DashCon

DashCon (originally named Tumbl-Con USA, and later changed to indicate that it was not officially associated with Tumblr) is a defunct fan convention created by Tumblr users and for Tumblr users. It took place at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois, spanning from July 11th to July 13th, 2014.

The convention failed in epic proportions, and became infamous thanks to allegations of mismanagement and corruption among organizers.

A similar event named Emoti-Con was originally planned for 2015, but the plan was scrapped before it even became a thing. Contrary to popular belief, Emoti-Con was not actually associated with DashCon. The failure of this convention was likely one of the main reasons why Emoti-Con was cancelled.

Origins
"'We believe the people of Tumblr deserve a space of their own. A safe space where they can meet their friends, learn about what interests them, and have as much fun as humanly possible in a weekend. We love the people of Tumblr, and we want them to have this, they deserve it. As a community so full of love, support, and creativity, we want them to have a place where they can really connect, give them chances to collaborate and connect outside of their laptops.'"

DashCon was originally announced in mid-2013 and was touted as the "largest gathering of Tumblr users to date". The convention was to focus on works that have developed significant followings among Tumblr users, such as Doctor Who, Sherlock, Attack on Titan, Supernatural and the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. The convention raised money through ticket pre-orders, along with a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo.

Tickets for Saturday cost $45, the ones for the weekend cost $65, although an additional $5 was needed to see the Steam Powered Giraffes perform live, and $15 more was needed to attend the Welcome To Night Vale live reading.

The crowdfunding campaign ended on March 14, 2013, (said to have failed in meeting its goal) and the convention was scheduled to take place on July 11th in the next year, leaving nearly 500 days for the organizers and admins to prepare. It wasn't going to be perfect, for sure, but as Bubsy the Bobcat once said: "What could possibly go wrong?".

Friday, July 11th, Day 1
Pretty much everything.

The first day of the convention arrived and it already looked like it was headed for disaster. Only 1/10 of the estimated 5,000 people showed up, and nothing was scheduled until 1PM, leaving everyone with little to nothing to do. The facility of the convention only made things worse: The promised giant ball pit? Barely large enough to fit 5 people! The gaming room had only one TV and one console. It was also announced that the Steam Powered Giraffe performance was cancelled just after 5 days of the announcement.

The panels of the convention were just shameless; most of the boards were just Tumblr users self-promoting their blogs/fanart/etc and selling merchandise, a vendor left due to poor sales. Teenagers were reportedly used as workers for the convention.

At 9pm, disaster finally struck. The organizers rounded up everyone and informed that the patriarchal hotel decided to ignore the organizer's verbal reminder that they would pay for the venues gradually throughout the convention using ticket sales and wanted its venues paid immediately. The attendees needed to raise a total of $17,000 in an hour, or the hotel would shut down the Con and kick everyone out.

People were pretty upset, some started to cry, others started to scream "extortion!". Organizers, admins and staff scrambled and shook down attendees for donations by literally passing a donation bag around the crowd and posted a donate link on their official Tumblr and Twitter. DashCon's Twitter even spammed this donation plea to the accounts of Will Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, John Green, and members of Welcome to Night Vale. Eventually the news reached Tumblr, and some were starting to get suspicious: Why in the name of JW Marriott would the hotel change its terms in the middle of a convention?

Unwilling to make themselves to look incompetent and tell the truth that the $17,000 was a matter of payment for debts owed, DashCon organizers stated that the Renaissance was simply demanding more money because they aren't fans of Tumblr users. The attendees were more than happy to buy the story, and started to put up an increasingly negative attitude for the hotel employees to see. They stayed grouped in the room singing Queen's "We Are The Champions" and tracks from Les Miserables in protest to their "oppression". Organizers would later be recounting that as a "riot" to interviewers.

Eventually, the $17,000 was raised... And DashCon organizers simply deleted the donation request post, and pretended no mishap have ever occurred. Of course, most people were not satisfied.
 * Organizer: "Cain was in tears because of you, because of how perfect and beautiful and generous you all are."
 * Random Audience member: "Yeah what's to stop you from doing this again ten minutes later? What if you want more money?"

Sure enough, plenty of people started to call the convention a scam, and this caused a bit of unrest among the attendees who tried to root out the "haters," with no luck.

Saturday, July 12th, Day 2
Well, Day 2 was supposed to be when the major events started, but DashCon was still as empty as ever. Most people were gathered around in the game room, huddled around the single TV and a handful of laptops. A few embarrassingly bad cosplays and several bland LGBT buzzword-based panels were held, but excitement mounted for the guests that DashCon promised: Welcome to Night Vale, Baker Street Babes, etc. Several were already disappointed that Steam Powered Giraffe was allowed to bail while their special tickets were nonrefundable, but fans traveled from as far as Florida to see Cecil Baldwin and other members of Welcome to Night Vale perform a live radio show outside their regular scheduled tour, just for DashCon. Some even started to go online and taunt the "haters" about being minutes away from meeting their internet idols.

On 12:50 PM, the time when Welcome to Night Vale was supposed to begin, nothing was really happening. People were getting confused at this, first assuming it was a delay, but then the final straw came:

"'Basically, Night Vale just walked.'"

General reaction: "What?" "What?!" "WHAT?!" "Give me back my money!!!"

Sunday, July 13th, Day 3
Conventions, on the final day, usually progress extra slowly. And DashCon was no exception. The majority of attendees, guests and panelists had bailed out already. Artist's Alley vendors reported depressingly low sales since every youngster attending most likely donated their cash. The ball pit also got taken away, most likely because some troll marked his territory in it, to say the least. At least Doug Jones showed up to meet with the remaining attendees, so that didn't go wrong.

And by 1PM, DashCon had finally closed.

Aftermath

 * Turns out the galaxy pattern banner used on Dashcon.org was actually copyrighted material taken from a space themed artist, and repeated to disguise the original piece of art.
 * DashCon also reportedly screened Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog despite not being allowed to obtain the rights. This brought up questions about whether or not they had legal permission to screen Pacific Rim either.
 * Volunteer panelists signed agreements that if they drew over 100 attendees to their panels their badges would be reimbursed, yet no one was ever given money. All emails sent to DashCon asking about these reimbursements were ignored.
 * Also, the charity group Random Acts, which DashCon claimed to be partnered with, had never made any partnership deals with DashCon.
 * Despite earning an estimated $17,000 from door sales/donations mainly just to keep the conventions afloat, it's assumed that they actually were pocketing the money, as in the end they stated they had only $3,000.
 * Not even the after-con orgy went right, as private diseases such as pubic lice were reportedly spread.
 * A DashCon DVD was announced on their website, though there is no proof said DVD/video exists. It may not have likely made likely due to the fiasco.

Read More

 * http://animesecrets.org/dashcon-2014-interview-with-organizers/

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