What people want is answers to what the future holds.  If Gen Con had those for us, they'd share.

As has been pointed out time and again, there are likely contractual or other reasons why they can't.  Undoubtedly, they are exploring many options in the background.  Speaking for myself, Gen Con has banked DECADES worth of credit with me from both a competence and integrity standpoint.  I trust that they are doing what they can.  It is frustrating to not know what the future holds.

I really appreciate deathdwarf comments above.  LOTS of businesses will not survive this situation.  Gen Con continuing is not forgone conclusion.  I will do what I can to support them.  The literal least we can do is let them wait as long as possible to make a determination -- and not actively undercut any insurance/liability issues they may have going on in the background.  

Happy to roll badge to 2021 if that helps the Con organizers. But a warning: if Gen Con 2020 does happen...

...I'm going to attend and buy a LOT of merch.

Light hearted but relevant question.  If the con is cancelled, will the 55 or 60 year anniversary move out to the following year?

But seriously, I think it would be a gigantic headache to hold the hotel reservations a year, largely because every hotel would have to sign off on same prices, same number of rooms allocated, etc.  Plus some credit cards might need to be updated, what do you do with rooms that get freed up over the next year when people cancel, do we just not have a housing lottery in 2021, etc.  

I could maybe see GC giving everyone with a DT reservation a "VIG-like" experience where they get first dibs at housing next year--but then again, I also see that causing a massive hue & cry from everyone else, heh.  

So yeah, from a pure logisitcs POV, I think it's much less of a headache to just cancel all reservations, as much as that would suck for the people who scored a DT room this year!

Just goes to show, speculating on popcorn futures is risky business.

Mikeboozer, could you pass the following request to management: if this year is cancelled, could we have the same time for next year's housing lottery?

The issue I am most hung up on is DeathDwarf's mention of "Galathricon," considering Googling that word produces precisely one result, a seemingly incorrect OCR scan from an old issue of Dungeon.  Is this one of those sci-fi things where the reason it no longer takes place is because all memory of its existence was wiped from the universe?

I assume / hope that if the live event is cancelled there's some attempt at doing it online.

Whatever the owners of Gencon do or don't do, they will bear the wrath of those who think otherwise.  This places the Gencon owners in a lose-lose situation.  I would like to hope we all realize the problem here.  No matter what the final outcome here, I will continue to support Gencon in the future.  In talking with a few past attendees it seems that family and friend protection is more of a concern rather than personal safety.  We all most do what we think best for ourselves and family circles.  I'm waiting until the end of May to decide as the money involved is minor in the overall scheme of things.  Keeping my fingers crossed that Gencon will take place as planned.

+1

G

I don't think it is fair to get ticked off at Gencon one way or another. Watching several other conventions cancel or postpone, it is clear they are all reacting to the decisions of the politicians, either Governors or Mayors. It also looks like most of the Politicians are dealing with June (and June's events) right now and not venturing forth to July or August yet. 

They may be bracing for the worst but they are clearly still hoping for the best. 

The reality is....no one is going to blame them unless things go bad IF things arise out of it.

They honestly are in a no-win situation.  If they do not cancel, attendance, vendors, and dollars are going to be way way off and expenses are going to be hugely up.  If they do cancel, there is at best, no revenue outside of people pushing their tickets to next year or merchandise sales online that I think will sell out as we all want to help support them.  Worst case is that the ICC tries to hold it against them, but if they want them back not just next year, but five years from now, its not an issue.

As others have more eloquently said including the Mod (you have a thankless job bro, I've done it for online games, its not fun) there is nothing to report, so keep watching and waiting, and the fairegoer wants better communication.  Again, no win.

Gen Con could, at their discretion, share two additional categories of information:

1. Activity information: What is being done - even without conclusions what activity is being undertaken would be interesting to many here.  For example: "We are currently speaking with our exhibitors to gather their sentiment about possible social distancing rules."  or "We are considering contingency plans for a fully digital check in and event ticketing."

2. Relevant factors: Without sharing any decisions or announcements, Gen Con could be sharing what factors they are considering. "We are awaiting clarification from the Marion County Deparment of Health for protocols for conventions." or "Our decision making process is guided first by the safety of our attendees, exhibitors, and EOs, and informed by our contractual obligations and regulatory groups A, B, and C."

Again - there is no obligation to share these things, but I have received more substantial COVID readiness updates from my local game store than I've gotten from Gen Con.  Something to consider.   Lest someone observe that my local game store probably has less problems than Gen Con, I've also received more substantial updates from several airlines, who undoubtedly have very complex problems as well.

Lets say only 40,000 people show up for opening day. If you start standing them 6 ft apart and use all 4 sides of a city block you would need...wait for it...190 city blocks to queue them all up. Then if you limit the entrances to 3, West St, Maryland, and Capitol, and it takes 15 seconds to take a temp and have the line advance it would take... drumroll please...55  ½ hours to screen everyone.

Those rules were announced for the events that are taking place at the ICC during phase 2.  For which there are 1 to possibly 2 of them.

A 200 person seminar, and a 1,400 person awards event, which likely wont see anywhere near that.

They needed to announce it so attendees will know what they will have to do to comply.

If you read further into their announcement, they did state the rules will be updated as the situation changes and we progress through the other phases.