-interest games need to focus more on exposure and generating excitement.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by katy.randall

I am hoping to do at least 3 times a day but with a new game I am not sure how to get people pick our game over the others. We have our Facebook page and of course our Kickstarter is doing well. So I am just trying to get the best possible situation for our game.

Posted by rosearow

Looking at the timeline in the Event Host guide, if we've submitted events during the early event registration, we will not find out if we were selected until May 28 when the layout is done?

Posted by jerrytel

You will get email updates from Derek's team as they edit/accept your events. Unless you have requested something extremely out of the ordinary in regards to space required or some other oddity, your event should be approved and will be included for registration.

Posted by derekguder

Events are, by necessity, approved well before event registration opens up in May. The review & placement process can take a number of weeks, but if you submitted during the early wave, you will likely get confirmation on your event in April sometime, unless you had some special needs or a non-standard event, which may take a bit longer.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by sabel

@ Derek Guder

The 3D megadungeon is setup to run 
2017/08/18 09:00 AM
and has an Game ID# RPG17110201

If you want to stop by, its an 8 hour event and we have started 3D printing parts already so that it is ROCKING LOOKING when its on the table!

Hope you can stop by

Sean

PS How do I check to make sure that I have requested GM badges for the 2 GMs coming with me and myself? Last year we only had one or two of the Badges ready when we arrived and I am thinking that I messed up filling out something probably. All of our events just went to AC today if that matters. 

Thank you for all the hard work,

Cant wait for 50! 

Posted by derekguder

Heh, I'll try to swing by, but honestly I can't promise anything. Things get real busy at Gen Con, as I'm sure you can imagine :) I hope you have fun, though!

It looks like you did request 3 GM badges (you should have gotten an email confirmation when you completed the Google form), so you should be all set for now - you will need to actually assign those badges online once we have set up your allocation, though.

Thanks,

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by sabel

I understand that you are OUTRAGEOUSLY busy at the CON but if you can make it over to our event [hopefully at the JW] here is a look to entice you to stop by and say hello. I am hoping that we have a large amount of interest and then I can pull more GMs and make it even bigger in the future!

Not sure why I cant get the image to show up but here is a link for you :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6kD08gErXIoQXpzb3NYbnA5bWs/view?usp=sharing
 

Posted by derekguder

That looks pretty awesome! I'd love to swing by, but I can't make any promises, sadly. Swing by GM HQ at some point if you want to show it off :)

And make sure to share the link and any more details in the Events forum, so general attendees can get excited about it, too. Looks super cool.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by miafavela

Looking for guidance!!!

Normally I visit a website and there's a list, or an email, of whomever is in charge and I can't seem to find one anywhere on the GenCon website. 

My name is Mia Favela and I'm a lowly agent of a small group of Science Fiction-aholics and gamers who are attempting to throw a family friendly, fun Sci-Fi convention at our headquarters, Science Central,  in Fort Wayne, IN. 

I was wondering if I could get some advice, or direction, from someone who's had the experience with putting together an event, marketing, and/or funding something such as GenCon. 

It would mean the world to me, the kids we'd be providing the event for, our committee and Science Central if someone took the time to offer some advice. 

Thank you so much.  I hope you hear from someone soon. They can reach me at my email, [email protected]

Have a great day and an awesome year!! 

Posted by derekguder

Our contract information is posted many places, most prominently on the Host page and in the Event Host Policy - and that's also where you'll want to go on details for running events at the convention.

Check those out and then let us know if you have any other questions or need further help.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by miafavela

Thank you!

Posted by stevenungaro

1. If you are looking to a host/GM a game, should you use "overbooking" on the ticket sales? i.e., should I offer 6 tickets for a 4-player game and expect some no-shows?

2. Do all the proceeds from the ticket sales go to Gen Con directly?

Posted by derekguder


  1. Do not intentionally overbook an event. We're not airlines. The best advice here depends on the nature of the event, honestly, but broadly you should assume some no-shows and plan to be able to run the event for a range of players.
  2. Unless you're a company and you rent space, events have a base price that goes to Gen Con. You're welcome to add an additional fee on top of that if you want some revenue from the event, too. This is explained in detail in the Event Host Policy.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by justinparker

I like to play the rpg games.

Posted by frosty166

To my fellow 2019 GMs out there!

Give a shout out if you got your GM badge and are ready to run some games!

Woot!

Posted by pelt58021

I'm looking to run games in 2020. What are the perks and where can I find them? It used to be run 32hrs for a free room with 3 other gm's and a free badge. I know it was changed to a reimbursement policy after the con which is fine but I need the rules please if anyone can direct me.

Posted by derekguder pelt58021

pelt58021 wrote:
I'm looking to run games in 2020. What are the perks and where can I find them? It used to be run 32hrs for a free room with 3 other gm's and a free badge. I know it was changed to a reimbursement policy after the con which is fine but I need the rules please if anyone can direct me.

You'll want to read through the Event Host Policy, as it outlines everything you need to know. The Host page also summarizes a lot of it.

In short, things are calculated based on player-hours, just not straight duration of the game, since larger events often need more GMs. For 2019, you needed 70 player-hours to cover a badge and 200 to cover your share of a hotel bill.

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Derek Guder
Senior Event & Program Manager
Gen Con LLC

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