Dear Iridescence Member,
What an epic, fun, exhausting, exciting, energising, and brilliant convention: thank you all for being part of it and for making as special as it was. Its been 10 days since the convention closed, and everyone is almost recovered. We miss you all already.
Anyone who has ever been involved in running an Eastercon, in any way and at any level, knows that they are helping to build something unique and special. Every Eastercon is part of a long lineage and tradition, it’s not just an event, it is the beating heart of our community. This is who we are.
Every time we do this, we are in conversation with our predecessors. We hope we have learned from those that have gone before us, and can only hope that we have grown and developed as individuals, as a team, and as a community. So that, critically, we can pass along our learnings, support, and resources to future Eastercons. It is incumbent on us to do our utmost to sustain and nurture this thing that we love.
Above all, Eastercon is about each and every one of you, this community. If we ever lose sight of that then we will have fundamentally failed and will lose this community that is so important to all of us.
Running an Eastercon is an act of service, grounded in giving rather than taking. We give our time and energy out of love for this community and what it represents, with our focus entirely on creating something meaningful and sustainable. The reward is seeing you not only enjoying yourselves and connecting with those around you, but also building and sustaining the bonds that carry us through life. Ultimately, it is through these connections that life is made meaningful.
Well over a hundred volunteers pulled together, to make this amazing convention. It would have been lessened without each and every one of you. Thank you all, for your hard work and your extraordinary generosity of time, energy and ideas. A special shout out to James Turner, Tech Hero, a very well deserved winner of this year’s Doc Weir Award.
Additional thank you to all out amazing Guests, Artists, Programme Participants, Dealers and Fan Organisations who made the convention so varied and exciting. Your talent, enthusiasm, and willingness to share with others is just one of the things that makes this convention so amazingly special. You are all wonderful!
And now, some numbers!
One of the most frequently asked questions after a convention is ‘how do you measure its success?’
For us it is the joy we see, the conversations that keep going long after the programme finishes, the stories that are spun, and the friendships made. But other metrics exist. Many of you like data. So:
Membership
Total membership: 940
In-Person Attendees who collected their badges: 813
Virtual logins: 46
Programme
Participants: 208
Items: 173
Items available for replay: 115
Hours of replay available: 112 hours, 14 min, 44 secs.
Hours of live stream watched: 582.4 hours
Views on replay (so far): 417
Virtual
Logged into the portal: 628
Favourited items in Con Clár:467
Joined the Discord: 400
Item with the most comments: Octothorpe at 485
Art Show, Dealers and Fan Tables
Artists:45
Number of items: 1000+
Art works sold (not including print shop):143
Dealers Vending: 46
Fan Tables: 15
Volunteers
Pre-con only: 10
At-con: 98
Both: 27
Total: 135
Social Media
Instagram: 340
Bluesky: 720
Facebook: 162
Bursary
Recipients:11
Disbursed Funds: £3,910
Accessibility
Scooters hired: 10
Scooters used: 7
Childcare support used: 2 (4 booked)
How did we do?
As we said, every Eastercon tries to serve its community well. But in order to keep improving we need your help and your opinions. Feedback is vitally important to help us grow and learn, so if you wouldn’t mind helping us add to our data points, then please fill in our Membership Survey.
We’ve made it as short as possible while still covering the whole con and programme participation. Everyone who completes it will be entered into a prize draw for membership to an upcoming Eastercon.
Programme Replay/Catch Up:
Replay will stay open until the 31st December 2026 – which might just give you enough time to watch it all! You need to be logged into the Portal (https://portal.eastercon2026.org/) to access the replays and you can find those on the guide https://guide.eastercon2026.org/
Discord:
Most channels have now closed to new posts. However, we are leaving the programme channels, next-time and keep-in-touch open, but with a caveat that we are no longer monitoring them so please remember that.
Merchandise:
If you didn’t get a chance to grab some merchandise before the con then do feel free to grab it now via Stow Shirts.
España’s art is glorious – but then we would say that, wouldn’t we!
If you’ve anything you need or want to feedback do use the survey or email info@eastercon2026.org
Until next time, look after yourselves and each other, and keep being absolutely iridescent.
Phil Dyson - Chair, Iridescence 2026
And the Iridescence Committee - JC Clarke, Meg MacDonald, Caroline Mersey, Phil Nanson, Virginia Preston, James Shields, James “JT” Turner