GameCon takes off for first annual event in Canada

Thousands flocked to the BMO centre for a first of its kind gaming convention in Canada.

Thousands flocked to the BMO Centre Saturday for a first-of-its-kind gaming convention in Canada.

Meibel Consulting is hosting Game Con Canada (GCC) which is hosting hundreds of vendors including AAA and indie video game studios, tabletop board game developers and publishers, eSports, cosplay competitions, celebrity guests, industry panels, game gear, gadgets and toy retailers from around the world.

“It’s been two years in the making,” said Chris Meilleur, CEO of Meibel Consulting and GameCon Canada.

“We started conceptualizing this thing during COVID and so we just started reaching out to some of our partners that we knew that might have some stake in the gaming sector to say, ‘hey, why aren't we doing this in Canada?“

Meilleur says these conventions are typically held in the United States, but felt it was missing from the Canadian market.

“There's lots of eSports events and different great things that are happening,” he said.

“We have tons of eSports here as well, but nothing on that BDC convention side where you bring the board games and video games and bring the actual publishers and the developers into the room, to show everybody what they're working on.”