Along with 30,000 other people I will be attending Gen Con Indy 2011. I stayed with my grandparents the first time I went to Gen Con and used the bus to ferry myself to and from the convention. It was incredible. It was 1986 and the convention was in Milwaukee at the Mecca Convention center. I don’t think they can call convention centers “Mecca” anymore. Mostly because Mecca will not pay for the naming rights.

Gen Con is one of the best run conventions in existence. The key is the event submission and sign-up system. Anyone can submit an event. Pre-registered users can obtain tickets for those events. If there are open slots for any reason, guests can show up on the spot with generic tickets to get in. The result is to allow attendees to form a reliable schedule months ahead of time and eliminate or reduce useless waiting in lines to get into events. I like it a lot. This system allows mainstream games plenty of room to satisfy demand while also gives fruity bizarre events a chance to be seen; it doesn’t hamper the creativity of exhibitors.

The people at Gen Con simply do a great job.