I think the idea of volunteering for chunks of time at GenCon is pretty cool. But who am I volunteering for? When I sign up for a 32 hour stint, am I staffing booths for GenCon itself or helping individual vendors at their retail booths or game tables?

Sorry if this is explained vey clearly elsewhere - I looked but did not see it.

The Volunteers tab on the Gen Con website is for people to help Gen Con run the convention.

Gaming groups that run large numbers of events might ask for volunteers to GM.

Vendors Might ask for volunteers to help them man their booth during the time that the dealers hall is open.

Neither of the last two types of volunteers are arranged by Gen Con as far as I know.

If you sign up via the Gen Con program you are volunteering to help run the show. You might be helping out with any number of things. Anything from helping from maintain lines to giving out buttons for our kids Button Program.
If you are volunteering for another company onsite, then you would be helping them out in  their individual areas. Running demo's, handing out information and the like.

Mike Boozer
Customer Service & Volunteer Manager
Gen Con LLC