It seems like we just finished up 2009. And now GameCon Memphis 2010 is over. Where did the time go? This past convention was exhilarating and exhausting and I wouldn't change a thing! Ok, so maybe I would change a few things like changing direction a turn sooner in the game of Asteroyds or making sure Nathan got lynched the turn before he and his werewolf brethren had me for a late night snack!

If you missed the con this year, you missed out on a great convention and our great guests. There were over 400 games in the game library, an increased number of RPG games, fantastic LARP events run by lostgamers Productions, a Magic: The Gathering release event, and more miniatures gaming than ever before! This year's Chicago Toy & Game Fair / Rio Grande Games board game design contest was very successful with nearly twenty games submitted before the deadline. We added two additional ballrooms to handle all of the fun and even then a bit of it spilled out into the hotels Garden Court. All told there were more than 150 scheduled games and events this year!

Jay Tummelson was unlike anything I expected. His insight into the gaming industry, conventions, and local game stores was intriguing and worth the time to sit down and talk with him. Lou Zocchi was highly entertaining with his tales of industry information and discussions about the inequalities of our dice. And Russ Rupe and Tony Ripley had unique perspectives that made for a very interesting panel with the four of them. It will be challenging to top that group of guests, but we are already hard at work finding the next group of guests.

The players in the Dominion tournament were surprised by the addition of Prosperity. And further surprised when they learned that the cards used were hand selected by Jay Tummelson himself. The final surprise came when each player got to take home a FULL set of the Dominion promo cards just for playing.

Congratulations to Rick Goodman for winning the Chicago Toy and Game Fair / Rio Grande Games Board game Design Contest with his game Kings of England. He is on his way to Chicago to pitch the game to Jay Tummelson with a chance to get published! I know that he wanted me to return the prototype, but I'm thinking about keeping it in my collection, do you think he'll notice?

If I didn't say this enough during the convention, thank you to everyone who came out to GameCon Memphis 2010. And a very big thank you to all of our GMs and Volunteers, I believe we owe you some pizza!

A special thanks goes out to our top sponsors: Gamerz Depot, who always goes out of their way to help us out and to grow gaming the in the area, and Games Workshop, who recently reopened the Battle Bunker in Memphis and ran some well loved painting demos and demonstrated 40K at the con. Our other sponsors were: Kenzer & Company, HobbyTown USA (Memphis), Alderic Entertainment Group, GMT Games, Conquest Gaming, Flying Buffalo, Q-Workshop.com, APE Games, Out of the Box, North Star Games, & Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

And now we are looking forward to 2011! If you want to be amongst the first to know about GameCon Memphis 2011 sign up for the newsletter, follow us on Twitter, or friend us on Facebook. See you at the game table!

When we decided to make the leap from a one day convention to a three day convention, we were quite nervous. Was the leap too large? Could we overcome all of the logistics involved? Hundreds of doubts lumbered around our heads. But we never questioned our resolve. And what do you know? GameCon Memphis 2009 was a huge success! We owe that success to our outstanding volunteers and the many wonderful people who traveled from across the country to attend!