DashCon was a trainwreck because it was organized by a teenager
Lochlan O’Neil was only 17 when she created the disastrous fan convention

Before Fyre Fest and its infamous cheese sandwich, the poster child for events gone terribly awry was DashCon. Best epitomized by the photo of a sad ball pit in an empty convention hall, the event was meant to be a celebration of various Tumblr fandoms with panels geared to their interests and plenty of opportunities to meet like-minded people. It ended up being an unmitigated disaster. And it was probably such a wreck because it was organized by a kid.
Ryan Broderick interviewed Lochlan O’Neil, DashCon’s creator, over at Garbage Day in a subscriber-only piece and shared excerpts through a freely available edition of his newsletter. In it, we learn that O’Neil was only 15 when she founded the Tumbl-Con blog and just 17 when that blog eventually turned into 2014's DashCon.