Names, Decisions, Deadlines!

Hi all,

Your name suggestions were as wonderful as they were abundant. We had an absolute flood to sort through!

To state upfront: a lot of the suggestions were permutations of ‘DashCon 2: 2’ and as funny as that is, the numbers are going to get tangled so quickly and, in my opinion, it lacks pizazz. (Sorry). But we’re all getting robbed of fantastic names tonight—apparently naming the con ‘Super DashCon Galaxy 2’ qualifies as an any% speedrun for getting sued by Nintendo :/

Sorry we vanished into the aether for months. In our defense, we were planning some super-secret cool stuff that we can’t share with you yet. We have a lot of different threads to pull on for the 2026 Big Event and we’re trying to establish which of them we can realistically pursue. Not to get your hopes up, but we might end up changing the convention’s theme to something a little more… bloodthirsty. Though like we said, no promises. Put the knife down!!

Deadlines

What we can share with you is all our opening dates and deadlines for the upcoming year! Here’s a comprehensive list:

Panel and Dealer’s Hall Applications—Jan 15–Jan 30
AMV Contest/Showcase Submissions—Feb 1–Mar 15
IRL Convention Ticket Sales—Mar 1–July 15
VirtualDash Panel Applications—Apr 2–Apr 15
VirtualDash Ticket Sales—May 1–July 31

Of this list, folks who want to attend the convention in person should visit our Simpli Events page at 12PM EST. We will remind you of those details in advance, and a more detailed email providing more information on tickets (pricing, weekend vs single day options, and more) will come later.

We have decided to open panel applications in advance of ticket sales for one primary reason: so we have enough time to assemble a preliminary list of panels before opening ticket sales. That way you can get a bit of a sense of what the convention experience will be like before making your purchase.

Wait—did I see ‘AMV contest’ in there?

Yes! Our accessibility coordinator Ruby is an AMV creator and general enthusiast. She’ll be leading the charge in one of our new events: an AMV contest and showcase!

The AMV component of the con will be hybrid, but not synchronous. The contest portion will be held in person, and a panel of judges will vote on the category winners. Viewers will have the chance to voice their opinion with the Audience Choice award as well. For those uninterested in competition, we will be hosting a general showcase in the VirtualDash Discord. Prizes will be given out to the winners—more details coming soon!

Want some more inspiration? Here’s Ruby’s My Little Pony PMV set to Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club.

The Promised VODs!! + DashCon 3…?

Hi all,

For starters, we are SO sorry about the delay! We really have no excuse beyond wow, this is more difficult than expected. Our expertise is in event planning, not running a shipping empire or a YouTube channel. But we’ve got it done sufficiently that we can share what we’ve made with you.We’d like to extend a major thank you to Martin (@paintbrushinacoffeecup), our Creative Director, and the incredible team of volunteer transcribers! They’re working hard to write captions for over 25 hours of video footage, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their work.

VODS will be dispersed via Eventbrite and Simpli Events respectively - that way both online and virtual ticket holders can get their hands on the links. VODs are unlisted YouTube videos, so make sure not to lose those links!

NOTE: Our Eventbrite plan limits us to 250 emails per day, so VODs will be rolling out to virtual attendees over the course of the next 3 days. Keep an eye on your inbox!

However, there is one exception: “The Making of DashCon 2” will be available for free to everyone. You can watch that here!

I didn’t attend IRL or virtually - can I still watch them?

Yep! We’ve decided to sell VOD access for $5 CAD, with $4 CAD of each purchase going directly to the Canadian Cancer Society.

GET VOD ACCESS

While we understand that people will be excited to share these videos, we ask that you don’t distribute these links or footage to anyone who hasn’t purchased access. Since the proceeds are going to CCS, we want to encourage donations as much as we can.

See our website for the list of recorded panels!

ARE YOU DOING DASHCON THREE???

It’s not called ‘DashCon 3’ but… yes :)

The response was totally overwhelming and we’re so enthused by it! However we’re in the exact same place as this time last year- we’ve got to find a new venue to accommodate a larger convention, and that takes a lot of time. Like before, we cannot ethically sell tickets to a convention without a venue, so we’ll have to wait until we get one.

How it looks from our vantage point is this: if we run in 2026, the convention will be about the same size. Conversely, we skip a year and run in 2027, we can scale up a lot more. We’re looking into which option is most feasible, and we’ll keep you posted.

At the very least, we want to do it again, and we’re currently coordinating. We get to do one of the most fun parts - planning the theme, the merch, the general structure. Emailing a bunch of YouTubers to see if they’re game for this sort of thing.

Speaking of - if any amateur entomologists want to tell the world about honeypot ants (and any other bugs of their choosing), email me at [email protected]…

Oh Yeah: Our Discord Server!

We finally made one! A long-term one, different from the DashCon 2: 2025 event server. This is a hangout spot and we want to do bi-weekly activities, like movie nights and jackbox games. We floated the idea of a homestuck book club? No promises.

We hope you have the opportunity to make some friends :)