Dream Con

CTL-E-5683 · Event · other · 2018–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-06966 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5683.

Dream Con is an annual multi-genre convention for anime, gaming and pop culture, founded in 2018 by the Texas comedy group RDCWorld (CTL-E-5605) after the group found established conventions unwelcoming to them as guests. The first edition drew about 800 people to Waco, Texas. Cancelled in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the convention resumed at Esports Stadium Arlington in 2021, moved to the Austin Convention Center in 2023, and in 2025 relocated to Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, where it drew 32,674 paid attendees and a reported $19.2 million in economic impact — and where coverage describes it as the largest Black-owned anime and gaming convention in the United States. Dream Con 2026 returned to Houston with more than 30,000 attendees. RDCWorld's record in this graph has carried the convention as a named gap since the Shorts Wave 3 packet; this record is the event itself, minted on the festival precedent of the American Black Film Festival (CTL-E-5637).

Notes

STAGED 2026-10-16 (747 Program, Priority Gaps — Wave 5) — not merged; awaits founder merge go. Gate A: no match in the live graph (3,381 entities) under exact, normalized, alias, or token-containment screening, 2026-10-16; the only 'dream' hits are Dreamland Cafe (CTL-E-0858), DreamWorks Animation (CTL-E-1776) and RDCWorld itself — none homes the event. Typed Event / other with project MEDIA-001 on the festival precedent (ABFF, CTL-E-5637). Carried conflict (from the Wave 3 packet, unresolved there and here): RDCWorld's name expansion differs across sources — AfroTech gives 'Real Dreams Change the World,' the Dream Con record gives 'Real Dreamers Change the World.' This record uses the group's minted name (RDCWorld, CTL-E-5605) and does not expand it. Edge unblocked: RDCWorld initiated → Dream Con (the Wave 3 packet documented the founding as blocked on this missing endpoint; the schema's founded type does not accept an Event target, so initiated — 'initiated, founded, or called for the event' — carries it). Project ID: MEDIA-001 per the festival precedent. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Recurring annual event with rotating host cities (Waco, Arlington, Austin, Houston); its current venue holds n) | visual_assets = HELD: No file-page-level PHOTO-001 license verification completed at staging; slot held rather than filled with an u | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG built only from this record's sourced facts and statistics; CTL-branded palette (black / deep ) | video = HELD (No CTL Short bills Dream Con itself — Short #93 bills RDCWorld, the organizing group, and rides that record (C) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging; convention recordings and the organize)

Referenced by

• RDCWorld — initiated → this record

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'Dream Con' — founded by Mark Phillips and RDCWorld; inaugurated 2018; 2020 cancellation; Arlington 2021–2022 (6,000 cap); Austin 2023; Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center from 2025; 32,674 paid attendance in 2025; $15M (2024) and $19.2M (2025) economic impacts [primary for this record] (primary source · build store)
• BlkSociety, 'They Were Told They Wouldn't Fit In. So They Built the Convention Everyone Wants Into.' (July 15, 2026) — founded by RDCWorld's Mark Phillips and Affiong Harris after convention rejections; about 800 at the first Waco edition; described as the largest Black-owned anime and gaming convention in the United States (build store)
• AfroTech, 'Johnathan Newton Joined RDCWorld By Happenstance…' — Newton's role in building Dream Con (GoFundMe for the website and logo); first edition in Waco in 2018 drew 800 against a 10,000 projection; growth through Arlington, Austin and Houston (build store)
• AnimeCons.com, 'Dream Con 2025 Information' — May 30 – June 1, 2025, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston; 32,674 paid attendees (build store)
• Houston Press, 'Dream Con Grows Even Bigger in Its Second Year in Houston' (2026) — eighth annual edition; more than 30,000 fans in Houston for the second consecutive year (build store)

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Record CTL-E-5683 · Combined Graph record U-06966 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 5 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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