CONVENTIONS
GRIDCON 2023
Written by Adam Richards
The weekend of the 17th of November 2023 saw the return of GridCon to the Holiday Inn, just off Junction 25 of the M5, near Taunton. The event, running for the fourth time, is the brainchild of Paul Grogan, the man behind the Gaming Rules! YouTube channel as well as many rulebooks you might have read in the last few years. He, along with his wife Vicky, and their group of volunteers, delivered another fantastic retreat for those of us enthusiastic about cardboard.
Board game conventions fall somewhere between two extremes of a range. Some, like Spiel Essen, are all about spending money. Busy, noisy stands selling games with very little space to actually play the games you buy. GridCon is firmly at the opposite end, with just a single official vendor (the venerable Gameslore) taking up a couple of tables in one of the rooms. Other than a bring-andbuy room, the rest of the space is devoted to playing games, and it makes for a wonderful atmosphere. It’s an event that truly drives home how inclusive this hobby of ours is. People from all over the world with different backgrounds, beliefs, and identities all come together to play. At one point I sat back and watched one table playing games with children barely older than ten, right next to a table with someone in his 80s playing and loving every minute.