Renu Venkatesh has probably got 10 board games stored under her bed, card games in her end table, and in total, over 20 games in her Stevenson Ranch apartment. If you include the ones at her parents’ house back in Wisconsin, she owns about 50 or 60 tabletop games.
Venkatesh, 24, who’s almost halfway into an administrative fellowship at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, took a couple days off last week for a long weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana, to meet two former roommates from back home at what’s called GenCon, sort of the ComicCon of the tabletop game world, which took place between Aug. 1 and 4 at the Indianapolis Convention Center.
“My college buddies and I — we all played board games back in college — we participated in a tournament for a board game called ‘Splendor,’” Venkatesh told The Signal Monday afternoon after returning from her trip. “When we went last year, we saw that people were competing, and we thought this would be a super fun thing to just try out.”
Venkatesh and the two friends that joined her at GenCon are not experts at “Splendor,” the resource-management game, she said, but that didn’t matter. You don’t have to even be good at any of the games in order to play. You just have to know the rules.
According to Marita Stapleton, one of Venkatesh’s friends from Indianapolis, she, Venkatesh, and another friend, Lisa Okhuofu from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, did quite well in their respective games.
“We ended up winning the first round,” Stapleton said, “but we double-booked ourselves. We didn’t continue. So, we ended on a high note.”
Yes, the three women turned down the chance to compete in the “Splendor” semifinals, but they enjoyed the event and the other activities they’d planned nonetheless.
GenCon isn’t just a convention for gamers to participate in tournament-style competitions. The tabletop game event, which features traditional board games, card games, role-playing games and even some video games, also allows game enthusiasts to meet game designers, learn about and even test new products, and buy games and related merchandise.
“It was very cool to see all these new games,” Venkatesh said. “Some are in the very early stages, where they’re more of a concept. And some seemed almost completely done — they’ll probably go into production next year for Kickstarter. What’s really cool is you get to give your feedback. This one game that’s about to come out next year — I gave feedback for it.”
Another board game coming soon that Venkatesh saw was “Only Murders in the Building — The Game,” based on the popular Hulu TV series. She was particularly excited about that one because she’s a big fan of the show.
Venkatesh has only been in the Santa Clarita Valley for less than a year. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, but lived in Middleton, Wisconsin, most of her life. She said she grew up playing board games.
“My cousins would always come to our house — and I also have a brother — and every time all of us got together for a family event, we always ended up playing board games downstairs or video games that have board games involved in them,” she said.
Venkatesh received her bachelor’s degree in public relations from Marquette University in Milwaukee. She went on to earn her master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During this time, she and her roommates would also play board games together. She said it just never stopped.
Upon finishing school, Venkatesh immediately sought out hospital fellowships.
“I saw Henry Mayo’s fellowship, I applied for it, and after much studying on my part to make sure I was qualified, I was fortunate enough to get an offer with them,” she said. “I immediately accepted.”
The goal of the fellowship, which is a year-long program that began in April, Venkatesh said, is to learn where she wants to go in health care.
“I’d be lying if I said I knew what I wanted to do,” she admitted. “But I think the great opportunity out of this fellowship is that I get to rotate with all of our leaders, all of the VPs and executives, and learn the expertise in their area, and learn from their leaders and their directors, and kind of see where my interests truly lie.”
As for what she’ll do next year, Venkatesh and her friends had only been home for one day and they were already texting about plans to go back to GenCon in 2025. With that, the Henry Mayo fellowship participant and gamer said she’d most definitely be digging “Splendor” out from under her bed and practicing the game in her free time for next time.
