As the summer winds down, so do the giant, overwhelming board game conventions! Everyone is getting their games from Essen Spiel, GenCon and Origins, PAX Unplugged, etc. to the table. Yes, yes…I realize that conventions continue throughout the year, but what if you’re just looking to get together with some like-minded folk and geek out for a weekend and NOT 50,000 other gamers? What do you do then?
Enter: THE MINI-CON!
Mini-Conventions often start with an idea, often stolen from someone else’s idea. Or in my case, I had an idea, stolen from someone else’s idea, which really came about because a group of friendly, not-so-introverted board gamers were playing at my friend Adam’s house and soon his wife kicked everyone out because they were making too much noise and leaving game pieces around for the dog to chew up…wait, no..that wasn’t quite it.
Adam would invite his friends to play for a 3-day weekend of gaming in January. This group of friends would invite more people and eventually the group no longer fit in Adam’s house. Adam found a non-profit that was closed over the 3-day in January and would let him use their space.
I attended AdamCon (his 5th?) pre-COVID and my first year (2018) there were 70 some attendees and broke 100 the following year. It was AWESOME! Just hanging out all day playing games?!? Sign me up! This year, according to www.TheAdamCon.com, had over 700 attendees and raised over $23,000 for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital via Extra Life.
My sights haven’t gotten that big yet.
But I was inspired by AdamCon to try my own mini-con and last year, ReJuvenating Gamer Con (RJGCon) was born! We had just over 50 visitors over President’s Day Weekend, raised around $1500 during a fundraiser to pay for everything. This allowed us to rent a space, buy snacks, baked goods, pizza each day as well as over 45 geeky giveaways from games to mugs to Funko to hats/ Tshirts/ card boxes and sleeves and more!.
The con ran from 11am to 11pm Saturday and Sunday, and then 11am to 5pm on Monday. (I like to sleep in…) This year, we’re hoping to repeat the Con similar to last years, but add more visitors!
RJGCon is a family-friendly mini-convention of board game playing. I brought about 70 of my game collection and my friend Jason brought another 30 to check out from our “game library” and play in the Con.
Quick note on living in Germany: Almost every town in Gerrnany has some sort of “Burgerhaus” or community center that you can rent. We spent about 330 Euro (350 USD) for a nearby Burgerhaus that had a bar area and kitchen which we used for food and drink, a smaller room (which our friends that love games, but not so much noise and distractions made use of) and a larger room (for those that love games AND noise and distractions) which was the main board game area. We didn’t allow food into the larger room, and they seemed to be the right decision, especially when a friend showed up with his 5 year old carrying a bag of cheetos! The larger room had 8 potluck style tables set up for game play.
People would bring their own games, and use the library. Surprising, the most checked out games from the library were Dice City and Coup, followed probably by Zombicide.
If you’re in the Cincinnati area for MLK Day weekend, check out AdamCon!!
If you’re in the Kaiserlautern Area in Germany, please come by RJGCon over President’s Day Weekend and play some games. The Kaiserslautern Military Community is the largest community of Americans outside the US, and my goal is to have Americans and our German hosts connect to each other, meet, geek out and have a good, safe time board gaming! More information coming to the KMC Nerd Herd on Facebook as things get closer, or feel free to message me here.
If you’d like to support the convention, please click here:
https://s.dgpopup.com/j8grs244
The above link will take you to our Double Good Ultra-Premium Popcorn Fundraiser. It is really amazing popcorn. My recommendations are: Hallo Peno, Easy Peasy Carmel Cheesy or In Queso Fire. But all the flavors are mouthwateringly awesome!
Information on other Mini-conventions from other Opinionated Gamers:
Mark Jackson: It’s OK to go small… we’ve hosted multiple sleepover weekends for my son’s friends where we played games and ate way too much food for 2-3 days straight.
Back in the day (more than a decade ago), I ran a small (30-40 person) invitational event called Stained Glass Games (because we met in a church fellowship hall)… the five years of doing that were delightful. We charged a small fee and managed to get snacks & prize table stuff out of it (since the facility was free as I was the pastor of the small church).
Ben B: Smaller Cons are where the magic happens! You get to play more, socialize more, see what people are still playing or what has just arrived. There’s usually more trips out to eat and sometimes movies or escape rooms in between gaming sessions. I like “That Board Gaming Thing” in Raleigh, NC in the Fall before Essen as one I frequent. PrezCon is a local event that takes place in Charlottesville ( https://www.prezcon.com/ ) and is nice to attend. I host my own annual BenCon in the Fall and have been trying to get an invite to RuthCon for years!
Matt C: A small con popped up in Indy to sort of give a biannual vibe from the August Gen Con buzz. I was lucky to attend the invite-only affair for several years before COVID slowed it down. I had a great time gaming with less than 200 or so very friendly people. With a small CON we fit into one large gaming hall in a single hotel, so you could look across the room and almost always be able to spot the person you’re looking for. A local math trade/swap sale was a huge boon for me to be able to find new owners for games leaving my collection. Of course, I also have my own day-long Birthday-Con each year at my home, inviting everyone I can think of.. (If you’re in the Lafayette, IN area, drop me a line to get an invite to the annual Carlson Game-o-Rama! held in May each year…)
