August 3, 2022 – August 7, 2022
Where We Stayed: Hyatt Place Indianapolis Airport
Trip Highlights:
- Our First GenCon Trip!
Favorite Restaurants:
In early August we traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend Gen Con, the largest table top gaming convention in North America. This was our first time attending Gen Con, but definitely will not be our last.
Travel to Indianapolis
When we arrived at the airport we were immediately met with signs of the upcoming convention. The airport had signs welcoming the attendees along with areas of tables set up for those who wanted to start playing board games upon immediately arriving at the airport.
Exploring the Exhibit Hall
We spent a lot of time at the convention exploring the exhibit hall. Here, board game manufacturers large and small had booths selling and talking about their new games. In addition, there were plenty of other booths selling nerdy shirts and other things. There were a ton of Dungeons & Dragons vendor, which was our main draw for attending the convention, so spent a ton of time exploring their booths and purchasing a few new goodies to take home. My favorite was this cute gelatinous cube plush, a common monster you see in dungeons & dragons.
Conference Happenings
The convention had taken over nearly every available space in downtown Indianapolis. We spent a good amount of time this trip just exploring and seeing what was available. Next year we plan to take part in some of the other gaming events that occur during the weekend.
Hot Games Room
One thing we did do was the “Hot Games Room.” We were able to sign up for a 2 hour time session in a room to play any of the new board games that either had just been released or would soon be released. This gives attendees a chance to try games before they buy them or get a sneak peek of a game that’s soon to be released. We only did one session here, but we plan to do this much more in the future.
This first weekend at Gen Con taught us a lot about how the convention works and what we want to make sure we do again in the future. We’re excited to attend again in 2023!