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Gen Con is the one of the largest and most prominent Gaming Convention s in North America . It was founded in 1968 . Gen Con 2002 brought in about 26,000 attendees; which makes the convention similar in size to E3 , Dragon Con and Origins . Gen Con is currently held in Indianapolis, Indiana . Gen Con UK conventions have also been held in the UK in a variety of cities. Gen Con Paris was held in France in April 2006 and again in 2007 . HISTORY Gen Con began in 1967 as an informal gathering of war game enthusiasts at the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin home of Gary Gygax , later termed "Gen Con 0" Gen Con's name is a derivation of "Geneva Convention," given the convention's origins in Lake Geneva. The name also is a Play-on-words , as the " Geneva Conventions " are the name of a set of important international Treaties regarding war and the earliest Gen Cons had a focus on wargames. During the following decade the event grew and was hosted at a variety of southern Wisconsin locations, including an American Legion Hall, George Williams College , and the former Lake Geneva Playboy Resort. In 1978 the convention moved to the University Of Wisconsin-Parkside campus in Kenosha , and in 1985 it moved to the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center & Arena (commonly known as the MECCA) in Milwaukee . Attendance steadily rose from 5,000 paid admissions in 1985 to a peak of 30,000 in 1994 , making Gen Con the premier event in the Role-playing Game industry. Gen Con moved to the Midwest Express Center (MEC, now the Midwest Airlines Center ) in 1998 when the MEC replaced the MECCA. For the first nine years, Gen Con was sponsored by the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association. Beginning in 1976 , Gen Con was managed by TSR, Inc. , original publisher of the Dungeons & Dragons Role-playing Game . In 1997 , TSR was bought by Wizards Of The Coast , which in turn was purchased by Hasbro in 1999 . In May 2002 , Gen Con was purchased from Hasbro by Peter Adkison , the founder of Wizards of the Coast. The Midwest U.S. convention moved to Indianapolis in 2003 . Peter Adkison attributes the move to lack of hotel space, a less spread out convention center, 40% more floor space, and frequently broken escalators in Milwaukee's convention center.34 In 2003 Gen Con in the United States was split into two different conventions: Gen Con Indy (in Indianapolis, Indiana) and Gen Con SoCal (in Anaheim, California). Gen Con Indy is the larger of the two, drawing approximately 25,000 attendees per year, on par with the Gen Con conventions in Milwaukee during the 1990s and early 2000s. It takes place in the Indiana Convention Center . Gen Con SoCal was smaller, with approximately 6,300 attendees in 2005. being played at Gen Con Indy 2003. Unusually elaborate games, like this custom board, are a draw for many players. Photograph by Alan De Smet.]] After two unsuccessful years of running Gen Con Europe in the UK, Adkison decided to scale back and focus his efforts on the US shows. In 2004 licenses were issued to groups who would go about creating the franchises Gen Con Barcelona and Gen Con UK.
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