[GenCon] "(more) Road Construction News!" (Scouting and Info Within)

[Mark]

Good news. No road construction for GenCon. The Hyperfix project that closed I-65/I-70 in dowtown Indianapolis is finished ahead of shedule.

http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/7/058782-6237-092.html

By finishing 30 days early they will be getting a $3.6 million bonus and we will have clear roads for GenCon.

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More road construction news. The Interstates are back open again as they reported they would be. They said however that it might take three days to take down all the detour signs. So if you are driving in today through Wednesday go ahead and ignore any detours signs you see, The Roads Are Open.

If you registered then you can get locations when you view your event listings (the feature was "lost" when they revamped the GC website, but they put it back.)

If you have a couple of hours, want to meet some real cool folks, and don't mind getting some freebies at the Con out of it....lend Steve Creech a hand and sign up to do a short stint in the Bastion Booth!

More info and details here-

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55394

(Good people at Bastion and plenty of free downloads from their web site, too!)

GenCon has the exhibit hall layout up at there site now. Showing where each booth for each company will be at.

http://www.gencon.com/display.aspx?file=indy-exhibit-hall

www.gencon.com has done several updates in the last week with details on costume contests, costume ball, celeb. signing schedules etc.

Check out the latest news on The Keeper's site, especailly the parts about True Dungeon TM and Ultimate Extreme Gamer Abuse-O-Rama

End of page 6, begining of page 7 of this thread has people interested in who will be bringing their kids with them to GenCon this year.

For Event Listings -

The trick is to navigate through Indianapolis > Registration, rather than clicking on the "Event Reg is live !!!" link, then you don't get stuck in that little box.

Somone was asking about Generic Tix. The ID code is GEN00002, punch that into the search box and you should get the option of purchasing generic tix.

You have to sign in through registration and it is the second option down, you can sort by date, time and event type.

Directly to the registration section - http://www.gencon.com/display.aspx?file=indy-registration

or to get directly to the secure pages - https://registration.gencon.com/regsystem/

Announcement - Pre-Registration begins on February 3rd / $55.00 for a 4-day pass / $20.00 for a 1-day pass

From CaptainCalico - First-timers might want to take a note of a few points from the Registration page: "You will need to have your own e-mail address for this system!" (Not much of an issue w/ this crowd, but you might want to pass on the word to anyone who needs it.) "Also note there are more hotel rooms within a four block radius of the convention center in Indianapolis than there are in all of Milwaukee. Once you register you will be sent a confirmation email. This email will contain your password for reserving a hotel room through Passkey, our housing system." Just counting The Keeper's "1st Ring" I get 2,617 rooms within one block, so the prime housing situation is looking good.

General Convention Information

Official Site - http://www.gencon.com/

ICC (Indy Con Ctr) includes many links and Intl help (ICC Floorplans)

Extremely useful -

Doc's Scouting Mission

Extremely useful - The Keeper of Ancient GenCon Lore

Events

The info on 24 hour Anime will be posted at www.hadespro.org when it becomes available

Travel

"You can see the RCA dome from I-70 as it moves past. If you fly in the airport is only 7 miles away" - Michael Morris

Amtrak (Train Station directly behind convention center)

SUMMER IN INDIANA = ROAD CONSTRUCTION SEASON! - It looks like part of the I-70/I-65 highway system that passes through downtown Indianapolis will be under construction from May - August and totally closed down for the duration.

http://www.in.gov/dot/div/specialprojects/hyperfix/

http://www.in.gov/dot/div/specialprojects/hyperfix/detour/lg_routes_in.jpg (maps of downtown Indy)

http://www.indygov.org/dcam/closings/strclosings.htm (street closures)

http://www.indydt.com/dtmap.html (Detailed downtown area map of Indy) Michael Morris - As you can see on that map, the route to the largest single parking area near the center is to take exit 79A from I-70 and head towards the dome (A left turn at the end of the ramp if you were eastbound on I-70 and a right turn if you were westbound). That street is Missouri street. That will take you past the dome's parking area.

Additional Fun!

CaptianCalico- http://www.filmworksonline.com/

dogoftheunderworld - Also, those with children (of almost any age) may want to make a family vacation of it. The Indianapolis Children's Museum is one of the best in the country. (about 30 blks north of downtown) Also downtown is the Indianapolis Zoo, the IMAX Theatre, and the new Indiana State Museum.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Good idea Mark!

I suspect this will be a great year to go.

 

[HellHound]

Thanks Mark!

Thursday Denise and I started setting up our GenCon plans for this year (as well as our Origins plans) and I'm waiting for the Hotel Registration for the Con to open up so we can get a room attached to the Con (and avoid the hotel problems we had last year with a hotel that not only claimed we didn't have a reservation, couldn't put us up, and couldn't recommend another hotel to go to, but then proceeded to bill us as no-shows).

 

[William Ronald]

Mark,

I saw the pages and I think they are helpful. Hopefully, I will make Gen Con this year.

Perhaps some Indiana residents might want to offer the rest of us some tips when we visit their state's capitol.

 

[Pielorinho]

Does GenCon 2003 have an official Web site? Can someone link to it? I don't have the most basic information yet about it (e.g., the dates for it), and would like to know.

Thanks!
Daniel

 

[CaptainCalico]

The official site is http://www.gencon.com/pages/1/index.htm but they seem to be down at the moment (hopefully revamping for the new registration set-up).

In the meantime check out The Keeper of Ancient GenCon Lore for lots of ... enthusiastic info from someone who is both a long-time GenCon regular and a native of Indy.

 

[Pielorinho]

Aha! So that's why typing in www.gencon.com wasn't getting me anywhere! Thanks!

Does anyone know the specific dates for GenCon 2003?

Daniel

 

[Eridanis]

Off the top of my head - July 24-27. I know it's the last weekend of July rather than early August.

 

[Pielorinho]

Phew! I'd just seen, on Monte Cook's Web site, a reference to Arcana Unearthed's being released at GenCon. I thought it said in June, but on looking at it again, I see it says "July." Silly me.

I'm going to be going on my honeymoon in June, and I don't exactly figure I should be scheduling my honeymoon around GenCon; I'm glad to see I'll be able to do both.

Daniel

 

[kkoie]

I just wanted to chime in that I live just outside Indy, and CaptainCalico's link to Keeper of Ancient GenCon Lore is a great site, he has just about everything covered when it comes to questions and answers about Indianapolis.