Guests of Honor

Throughout the history of Gen Con, we have been fortunate to have the best and brightest minds in the industry as Guests of Honor at the show.

Elizabeth Hargrave

Elizabeth Hargrave is an award-winning board game designer whose first game, Wingspan, won the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2019. Since then, she has published several more titles including Tussie Mussie,The Fox Experiment, and Undergrove. She is also co-founder and Treasurer of the newly formed Tabletop Game Designers Association (TTGDA), and an advocate for underrepresented voices in gaming. 

image of elizabeth hargrave

Elizabeth is inspired by a love of nature and a desire to play games that break away from tried-and-true themes. When not gaming, you'll often find her hiking, birding, or collecting mushrooms in and around Washington, DC. For more information, visit Elizabeth’s website.

Featured Events at Gen Con 2025

Nature Systems Game Design

Join 2025 Guest of Honor Elizabeth Hargrave as she relates how she goes about translating cool things in nature into the form of a game - then practice brainstorming your own ideas for nature-based games from prompts she provides.

Followed by a Q&A and moderated by Kathleen Mercury

  • When: Saturday, August 2 at 1-2:30 pm
  • Where: JW: White River Ballroom A–B

Event Registration

  • TRD25ND292195 – Game Design Academy Students only (those with a Trade Day badge)
  • SEM25ND292326 – available to anyone with a 4-day or Saturday badge

stack of board games

Span-Span-Span

Elizabeth Hargrave, David Gordon, & Michael O'Connell discuss how they expanded the Wingspan universe to dragons & fish. What makes these games feel like they are in a shared family, yet different? There will also be a Q&A session with this event.

  • When: Sunday, August 3 at 2 pm
  • Where: JW: White River Ballroom A–B

Event Registration

  • SEM25ND298119 – available to anyone with a 4-day or Saturday badge