I will be working with one of the booths at Gencon, and to do so I'm flying in from Canada.

Flights to and from Canada require a negative Covid Test to be obtained both ways, an Antigen test going into the US, and a PCR test to come back into Canada.

The former seems to be easily available, with dozens of pharmacies near me offering them at a cost effective and timely manner.

The latter is a bigger question. I know testing is available at the airport, but is noted by some travelers I know as being expensive and possibly requiring being at the airport much earlier than I'll be able to be there.

I'm assuming Indianapolis has a variety of pharmacies and other possible options for obtaining tests, but I thought that on top of Google'ing the matter, that I'd ask here, to see if anyone local has input on timely and cost effective testing options, or if any other international travelers had thoughts to share on the matter?

I am, of course, fully vaccinated (and will have been for 2 months when we hit the convention floor), and am doing my best to remain even safer than normal in the weeks leading up to the event. My main concern for now is making sure I can get home without issues. And yes, I'm aware that attending an event of this size, even masked and vaccinated, carries non-negligible risk. Setting aside the wisdom of the choice in attending at all, I'm just looking for options for traveler testing in the downtown Indianapolis area.

Thank you.

Well damn....normally I would recommend the CVS on Illinois but they are not returning after last summers riots

Your best bet might be IU Methodist Hospital off 16th and Capitol 

Someone asked on the Discord and they responded that they've been working on a list of testing sites to add to the FAQ. 

That would be very helpful. From my efforts Google'ing up options and answers so far, based on the distance to several clinics/services or the restricted time frames in play, taking the bus back to the Airport on Friday or Saturday for a test is currently leading the options in terms of cost and minimal imposition on the team's resources (including my presence).

There is a CVS three blocks from the Con

https://www.cvs.com/store-locator/indianapolis-in-pharmacies/336-south-delaware-st-indianapolis-in-46204/storeid=10903?WT.mc_id=LS_GOOGLE_FS_10903

Have you checked if the international airport you are flying outbound has testing?

Canada does not accept the at-home tests. It has to be a PCR test (there are a few other tests that are acceptable too, but not the antigen tests). Also be aware: the test has to be administered within 72 hours of the scheduled departure time of your flight back to canada.

Here is the website that should have the latest information on what you are required to do. You will have to follow the links and keep yourself update on what is needed to enter Canada.

https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid

It may or may not differ than what is needed to board the flight in the US.

If it's the only reasonable option, I'll make it work, but something available downtown is probably going to be vastly more workable.

Late edit: that said, turnaround time on the test is also important. I'm seeing some services that do testing, but don't work weekends, or their time frame is 3-5 business days. Needing to get it within 72 hours of departure means that anything more than an expected 24 hour turnaround is already pushing it, and likely a non-starter.

COVIDclinic.org

this was just posted in the latest email update
Downtown testing site

https://appointment.genepace.com/v2/#book

:(

The test has to be taken less than 72 hours from when I board my departing flight. Given that I fly home Monday evening, this means anything earlier than Friday evening is a non-starter, personally (might be useful for others of course, don't let that very specific personal limitation preclude sharing info for others, of course!), but good to know there's some options showing up.

So far it looks like a CVS near the convention center or the hotel might be my best bet, depending on some scheduling and availability, with the airport being Plan C as a fallback, at least so far. We're also far enough out that not all options might be available yet, as a number of places don't book more than 2 weeks out, and I'm 3 weeks from needing the test, so there's still time to wait and see.

Just trying to be proactive on the matter and keep abreast of info to the best of my ability, especially since I fly out to the event on Monday (for setup on Tuesday and Wednesday), and will thus be rather buried in work and don't want to miss options for timely/local testing on the weekend while we're in the thick of things.

If it hasn't been posted by now, I would make your own arrangements. the CVS and Genepace locations downtown aren't offering any weekend bookings that I could find, but the other genepace location did have Saturday slots if I remember correctly. if you can get a convenient weekend booked time at the airport it might be your best bet to bite the bullet on the commute and get something locked down. or try and get an earlier flight on Monday so that you can get your test done downtown on Friday.

Good Luck.

Flight is locked in and based on needing to be present for the full tear down and placing stuff in storage, so I guess I'll be trying to find something local to the con, the hotel, or at the airport in the next few days (a lot of places weren't allowing bookings more than a week out anyways).

Not looking to half ass this being set up, but the limited timing/availability is definitely adding a snag.

Didn't think it'd be quite so hard to find someone to poke me in the brain with a q-tip, but here we are.

Maybe if they knew how much of a jerk I can be, they'd be a bit more eager to help me line this up?

All kidding aside, I'm fairly optimistic it'll work out in the end, just trying to do my due diligence before the team is in the thick of things.

As a follow up, the Airport ended up being the way to go.

I tried using CVS, which had a location around a 10 minute walk away from the convention center. Their website wanted a SIN or US Drivers license. Not being American, I had neither. I tried calling their customer service line, which was equally unhelpful. I walked to the CVS directly, said "your site says you have slots available, and I'm happy to pay for the test", but they still couldn't do anything.

There were other services in the area, but most of them either weren't available on weekends, were too far afield to get to (I wasn't looking to take an hour long road trip with one of our already tired drivers or on mass transit/an Uber), or otherwise not workable (too distant mixed with highly limited hours, etc).

In the end, the Airport was the way to go. Not surprisingly, they're obviously focused on assisting travelers of all sorts, including international ones.

Hopefully next year we're at a place where testing isn't necessary, or if it is, the infrastructure exists to make it smoother/more cost effective. But I thought I'd mention it on the off chance someone looking to travel for a conference or something was looking for insight on the matter. Perhaps just limited to my personal experience with one con in one state during these shenanigans, but I felt it was worth sharing all the same.