Gaming Conventions and Guests of Honor: Why?

It is traditional for most conventions to have one or more guests of honor in attendance. The primary reason is to draw more attendance to the convention to bolster ticket sales. Star Trek or other science fiction conventions have celebrities directly tied to the franchise in question, for example Bill Shatner for Star Trek. Who does gaming have that would have that level of star power to bring in people that wouldn't otherwise be coming there to play games?

Over the past few years more celebrities from TV and Movies have acknowledged publicly that they are one with nerd culture and either did game or still game. This is definitely a great thing for the hobby which seems to be growing rapidly, but could their presence at a game convention be enough to entice more attendance and non-gamers to come out to the convention? Who do we have that makes sense to invite as a guest of honor to gaming conventions?

These questions are based on two factors: 1) financial bottom line, and 2) boosting participation in the hobby. For 1 you only need to draw enough people to show up, pay admittance to see the guest, and not fall short of break even to cover the expense. For 2) you need someone whose drawing power and influence can convert non-gamers into gamers. Ideally the guest of honor should be able to accomplish both goals.

The objectives of financial draw and participation increase do seem to be growing in likelihood as more stars open up about the hobby, but do game conventions need them? The answer may be, not yet. Perhaps after a couple more years and more popular, high profile figures make themselves known as gamers, the hobby will have gained potential guests of honor that can reliably help conventions.  Still to be answered is why would they be needed and maybe they aren't.

Game conventions already draw dedicated followings that come to directly participate and not for any other purpose, so maybe enlisting star power, even those within the industry of the hobby isn't necessary. Still, the larger conventions do have guests of honor. It is up to the convention runners to tell us if the benefits exist or if this is just a way to say thank you to the people who designed or otherwise helped grow the hobby.