Gen Con Event Catalog
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GM: Brian SchwartzWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Having trouble getting 20 and 30 somethings to come to your gaming events? Learn the secret of how to market and plan events that will get people interested and showing up.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how to integrate tabletop games into all aspects of your school culture: convincing students, clubs, faculty and administration that they need games in their lives (which of course they do!)
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Building on the success of last year's "Leveling Up" event, this interactive session focuses on innovations in TTRPGs, escape rooms, and more for use in higher education & professional development.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Well designed lockbox activities can help students learn logic and reasoning skills, teamwork, and master content. We will go through premade lockbox activities you can adapt for your own purposes.
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Dungeons, Dragons and Science!: Creating educational TTRPG materials for classrooms and clubs. TRD26ND303148Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
A professor shares his experiences creating TTRPG materials inspired by real-world biology to teach scientific concepts and problem solving to students in grades 6-12 in both class and club settings.
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GM: Susan CurrierWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
How teachers can connect gaming with Social-Emotional Learning to help students build empathy, conflict resolution, teamwork, and leadership.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Interactive large and small group discussions on using games and gamification to improve student engagement, learning, and satisfaction in the university setting.
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GM: Annye DriscollWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Teach and encourage your students to be creatives! Cosplay is an empowering, fun, and social craft that allows people of all ages to learn skills, form bonds, and express themselves.
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GM: Matt ShoemakerWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Explores the creation of serious game collections in libraries, how to encourage educators to use them in the classroom, and how to go beyond the classroom by collaborating with community partners.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how to host approachable gaming programs to engage your community, including trivia events, puzzle races, and more.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
This panel of experts using TRPGs in businesses explores how and why TRPGs translate so effectively to real-world group development, and what facilitators must understand to do this work responsibly
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Participants will create a complete brand from basic attributes and transform their brand into a vivid, playable personality using collaborative character-building techniques and business savvy.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
This session will be a presentation on using games and simulations to increase learning in the classroom. We will cover strategies for designing lessons and creating learning objectives.
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GM: Kelsey BatesWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how to incorporate local history into exciting teen mystery lock-ins! Develop your own programs using puzzles and clues to create opportunities to explore history in a hands-on environment.
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GM: Sharon GozaWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Gamification is a powerful way to reinforce learning, provide long term retention, and increase engagement. But, do you know what game mechanics work best for your learners?
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by LearningRxWednesday 10:00 AM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Attendees will learn about cognitive skills and how the differ from knowledge. We will explore how weak cognitive skills can impact Learning and introduce some games that may target these skills.
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GM: Michael SmithWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Not every game fits every lesson plan. Get hands on playing games and making adjustments to them to see how we can sculpt commercially available games to fit our needs as educators.
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GM: Kyla SteppWednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how to use Monumental Consequence in your classroom.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Mature (18+) SEM - Seminar
A brief overview of what a licensor is looking for when it comes to tabletop games.
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Wednesday 10:00 AM 1h Free Mature (18+) SEM - Seminar
In this session we will discuss ways to design historical games that include difficult subjects.
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Wednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Move beyond play: use the engineering process and game design to teach K-8 systems thinking. This session offers a roadmap for turning students into innovative creative engineers.
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Empowering Creativity: Creating inclusion, community and confidence in game design classes. TRD26ND302494Wednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Everyone brings something to the table and everyone is welcome. Fostering personal creativity and student voice through the intentional design of a welcoming classroom environment.
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Wednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
How do you offer quality game programs at your library without breaking the bank? Find out how we offer a variety of programs throughout the year without spending too much gold.
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GM: Rae StoloffWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
There are endless ways to use a library makerspace for cosplay creation. Learn to create, teach, and structure cosplay learning for most ages with everything from basic to advanced maker technology!
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Collaborative Play, Collaborative Work: Using D&D and Personality Theory to Enhance Teamwork TRD26ND304653Wednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Using D&D and Myers-Briggs theory, this seminar examines how collaborative play reveals insights into teamwork, communication, and group cohesion across professional and educational settings.
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GM: Daniel GochnauerWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Methods to engage with your customers in order to grow communities
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GM: Ashley ByrerWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Escape the escape room! Learn how to create engaging, scalable puzzle hunts that use escape room mechanics without the headaches.
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Wednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how to build engaging all-ages programming for your library. Gain practical advice on how to build a programming collection for your library.
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by Goblin MktWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Big impact, small budget! Use local event calendars, press releases, unique events, and smart social media strategies to make your marketing budget stretch further.
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Wednesday 11:00 AM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how to design experiences that spark genuine insight, using principles from cognitive psychology, puzzle craft, and game design. Designed for all attendees.
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GM: Joanna ClaudyWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Can games teach intercultural skills? Come play a stereotype label activity and Barnga as you learn about other games that could be used. Perfect for high school and up, adaptable for middle school.
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by Regions BankWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
With tariffs, employee challenges, fraudsters, and challenging financial roadblocks for start-ups, it’s important to go into your business adventures well-prepared.
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GM: Brad BurenheideWednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
The presenter shares the principles of utilizing games in the social studies classroom. With these principles, any teacher should be able to utilize games in their classroom.
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Wednesday 11:00 AM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Topographic maps are key resources for field science and outdoor recreation - let’s bring the fun indoors, too! Demo our classroom/tabletop games that engage players with the real lay of the land.
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Wednesday 12:00 PM 2h Free Mature (18+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Join us for a lesson in miniature painting and how to host your own painting lesson and/or event for your class, store, or library.
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Wednesday 12:00 PM 1h Free Mature (18+) SEM - Seminar
Learn best practices from seasoned designer Ben Rosset for designing games about real-world topics
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Wednesday 12:00 PM 1h Free Mature (18+) WKS - Workshop
Learn how journey mapping can help your game design process in this interactive workshop.
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GM: Susan HaarmanWednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Explore how analog role-playing games function as powerful learning tools by connecting educational theory to use TTRPGS and larps in classrooms, training, and community learning.
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GM: Beth PintalWednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
There is an epidemic of loneliness in the world today, and a question of how to solve it. There are games, tips, and tricks that will help your library or game store become a gathering place.
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The Running of Intro and Advanced TTRPG Courses at the Collegiate Level: A Retrospective TRD26ND302554Wednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Experience the history of 3 years of TTRPG courses at IUI Luddy MAS. We examine the strategies that have and have not worked in the classroom and explore student feedback and their own game creations.
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Wednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Teen (13+) TRD - Trade Day Events
This talk will present the results of a study run by Drs. Heidenreich and Joy in Spring of 2026 on the impact of familiarity with one's fellow players on group performance in cooperative board games.
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GM: Anastasia KlemmWednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Discover how board games and robotics collide! Learn basic coding and program a real VEX AIM robot as your game piece in a classic board game—STEM fun for all ages.
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Games as Pedagogy: Using board games as standards-aligned curriculum and assessment tools TRD26ND303411Wednesday 1:00 PM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Games aren’t rewards—they’re pedagogy. Learn how a board game can be built into your curriculum to assess standards through gameplay, reflection, and facilitation using String Theory as an example.
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Wednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how our library has offered TTRPGs directly related to readers advisory to draw new people in and highlight our collections.
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Wednesday 1:00 PM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Create, write, pitch to publish, and/or run role playing games for classrooms. Incorporate academic pedagogy and role playing in dynamic, student-focused, interactive and collaborative modules.
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GM: Annye DriscollWednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Build a local community of creative minds through programs designed to teach cosplay crafting!
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Wednesday 1:00 PM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
There are many ways you can catalog a collection of games, but depending on your needs the information you gather and how you organize it may vary. Much like the games themselves, there are rules!
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by Gabe SopocyWednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Learn how immersive story games can provide a safe space to practice skills and mindsets that build adaptivity and future-readiness.
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The Science of Fun: Applying Game Design Principles to Create Engaging Learning Experiences TRD26ND306564GM: Dolly HaydeWednesday 1:00 PM 1.5h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Join our Lesson Plan Laboratory to explore the science of making learning fun! Come hear what games can teach us about motivation and cognition, then practice applying the research to your curricula.
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GM: Tanner BabbWednesday 1:00 PM 1h Free Everyone (6+) TRD - Trade Day Events
Explore how board games boost cognition, problem-solving, and cause-and-effect thinking while supporting social skills, emotional expression, and well-being in educational, and therapeutic settings.