Dashcon Is Embarrassing, And Here’s Why
A convention of three to seven thousand Tumblr bloggers in a hotel in Illinois for the weekend… what could go wrong? Well… a lot.
The convention, located in Schaumburg, IL, goes from July 11-13. The convention bears the tagline “For Tumblr Users, By Tumblr Users. We are not in any way affiliated with or endorsed by Tumblr.” and with the way they’ve handled things thus far, we believe it.
Charging anywhere from $20-$45 for a day pass (not including a concert ticket), not including the five-star hotel accomodations, we can be sure that someone is making a profit here.
With eye-roll inducing events such as a “Super-Who-Lock Hunt”, a Dr. Who-themed band performance, and Tumblr artists selling their homemade stuff at 400% profit, we’re glad to be able to witness from afar.
View the whole schedule here.
Photo Credit: Tumblr
Their first day went as well as you could expect.
There was some miscommunication in the Dashcon crew’s hotel contract; while Dashcon thought they could pay after, the hotel staff insisted they pay before. A staffer wrote to clear the air that “The hotel and convention had agreed on a payment plan spread over the weekend, and the hotel decided to change the plan and ask for all the money last night.” This seems both highly unlikely and highly against a contract they had signed.
Then began the frantic PayPal donation drive, which smelled like a huge scam. Tumblr user hotgaze outlined the general flaw brilliantly:
Photo Credit: Tumblr user hotgaze
Regardless, Tumblr got together and raised the $17,000 needed in no time at all. Not to mention protesting the hotel staff’s decree in the lobby by singing extremely loudly.
Meanwhile, the Dashcon participants quickly became the butt of angst and a lot of jokes. From a blog that counts up all the things you could buy with that money to a social justice front protesting the utter injustice of privileged bloggers getting even more money to do nothing for a weekend.
Just honestly, we think the folks at Dashcon are taking themselves more seriously than the poor hotel staff.
Photo Credit: Tumblr user jill-bird
In conclusion: yes, we acknowledge this is the first time anything on this scale has been put on by Tumblr bloggers. But that doesn’t excuse the poor behavior by the participants or the mistreatment of panel participants (but that’s a different story).
If you missed this years’, don’t worry. The DashCon entrepreneurs have your back.
Photo Credit: Tumblr
And I’m just going to leave this here…
Photo Credit: Tumblr user deadceberus