Unlike some larger conventions that seemed to suffer from immense wait lines, Gencon had an amazingly speedy line for badge pickups during their convention. The regular attendees I spoke to only had a wait time of 20-30 minutes tops. The volunteers handling the lines did a spectacular job with making the lines go as fast as possible while not obstructing traffic in the hallways. Press registration was very smooth like last year. Press badge approval was very organized and e-mail confirmation was given within a week of applying. We also received press releases from companies who were going to do demos and promote their products at the convention throughout the year. Both press badges and regular attendee badges were printed on sturdy plastic material similar to what normal identification cards are made of. This is a far cry from some of the other conventions that we have attended. Needless to say, we were very pleased with the professionalism of the organizers for badge registration and pickup for both attendees and members of the press.
Similar to other conventions, Gencon offered a "swag bag" this year. Usually, swag bags are plastic bags that contain some promotional items from sponsors along with a program guide for the convention. This year Gencon had minimal promotional items included in their bag, but easily made up for it with the quality of the bag itself. Instead of a plastic bag, we were given shoulder bags that were more useful during the convention than plastic bags. It was a pleasant surprise that I hope Gencon will continue to have. Lanyards were of good quality and were sponsored by Upper Deck to promote their new "Legendary Encounters" franchise.
Gencon ran all 4 days with plenty to do. While some of the events were free to enter, most workshops and games required purchases of tickets. Event tickets could be pre-ordered for a special early-bird price and could be bought at con. This may be a change for those who are familiar with a badge given attendees access to all workshops and panels at a convention. There are few free things that are offered to the public, but in order to experience Gencon at it's best, it is advised that you bring a little pocket money with you. A LARPIng (Live Action Role Play) event cost around $12 for an hour session at the early-bird price.
The amount of things to do at Gencon is very vast, with events happening around the clock. They also have a generous amount of space for those who simply want to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign of their own or play a game of Catan with friends inside one of the larger halls. Attractions unique to Gencon include several dungeon-like RPGs that allow you to travel through life-sized dungeons such as True Dungeon or Nero's LARPing sessions. Mayfair games also sponsors very large versions of Settlers of Catan and other game variants. You play these on huge carpets instead of boards. However, it costs money in order to play all of the exciting events so you had better bring some cash. The program book is quite large, one of the heftier ones out of the conventions I've been to, and so finding events to go to would not be a very hard task for many. Despite the fact that money is needed in order to fully enjoy the perks of Gencon, the vast amount of gaming centered events would make any gamer busy over all four days of the convention.
One of the more exciting events that were offered to attendees was a costume parade. Any cosplayers who wanted to participate could line up and the parade would loop around the convention hall. Many con attendees lined up at the sides to take pictures of all the cosplayers that passed by. Unfortunately, you had to be fast, because there was no stopping in the parade. This Saturday event is always a highlight of the convention and precedes the costume contest, which is also highly attended.
The costume contest itself was organized, with prejudging happening during registration. Participants are allowed to perform a skit, give music to play in the background, and give the MC a blurb about their cosplay. Categories for entry included areas such as fantasy, anime, and more. Winners of each category then go up against each other to be crowned as the overall first place costume. The interesting part is that the judges encourage the audience to cheer for their favorite winner. The costume they think got the loudest cheer then receives the first place prize. This leaves the final results pretty much in the hands of the audience after contestants are weeded out by the judges.
One of the biggest draws for any convention is the exhibit hall where vendors and artists are able to show off their products for con attendees to purchase. Since Gencon is mainly a tabletop gaming convention, there were also many big companies that came out to show their new products including big names like Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing. This also was the area for upcoming game studios to show their stuff. You could easily spend a lot of time in the exhibit hall just demoing all the games that were present at Gencon. Utilizing a nifty marketing strategy to help out vendors, Gencon includes a coupon booklet in every swag bag that lists special coupons that companies would like to give away to attendees. Most of them were the "buy x, get x free" types of deals or required you to do a demo of a game to get free stuff this year. The exhibit hall was similar to any big convention, with a large selection of vendors tailored to tabletop gaming, there were a few miscellaneous vendors that catered to fans of anime and other genres. Tables for artists were located further back of the hall with payments being handled by a Gencon cashier on the floor instead of paying the artists directly. It is also noted that due to Gencon's expansion throughout the Indiana Convention Center, the show also featured record numbers of exhibitors (370+) and events (14,000+).
The convention center is also connected to several hotels such as the Omni Hotel and JW Marriott via overhead walkways that made moving to and from venues very easy. The hotels also were utilized as space for events such as panels. The area I found the most lacking was the Japanese animation area where there were a few viewing rooms for watching anime episodes and a few tables set up for various nearby conventions and maybe two vendors to appeal to the anime fans who came to Gencon. It took very little time to walk around and see all there was to the anime section of Gencon. There were a few vendors of Japanese animation merchandise in the exhibit hall that might please the anime fans, but definitely do not expect much in the anime realm when you arrive at Gencon. Also of note this year, there were no voice actors or guests related to Japanese animation this year. Last year there were a few American voice actors who were present, but this year the guests were non-existent. Perhaps in the future, the section might expand to include more attractions.
Eating at Gencon was a little bit easier than other conventions we've been to previously. The Indianapolis Convention Center is connected to the Circle Center Mall and is in the downtown area of Indianapolis. This means that there are various food options from cheap such as Subway or Taco Bell in the mall to something a little pricier like the bars around the area. A few of the bars and restaurants have paired up with Gencon such as Sun King Brewery to provide a special menu to Gencon attendees. There was also a host of food trucks that had food around the convention center. There were a good amount of individuals who also opted for the food served at the convention center's own food court areas.
Overall, Gencon was a surprisingly fun event and one of the better cons that we have gone to. There is a plethora of different events and exhibitors that suit many attendee's' unique tastes. The con is managed well with very little issues arising for both attendees and press. The only downside seems to be that Gencon is growing larger with each year leading to crowded halls and a rush to get into events before spots sell out. It is on everyone's minds if Gencon will be able to continue to stay in Indianapolis for much longer as the convention continues to grow. Regardless, everyone is looking forward to the next Gencon when it returns to Indianapolis July 30 - August 2, 2015!