I attended Great Plains Game Fest last weekend. It was held at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln, Nebraska. Links to games will be via BoardGameGeek.
Venue: As far as space for this convention, it was great. The space was spread out over two floors, with elevator access. There were two large rooms for open game play, with some reserved tables in the downstairs room. In the downstairs atrium there were a number of giant versions of games set up, which saw less play than I expected. RPG play was in a smaller side room(this is a predominantly boardgame con). The con had a game library and a swap meet setup in rooms appropriate for the inventory.
Downside: con food was only available at very specific times per meal, the menu was very small, and I thought walking tacos were a big mistake.
Events: There were a pretty good number of events, with few unique/rare experiences. There were no tournaments this year that qualified for a GenCon trip as in the past. I played in a few events, including a homebuilt version of Modern Art with commissioned artwork and a similar version of Acquire. I ran two myself, a session of Flick em Up! with 8 players, and a full 5 player game of Indonesia, myself included in both of those. I did see a play of Twilight Imperium 4th ed, and one of Point City, among others.
Flick em Up! is a dexterity game of Old West outlaws vs lawmen. We made our way through the first 4 scenarios out of 10 in the base game. Scenarios were won by both teams, and we saw some cool duels take place within scenarios.
Indonesia is a giant economic game of manufacturing and shipping in the islands of Indonesia. Factories ship their goods(must if they can), mergers happen, and companies grow. We ended with two close pairs, one clearly at the top, one just a touch under it, and the fifth player a bit behind them.
Play to Win: One aspect of this con and other smaller cons that is very popular is the play to win selection. Last year, they had a large number of single games from many publishers. This year(geeklist here) spread out wins of games more evenly, so now each player could only win one game. I saw both of these as very positive. I got the chance to play Beer & Bread, Bot Factory, Can’t Stop, Pergamon, and Deblockle.
I know some folks will tell you cons are dead and not to go for various reasons. I can tell you this one is for the most part, very friendly, and focused on games. Yes, you may encounter some political statements here and there. I didn’t encounter much in the way of foul language, though there were some statements here and there that implied political position, and I did not hear any remarks disparaging faith. I can recommend this con, and suggest if you have a smaller game con local to you, check it out.