Gen Con, North America’s longest running and best-attended tabletop game convention, has announced that game industry veteran David Hoppe will join the company’s executive team as President. As such, Hoppe will take over the management of Gen Con’s operations at the company’s Seattle office, beginning in May 2017.

“I’m ecstatic to return to the hobby game industry and join the incredibly talented team at Gen Con,” said David Hoppe, Gen Con President. “Gen Con has accomplished so much over the past 50 years, and I’m looking forward to working with Peter Adkison, Adrian Swartout, and the entire Gen Con team to continue making the ‘Best Four Days in Gaming’ even better for sponsors, exhibitors, volunteers, and most importantly, the 60,000+ attendees who make Gen Con a truly global gaming community.”

After 10 years of leadership, in which Gen Con’s annual attendance has more than doubled, Swartout will step down as CEO following this August’s Gen Con 50 event. Hoppe and Swartout will work together to jointly manage the company and ensure a smooth leadership transition throughout the next four months. Subsequently, Swartout will continue to serve on Gen Con’s Board of Directors.

“David brings a wealth of game industry experience and a strong managerial skillset to the Gen Con organization,” said Adrian Swartout. “As our organization has scaled rapidly, efficient management of our growth has become an increasingly important business goal, and David is an ideal leader to help Gen Con manage the continuing evolution of our business.”

David Hoppe is currently Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Blastworks, Inc. a mobile games developer and publisher with operations in North America and Europe. At Blastworks, David oversees performance marketing, analytics, data science, and business development. Prior to Blastworks, David spent five years as a Director of Business Operations for Xbox Live and Microsoft, as well as being a founding member of two game development startups (Flashlight Creations & Tenacious Games). He also served as a consultant to Upper Deck Entertainment, and from 1995 to 2002 was SVP of Organized Play, as well as Brand Management at Wizards of the Coast during the meteoric rise of both the Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon trading card game franchises.

SOURCE: Gen Con LLC

Want to host events at Gen Con 50? Event Submission is open now with thousands of proposed events already submitted! While Event Submission will last through July 17, the Early Event Submission period is rapidly approaching its cut-off date of February 19. Events submitted prior to this date have the best chance at being placed, and also can receive more feedback from the Program Management team.

Want to learn more about running events at Gen Con? You can read more at Tips for New EOs/GMs. You also can get comprehensive information on the topic from the updated Event Host Policy.

From Gen Con…

Housing Registration in 2017 will differ from prior years’ processes. The most important change to know is that all attendee badge purchasers will receive a unique randomized access time the day before Housing Registration opens. All attendee-type badge purchasers will receive access times. Not all attendees receiving access times will participate in Housing Registration. Extra time also has been built into the registration process, so attendees should not be discouraged if they receive a much later access time compared to previous years.

After randomization of all the purchasers of attendee-type badges, a countdown timer for your unique access time will appear on your “My Housing” page on gencon.com.

All customers that purchase an attendee-type badge after Housing Portal access times have been assigned will be placed at the end of the Housing Portal Access queue.

The first customer in-queue will gain access to the Housing Portal at noon (Eastern) on Sunday, February 12with subsequent customers receiving access thereafter. Badge purchasers can reserve one room for every 1-2 badges purchased. Rooms will be reserved one-at-a-time, in real-time. Refreshing your browser page will not cause you to lose your position in the Housing Portal Access queue.

Nightly minimum stay restrictions will be in-effect again for all hotels in the downtown area. Reservations for hotels in the downtown area must consist of three or more consecutive dates and must include the night of Saturday, August 19. Nightly minimum stay restrictions will remain in place throughout Housing Registration. Reservations at suburban hotels are not subject to nightly minimum stay restrictions.

To secure your hotel reservation, you must use a credit card that expires after the 2017 convention. The Housing Portal will not allow you to reserve a room with a credit card that expires before the convention ends.