Welcome!

The Seminar

Boardgames have always been a mirror of societies, their citizens and their conflicts.
Inventors and designers keep creating games where you explore new perspectives and acquire new skills and insights.

This is why we cooperate with the educational team of the Political Education Institution Helmstedt to offer the Seminar „Experiencing Society and History Through Boardgames“.

During the week you will have access to many and varied board games during the seminar time slots.
In selecting the collection we focused on titles that represent current and historic situations and decisions especially vividly and understandably. As players you take on the roles of decisionmakers in these scenarios to experience them first hand.
For each seminar time slot you choose which games and themes are of particular interest to you and who you would like to explore them with.

Some examples from our collection:

In „Hegemony – Lead Your Class To Victory“ you take on the roles of the various classes as interested parties in modern western democracies and experience the societal interplay of interactions, dependencies and balancing processes.

In „Pax Pamir“ you experience Colonialism from the perspective of affected people, by taking on the role of afghan leaders after the end of the Durrani Empire in the 19th Century.

In „Root – A Game of Woodland Might and Right“ you learn about roles and mechanisms in assymetric military complex in an abstracted from and which counterintuitive function Control and Resistance fulfill in these conflicts.

In „Brass: Birmingham“ you explore cooperation and competition in by following the example of historical economical development processes of Middle-England in the 19th century.

In „BombBusters“ you experience the challenge of cooperation with asymetric information. Across ever more challenging tasks and conditions you improve your communication and coordination skills.

The Place

The Politische Bildungstätte Helmstedt (Political Education Institution Helmstedt) is situated at the edge of the town of Helmstedt, half way between North Rhine Westphalia and Berlin at the former inner-german border.
It is just a few minutes to the Autobahn A2 and there is ample parking near the building.
Helmstedt Station is easily reachable through the RB40 from Braunschweig and Magedburg and we will offer a shuttle service from the train station.

You stay in double bed rooms with seperate beds and a bathroom with shower and toilet. If needed we can accomodate single room upgrades and rooms that allow a dog to stay.

The kitchen team provides full board with breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as an afternoon coffee break with cake.

The People

BIG-Con depends on the amazing people that we can excite for our game rounds. With participants from all origins we offer a multilanguage event where those relying on English as a common language are just as comfortable as German speakers.

At BIG-Con you will encounter from excited Beginners, …

… over passionate and experienced game explainers and experts, …

… all the way to tenacious Fans of longest running Strategy Games all kinds of people that make up our wonderful hobby.