Gary Con and Grand Geneva Partner to Mitigate Risks to Attendees

As if GaryCon were some massively profitable endeavor, loaded with celebrities sneering at the “common gamer”.
This is a small con with massive overhead: no one is filling their pockets from GaryCon (except, maybe, the hotel owners). I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Luke’s at a net loss from the last 12 years.
I’ve been going for 6 years and it’s obvious GaryCon is a labor of love: Luke, Carolyn, Skip, and all the others bust their asses to provide an amazing experience for 2000+ people. Suggesting they’re just doing this for the bucks is ignorant of the financial realities of running a convention and insulting to their dedication.

 

I've came to GC for several years, and in many of them I've ran into Luke and been thanked for coming. I don't think "Peet" has ever run anything larger than a game of D&D in their life.

I cancelled a week ago willing to eat the badge cost and travel expenses already laid out. In life, sometimes you don't get what you've paid for because that's the smarter thing to do at the time. Badge cost is minimal - less than picking up the check at lunch. And if you can't do that, you shouldn't be spending your money on a con.

I'd rather eat the badge cost than imperil the future of the con. If its run like most events, they wouldn't be in the black until the walk-up money came in. Everything collected to that point is usually paid out to others. I'd rather the businesses the con uses keep that money because Lord knows they're likely going to lose a lot more than that in the next while.

Everyone is going to take some losses. We might lose a badge fee. I guarantee you'll recover from that quicker than any other stakeholder would recover from what they'd have to lose instead to keep us from a financial injury equivalent to losing and replacing a couple of your AD&D hardbacks in 1980.

 

Thank you for the clarification. Condolences for the cancellation of GaryCon.