Gen Con the Company
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Posted by nascragman

Just out of curiosity, how many year-round employees does Gen Con LLC actually have? 

Posted by austicke

I seem to recall it was 14.

_____________________________________
Alec Usticke, Fans of Gen Con Facebook Group

Posted by andrewj.rager

It's amazingly and impressively small compared to the grand scale of the convention. The work of the full time staff as well as everyone brought in just for the convention to get everything to run as smoothly as is does is beyond understated.

Flat out, they do a bang up job.

Posted by mikeboozer

This number is currently at 15...probably now 14 after I've divulged super secret information ;)

Our offices are located in Seattle. Anyone know why?

We employ hundreds of people while at the convention at various levels of responsibility. 

The backbone of our onsite staff is our Captains & Deputies who come up largely through a mentorship program.
https://www.gencon.com/join/event_team_members

Mike Boozer
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by austicke mikeboozer

mikeboozer wrote:Our offices are located in Seattle. Anyone know why?

I imagine it goes back to where WotC and Peter Adkison reside.

_____________________________________
Alec Usticke, Fans of Gen Con Facebook Group

Posted by nascragman

Thanks, this was all part of a conversation I was having.  The person I was thinking of Gen Con as a big corporation.  I estimated 12 FTE.  So close.

Posted by mikeboozer nascragman

nascragman wrote:
Thanks, this was all part of a conversation I was having.  The person I was thinking of Gen Con as a big corporation.  I estimated 12 FTE.  So close.

Glad to be of service!

Yes, WotC is in Seattle, owned Gen Con. Peter acquired it. We're here.

Posted by quarex

I was just wondering about this recently, too, as it always seemed in the past like Gen-Con never advertised job openings, whereas now there are new ones popping up here every few weeks.  Though I realize most of those are temporary contract employees.

It would be very interesting to know how the convention was run prior to it being its own entity... I basically picture one person at TSR doing things year-round and then suddenly 100 people being re-assigned to work on it in the summer to get everything put together.

Posted by brotherbock quarex

quarex wrote:
I was just wondering about this recently, too, as it always seemed in the past like Gen-Con never advertised job openings, whereas now there are new ones popping up here every few weeks.  Though I realize most of those are temporary contract employees.
It would be very interesting to know how the convention was run prior to it being its own entity... I basically picture one person at TSR doing things year-round and then suddenly 100 people being re-assigned to work on it in the summer to get everything put together.

It was a lot fewer than 100 people putting it together at TSR. You're talking about an era where, to buy a ticket for a game, you walked up to the ticket booth, looked at the pegboard to see if there were tickets left hanging there for your game, and if there were, they grabbed the ticket down and you paid for it. An era where 'pickup gaming' was wherever you found a space, if it wasn't (and sometimes even if it was) in everyone's way. Very different animal.

Posted by nascragman brotherbock

brotherbock wrote:
quarex wrote:
I was just wondering about this recently, too, as it always seemed in the past like Gen-Con never advertised job openings, whereas now there are new ones popping up here every few weeks.  Though I realize most of those are temporary contract employees.
It would be very interesting to know how the convention was run prior to it being its own entity... I basically picture one person at TSR doing things year-round and then suddenly 100 people being re-assigned to work on it in the summer to get everything put together.

It was a lot fewer than 100 people putting it together at TSR. You're talking about an era where, to buy a ticket for a game, you walked up to the ticket booth, looked at the pegboard to see if there were tickets left hanging there for your game, and if there were, they grabbed the ticket down and you paid for it. An era where 'pickup gaming' was wherever you found a space, if it wasn't (and sometimes even if it was) in everyone's way. Very different animal.

I was there the year the pegboard got knocked over.  That was something to see

Posted by quarex

Was it an inside job?

Posted by mikeboozer

Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!

Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC

Posted by brotherbock mikeboozer

mikeboozer wrote:
Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!
Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC

Wasn't it TSR-Andon-WotC, in terms of who officially ran Gen Con? I can't remember how many years Andon was a thing, but it wasn't long. (And they were just the sub-company WotC set up to run it, iirc, but still a thing.)

Posted by nytenor brotherbock

brotherbock wrote:
mikeboozer wrote:
Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!
Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC

Wasn't it TSR-Andon-WotC, in terms of who officially ran Gen Con? I can't remember how many years Andon was a thing, but it wasn't long. (And they were just the sub-company WotC set up to run it, iirc, but still a thing.)

I seem to recall that WotC was eventually bought by Hasbro? 

Posted by traveller

Yes, WotC is currently owned by Hasbro.  Side note, WotC stopped coming to Gencon the same year that Hasbro created their own con based on their many toy product lines.  Still waiting to see if they are planning to do it a second time....

Posted by gib_rebeg mikeboozer

mikeboozer wrote:
Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!
Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC
Who's still there from the TSR days?

 

Posted by mikeboozer gib_rebeg

gib_rebeg wrote:
mikeboozer wrote:
Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!
Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC
Who's still there from the TSR days? 

From TSR? No one.

From Wizards there are 3 of us staff who used to work at WotC.
None of us came directly from there though!

Mike

Posted by gib_rebeg mikeboozer

mikeboozer wrote:
gib_rebeg wrote:
mikeboozer wrote:
Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!
Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC
Who's still there from the TSR days? 

From TSR? No one.From Wizards there are 3 of us staff who used to work at WotC.
None of us came directly from there though!
Mike
Sorry, way it read, it sounded like you still had some TSR people in your mix.

Was was a little taken back as I don't even think there are any still working for WotC.

Posted by mikeboozer gib_rebeg

gib_rebeg wrote:
mikeboozer wrote:
gib_rebeg wrote:
mikeboozer wrote:
Remember TSR was then bought by WotC who ran Gen Con. There were quite a few people there who were responsible for running and supporting it.
Some of those people work for Gen Con now!
Mike Boozer 
Customer Service & Event Team Manager
Gen Con LLC
Who's still there from the TSR days? 

From TSR? No one.From Wizards there are 3 of us staff who used to work at WotC.
None of us came directly from there though!
Mike
Sorry, way it read, it sounded like you still had some TSR people in your mix.Was was a little taken back as I don't even think there are any still working for WotC.

No problem, it could be interpreted that way. 

Posted by arcus

My apologies if this is the wrong place for this, but I wanted to thank you, Gen Con the company. During these times, it is perfectly understandable for you to cancel the Con for this year. Thank you for waiting, taking all the information into consideration, and making the best educated decision you could. I will not be requesting a refund so please use my small portion to help keep the lights on until next year when you come back bigger and better.

Thank you again Gen Con Staff - stay strong, stay safe, and I will see you next year!

PS. I think next year’s GC symbol should be a Phoenix or maybe a Dragon (since that has been the symbol for some years now) with a Phoenix like scale design on its chest to represent the return of GC from this global pandemic....just a thought. ;)

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