Event Host Policy Updated for 2017

The Event Host Policy has been updated for 2017. Please review the new document and contact us with any questions.

The biggest changes to be aware of are that badge refunds for GMs will be handled automatically before fulfillment begins (badges assigned after that are unchanged), requests (for badges, hotels, special requests, etc.) will be made via web form instead of simply email, and late events submitted within a month of the convention will most likely not be reviewed or placed without special prior arrangement.

Event Submission Begins January 22

You will be able to submit your event plans for Gen Con 50 next month, so start getting your details together. Event submission should function the same as it as in the past, but remember: if you have any questions about the process or have an event idea that doesn't quite seem to fit, just email [email protected] to talk about it.

Remember: your historical event data is available in your EO/GM Dashboard. Just change the year in the drop-down menu at the right and you can confirm your attendance numbers from lsat year (or earlier). Base your plan for this year on reasonable growth from previous years. Wishlist data from 2016 is also available upon request, and can help judge overall demand for potential growth.

Basic attendance analysis has also been completed for all groups and companies with dedicated event hall space. We will be following up with many groups to confirm plans for this coming year, but if you have any questions about your own hourly attendance or other numbers, let us know and we can review them with you.

When submitting a new event, must we register it under a human's name or my we use a group name? If a group name is used, does it need to be a legally registered name?

Your account should have your human name in it, but for the "group/company" field, only enter something if you actually have a group or company. If you don't, just leave that blank.

And no one is going to research legally registered names for anything. There is no audit - that field is just an opportunity for groups and companies to brand their events so players can find them and Gen Con can keep them together when we place things.

If you and your buddies are running events, feel free to submit them under your the name your group operates under, regardless of if/where you've registered that name.

Just make sure it's distinct from other folks or be prepared to change it if there is duplication.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Is there a specific time that event submission begins? I am not seeing the link available to submit an event yet.

It's open now, we've had our first submission. :)

Marian McBrine
Event Coordinator
Gen Con LLC

Just want to clarify something about the Event Host Policy because I'm sadly paranoid. :)

GMs can get reimbursed for their badge if they have 72 hours' worth of game time (meaning the duration of the event x the number of people it holds). Just to clarify, does that mean I would need to have all players show up and give me a ticket, or that I'm *willing* to have so many players? 

If my 4-hour game holds 6 players and only 3 show up, do I get credit for 24 hours or 12? 

24.  They only care about what you offered to run.  Unrealistic submissions or (over time) not having folks show up to your events may affect what they accept from you, however.

Parody is correct - badge & hotel reimbursement are based on what you committed to run, not on who actually showed up. We don't want to throw individual GMs into chaos because a table of friends bailed on them for whatever reason, but that does mean we will sometimes be pretty strict with permitted max players, particularly from year-to-year to reflect any patterns or historical expectations.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

 garhkal wrote:

 parody wrote:
24.  They only care about what you offered to run.  Unrealistic submissions or (over time) not having folks show up to your events may affect what they accept from you, however.

Yup.  So if you say offered to run 8 RPG tables, 4 hrs each table, slated for 6 people, that qualifies for enough Hrs to get the badge and room compped..  And even if say one of those events happens to not run (everyone doesn't show up so the event winds up being cancelled) you ain't gonna get dinnged..

Technically you would be 8 player hours short (4x6=24; 24x8=192) with your example Garhkal  :)

70 player hours gets you a badge, 200 player hours gets you room reimbursement for a quarter of a room; 800 players hours gets a full room in GM block if available (first come, first served).

Also being unreasonably paranoid person, is the GM badge allocation request form up yet?  The Event Host Guide suggested it would be up sometime after event submission was open but I hadn't seen it yet.  Just double checking that I haven't missed an email somewhere along the way.

http://www.gencon.com/host/eo-gm

Marian McBrine
Event Coordintor
Gen Con LLC

Further, a couple emails have gone out about badges and forms, so if you haven't gotten those, make sure that you are on the EO/GM email list, not just the general Gen Con mailing list.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Sweet, thanks a bunch!

I am starting to get worried that I made an error when submitting my events in January. They are all currently "submitted for review". When should I start to freak out?

Short answer: May.

Long answer: it takes months to go through the thousands and thousands of events, so most submissions aren't reviewed or placed until after the submission period anyway - that's part of why we have the defined process to let people know what order we tackle things in.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Almost May and I have yet to hear about any of the scheduling for my 10 events.  I am a little worried as last year they all got moved to different times and it created havoc with my schedule.