Calgary FallCon board game conference draws hundreds
Attendance has tripled in last 3 years
It's a convention you might want to get on "board" with, but you will have to act quickly because the 29th annual FallCon wraps Sunday afternoon.
It's Calgary's premier board game convention and it brings people from far and wide.
"Twelve hundred board games to choose from and over 700 players," Kevin Zoren explained.
Zoren drove the roughly 500 kilometres from his home in Havre, Mont. to get his game on.
"Down in Montana, you know in the States, we don't have conventions like this in our state anyway, so it's nice that this is a few hours drive for us and we can join and meet all these cool Canadians and have a good time."
He says you won't find some of classics like Monopoly at the convention. It's about new and more strategic games.
"With the kinds of games that we play, as you get deeper into the hobby there's a lot less luck," Zoren said.
"There's a lot more strategy. We don't like games with runaway leaders, we like games where it's tense up until the last minute."
- Unable to pay staff living wage, Ottawa board game café calling it quits
- Cafe hopes fun and games unite Indigenous, non-Indigenous Winnipeggers
Convention director Brent Lloyd says there are easy card games to ones that require a lot of strategy — and it's not just for kids anymore.
"You can just show up with your friends and they can go to the library, as long as you have a badge you can check out any game in the library," Lloyd said.
While this weekend's FallCon fills an entire banquet hall, Lloyd says it hasn't always been like this.
It started 29 years ago when a small group of students got together at the University of Calgary.
"Our growth in the last three years purely because of social media has been astounding, even to us it really has — we've tripled our attendance in just the last three years."
The convention winds down at 4 p.m. Sunday.
- MORE ALBERTA NEWS | Differing visions at the Alberta PC leadership race launch in Lethbridge
- MORE ALBERTA NEWS | 'The Art of Command': Canada's Afghan mission leaders subject of new Calgary exhibit
With files from Terri Trembath