Keeping up with cons

I've been gaming for over 20 years now, but I've never made any effort to go to conventions, save for signing up for ENWorld Chicago game Day, and the occasional sci-fi/comic con attended in my youth.

Is there some central resource (on the Web or elsewhere) that lists gaming cons and where/when they will happen? I'm in northern Illinois, USA, and I have *no idea* what cons happen around here.

Any help is appreciated.

Columbus Ohio is a short drive for you so allow me to tell you about two great Cons that happen here. The first is over Memorial Weekend, it's Marcon. It's a Sci Fi/Fantasy convention, not just gaming. It's been going on for over 35 years and has anime, movies, LARP, filking, gaming, panels with authors and people from hollywood, and a whole mess of anything sci fi or fantasy related. A far as cons go it's the has the wisest array of topics I've seen.

www.marcon.org

The other big one is Origins. That's a M:tG and gaming convention.

Some gaming conventions (or conventions with gaming) in Illinois, garnered from Google (so some links may not work):

Capricorn
February
Chicago, Illinois
http://capricorn.org

Winter War
February
Champaign, Illinois
http://www.prairienet.org/winterwar

Egyptian Campaign
April
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
http://www.siu.edu/~gamesoc/ecgamcon/index.htm

Little Wars
April
Lincolnshire, Illinois
hmgs.invisionas.com/Littlewars/2001/index.html

Spring Offensive
April
East Peoria, Illinois
http://www.springoffensive.com/

QuinCon
June
Quincy, Illinois
http://www.quincon.org/

FlatCon
August
Bloomington/Normal, Illinois
http://www.flatcon.com

I-Con
September
Springfield, Illinois
http://www.mecca-anime.com/I-Con/i-con.html

Rock-Con Game Fair
October
Rockford, Illinois
http://rock-con.com/

ChamBanaCon
November
Springfield, Illinois
http://www.chambanacon.org/index2.html