Time for some honesty - we were nervous as hell. We didn’t know if this whole endeavor into the virtual world for our convention was going to be a Zoom call from hell or a brilliant, flawless production that the world would recognize and use as their template moving forward.
We are proud to say that DadCon@Home was a success. There was no benchmark by which we were operating. (Ignorance is bliss, right?) But we had an ace in our pocket. Robbie Samuels, who we first met at HomeDadCon in Raleigh. He’s been our champion since and brought his amazing skills to bear on October 9th and 10th.
We tried to harness what we could of HomeDadCon and bring it into your home. The stories, the education, the community. And despite the digital divide, we felt like we were together. In those moments when we all got to shoot the shit, harass each other, and uplift each other in the serious moments, DadCon@Home delivered what it set out to do.
We were fortunate enough to have Donte Palmer be our opening speaker and show that we all share in the same struggles, but we can turn them into powerful messages and actions that reach a global audience. We had practical, inspirational, and educational breakout sessions, a cornerstone of our conventions over the years. Matt Strain showed guys how to make a basic homemade version of fresh pasta and puttanesca sauce, Danny Mercer talked about self-care, and Michael Crill & David McMillen showed that there is no one right way to teach your kids in these turbulent times. We closed with Kenneth Kellogg, an accomplished opera singer whose story of personal struggles with learning HOW to be a dad and make it all work resonated with our participants, and ended with a rousing display of his talents as he sang a small part of his upcoming show, Blue.
And any convention of ours isn’t complete without us gathering one more time and relishing in the Brotherhood of Fatherhood. True to form, things lasted until nearly 3 am ET. And that is truly a testament to how enduring our organization and its membership has become to some many across the globe! From Oregon to Canada to the Netherlands - the reach of HomeDadCon, keeps growing.
Many thanks to EVERYONE who was involved in making this a success. Without your support, we couldn’t have done it.
Now it’s on to Cincinnati in 2021!
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