HOTEL
Getting a downtown hotel is the greatest challenge of Gen Con. If you pre-purchase a badge before the hotel block registration opens, you'll receive an email with the earliest time you can log in on hotel registration day. These times are chosen by lottery. Note that downtown hotel space has become so scarce that, even with 8 time slots in our core Gen Con group, we have been unable to get a downtown hotel in the last two years. I suspect we've just been terribly unlucky. The only tip here is to make sure each person going buys their own badge and doesn't buy badges for anyone else, because only actual purchasers get a time slot. Note that there are some hotel rooms in downtown Indy that are not allocated to Gen Con (though not many). You'll pay a lot more for these, and you should reserve them at least 18 months in advance. Don't feel defeated if you don't get a downtown hotel - there are plenty on the outskirts of the city. They're generally cheaper, and they try hard to cater to the gamers that are stuck out there. You'll just have to drive into the city every day, which brings me to ...
PARKING
If you've never been to Gen Con before, you may not realize how important parking is. This is a game convention, so you'll probably have lots of games with you, or miniatures, or whatever. Chances are, even if you get a hotel downtown, you'll be a few blocks away. You're car may be the closest place to the convention center where you can store things. When we do manage to get a hotel downtown, we show up Wednesday night just as office workers are leaving, grab a spot in the parking structure right next to the convention center, and don't budge from that spot until Sunday. Surprisingly, it's probably cheaper than Valet parking at your hotel, and you can get to your car and its contents whenever you like. If you are driving in every day (as we are this year), finding a parking spot in the morning, especially on Thursday and Friday, can be frustrating. I always reserve a parking spot ahead of time. There are a few online sites that do this, but I use ParkWhiz. It'll cost you about the same ($20 a day) but you'll know there's a spot waiting for you.
FOOD
There are so many food options now at Gen Con that it's hardly worth giving any tips. At lunch time, the pedestrian mall outside the convention center is swarming with food trucks. There are dozens or restaurants (some cheap, some expensive), and there's always the food court at the mall. Prime time for lunch seems to be around 1-2pm, and the dinner rush starts at 6pm when the exhibit hall closes, so if you can stagger your eating schedule, your lines will be shorter. The last tip here is to find the elevated walkway shortcut from the Hyatt hotel mezzanine to the mall food court - you'll avoid traffic lights and crowds on the streets and stay in air conditioning the whole way.
WILL CALL VS MAIL
When you register for your badge and your events you can choose to have them mailed to you or you can pick them up at the Will Call window when you get there. Gen Con has become amazingly efficient at getting people through the Will Call line on Wednesday night, but it can still take as long as 45 minutes. If you're confident that you'll remember to bring your badge with you, having it mailed to you should save you some time.
EXHIBIT HALL OPENING
This is more of a recommendation than a tip. If you've never done it before, show up for the exhibit hall opening on Thursday morning. You should get there by 9:30 to get decent view, especially if you want to watch from up on the balcony. The Gen Con opening ceremony is strange and sometimes dorky and maybe a little too long, but it's worth it to watch the sea of gamers flowing into the hall at ten o'clock.
COSTUME VIEWING
Costume watching is a fun and free part of Gen Con, and some of them are amazing. You'll see plenty of costumes as you move from event to event - you can't avoid it - but if you want to see the most, and best costumes in one place and take photos, show up in the big hallway outside the exhibit hall on Saturday, an hour or two before the costume parade starts. This is when attendees with the most elaborate costumes are sure to be suited up and available. There are designated areas in that main hallway where costumed attendees can pose for pictures without blocking traffic. Also note that you should normally ask permission before taking someone's photo, but if they're in the designated posing areas, or walking in the costume parade, you can assume you have permission to take their photo.
PLAY BEFORE YOU PAY
OPEN GAMING SPACE
My biggest gripe with Gen Con before it left Milwaukee was that there were no open tables where my friends and I could play games. The move to Indy fixed that in a big way, but now the convention and hotel spaces are getting full again. One way to find a table is to search the adjoining hotels - they sometimes have some open space set aside in lobbies, mezzanines, or ballrooms. Stake out a table before the exhibit hall closes if you intend to play in the evening when demand is highest. Perhaps the easiest way to get a table is to go to one of the event coordination stations in the huge gaming halls and just ask for one, They usually have some tables that are currently unused. This always seems to work, but your time slot will be limited to a few hours and the halls can get pretty noisy.
FREE SEMINARS
Sometimes it's nice to take a short break from gaming. Gen Con has hundreds of free seminars you can sit in for an hour or so. These cover all different topics: release plans of game companies, advice for authors, use of games in therapy, and Q&A sessions with celebrities - This year I'm seeing authors James S. A. Corey (The Expanse) and David Brin (The Postman, Uplift).
WANDER
My final tip is to set aside some time to just wander around the convention hall and attached hotels. You may find a few interesting events you didn't know were happening, and at the very least, you'll get a sense of the amazing size of the convention. You're part of an invasion force of tabletop gamers, three times the size of all the combined armies at the Battle of Hastings, that have taken over a medium sized American city.
