Forget E3, Gen Con 2007 Follows Up

The organization behind the yearly E3 event recently announced some major changes. Luckily for the videogame industry, the people behind Gen Con are willing to pick up where E3 dropped the crumbles.

Gen Con LLC today announced its plans to expand the offerings of the company's gaming shows. Gen Con will increase venue space and change a location to better incorporate the video game business as a focus of the Gen Con shows. This will give video game manufacturers, developers, publishers and others, who traditionally attended E3, a place to feature their products to the trade, media and consumers alike.

"When the news came out about the drastic changes at E3, we began to hear from some industry players about Gen Con increasing its capabilities to better accommodate the industry," said Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con. "With our vast experience in producing quality gaming shows, it is a natural extension for us to make Gen Con a place where the electronic industry can show off its products. The video game business has always been a part of our shows, now they will have a greater presence making Gen Con the nation's premier gaming show, period!"

In order to better accommodate the video game business into its existing shows, Gen Con will expand its venue space at the Indianapolis show in 2007. An additional 43,000 square feet will be added to the exhibit hall with additional space expanding into area hotels as well to accommodate the thousands of games taking place over the four-day event.

Gen Con So Cal, the companies' show held in Anaheim will be moved to the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2007. This move will better serve the entertainment industry, so prevalent in the gaming industry and more importantly make Gen Con more accessible to consumers who wish to see the latest and greatest in all things gaming.

"We are absolutely delighted to expand our relationship with Gen Con. This is a fantastic opportunity for our city to host this exciting new show," said Michael Krouse, Vice President of Convention Sales of The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Now in its 39th year, Gen Con "The Best Four Days in Gaming!" has become the largest annual hobby game convention in North America. It draws an avid following of attendees with an annual turnstyle attendance of over 100,000. The shows are known for product launch events and as a place where attendees participate in card games, board games, live-action roleplaying games, miniatures, computer games and more. Gen Con is open to the public and held twice. In 2006, the shows are in Indianapolis August 10-13 and Anaheim November 16-19.

Gen Con, LLC produces the largest consumer fantasy, sci-fi and adventure game convention in North America. Its operations include Gen Con Indy, Gen Con So Cal and Star Wars Celebration IV, and licensee for European Gen Con shows. It was founded in May of 2002 by former CEO and founder of Wizards of the Coast, Peter Adkison, who solely owns the company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company's mission is to create The Best Four Days in Gaming! every year for its customers.

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FacebookPosted on 08-08-2006 by Dennis

Comments

I skimmed through the wall of text. Sounds exciting. BTW no icon?

jedibmoney, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
Harhar, E3 willingly abandons it's place as most anticipated event of the year, just so a different event can take it's place. Conspiracies!

yakutatazu, 30-11--0001 at 00:00
I've never been to a Gen Con before, despite it being only an hour away, because, well, it was lame. Now with this news that they expanding with video games in mind, I have a reason to go.

moo_man, 30-11--0001 at 00:00