Keycon 2025 Planning - Save the date: June 14, 2025, Washington, DC!

[rmendis]

We're pleased to announce that Keycon 2025 will be on June 14, 2025 at the Penn Social in DC.

Special thanks to danielsun, zacheadams, and the District Keyboards team for all their hard work securing the venue. Please save the date and stay tuned for more information!

Date: Saturday, June 14th 2025
Venue: Penn Social

Tickets / Capacity: This venue has a capacity of 500, so tickets will be capped at some amount around there. We expect tickets to go on sale in late January or early February. Stay tuned for socials, web site, and other info.



Nearest parking:
There's a lot of parking nearby. Feel free to use Google Maps, Parking Panda, Spot Hero, etc. Pay attention to the lot closing time since not all are 24-hour. You are encouraged not to drive all the way in, as driving in the city can be challenging and frustrating. Many Metro stations have free (or cheap) parking in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and you can then take the Metro into the highly-walkable city. Check this website for more details. For quick reference, every station on this map marked with a P has parking

Nearest subway ("Metro") stops:
1. Metro Center (<= 10 minutes from venue on foot): Connected via Metro red, blue, orange, and silver lines.
2. Gallery Place (<= 5 minutes from venue on foot): Connected via Metro red, yellow, and green lines.
3. Archives (<= 5 minutes from venue on foot): Connected via Metro yellow and green lines.
*Reminder that last trains are at 1am on the weekends

Airport suggestions:
1. DCA: Connected via Metro yellow and blue lines. This is the closest airport.
2. IAD: Connected via Metro silver line. This is the next closest airport.
3. BWI: Connected via MARC and Amtrak trains

Train station suggestions:
1. Union Station: Serviced by Amtrak, MARC, VRE, connected via Metro red line.
2. L'Enfant Plaza: Serviced by VRE, connected via Metro yellow, green, blue, orange, and silver lines.


---------------------
June 25th Post:

Many thanks to nearly 650 people who voted for the Keycon 2025 location and shared their preferences! This is really helpful data to help planning future events.

The community selected city of choice for Keycon 2025 is: WASHINGTON DC

It was a super close result: DC beat Chicago by 4 votes! As a result of the vote being this close, Chicago will be on the list of cities for Keycon 2026 voting. We will post the nomination process for other host cities later this year.

We would sincerely like to thank Robotical, PRIME, and Danielsun for volunteering to host the initial community-driven Keycon event.

Attached are the survey results in image format (open in new window for best viewing).


Danielsun is already working with his team to lock down a date and venue, and we will announce that as soon as possible so you can start to make plans.

Thanks and stay tuned for more updates, including a Keycon 2025 logo design contest!

---------------------
June 17th Post:

Here we go!

Following up from the last post, we are pleased to announce the steering committee members and host city lead volunteers, and to open the Keycon 2025 Location Vote and Survey.

The current Keycon Steering Committee members are: 3tonjack, aspenc4, cptbadass (discord: CBA88), rmendis, xine007

The 2025 host city options and local lead volunteers are:
* Chicago, IL led by PRIME (discord: tzdanows)
* Orlando, FL led by robotical
* Washington DC led by danielsun
(discord usernames)

Please vote and share your preferences:  https://bit.ly/keycon2025-location-survey
Voting will be open for a week, closing on June 26th.

Thank you!

---------------------
June 14th Post:

Hello friends!

On June 6, 2024, following a community vote on Geekhack, NovelKeys graciously returned the responsibility for Keycon planning and hosting back to the community.

Since this vote concluded, a group of former Keycon volunteers and long standing members have been in communication with Jacobsmirror with the following two goals:

1. Run Keycon in 2025 in the US, even if it stays the same size, and even if we provide a limited set of US cities for the community to choose from. If everything goes as planned, next week we will create a Google form and publish it on Geekhack, r/mk, and some discord servers for you to vote among a pre-selected list of cities to host Keycon in 2025. In subsequent years, other cities can submit nominations to host based on a framework process, which leads to the next goal...

2. Put a practical event framework in place that enables Keycon to sustain and continue for years to come, as a community-driven event, with a host city nomination (Olympic style) model within the US and eventually global, steering committee with member rotation process and term limits, and potential future non-profit entity. An initial draft of the framework is available for review here: https://bit.ly/keycon-framework  More details will be developed in the coming weeks and months.



We owe thanks to NovelKeys, Drop, GMK, and all the sponsors and volunteers who made the 2024 event a success.

Organizing Keycon annually, across different locations, for a community of our size (and diverse needs) won't be easy, but it's important we try.  Stay tuned for more information on how you can help make Keycon a success in 2025 and beyond.

Thanks for your support! 

[HoffmanMyster]

Thank you to NovelKeys for bringing KeyCon back in style this past year. And a massive thanks to @rmendis and the rest of the team for taking the reins for 2025 and beyond. I maintain that each collective over the years has placed the event in good hands. Excited to see where 2025 takes us!

[iamtootallforthis]

Here to help in any way I can

[Prim3]

Thank you to NovelKeys for bringing KeyCon back in style this past year. And a massive thanks to @rmendis and the rest of the team for taking the reins for 2025 and beyond. I maintain that each collective over the years has placed the event in good hands. Excited to see where 2025 takes us!

well said, +1 from me

[eggplanthero]

yippeeeeee 

[Rhienfo]

Looking forward to seeing what keycon has to offer in the next few years.

The idea of an international keycon is really promising, pretty hard to go to the US for me, so would definitely be more appealing for somewhere outside of the us.

Maybe a future keycon in Melbourne

[SeedyOne]

Big ups to NovelKeys, Drop, GMK, and all the sponsors and volunteers who brought us back strong in '24 and here's to the future of Keycon 

[CPTBadAss]

Looking forward to making Keycon 2025 a reality!

[evorus5]

Depending on where this is located, I would like to sponsor!
Please let me know when you guys open up sponsor spots! 

Instagram: evodesigns.co
Email: evomdesigns@gmail.com

[Corgi Butts]

Survey Complete!  Thanks for posting!

[rmendis]

Depending on where this is located, I would like to sponsor!
Please let me know when you guys open up sponsor spots! 

Instagram: evodesigns.co
Email: evomdesigns@gmail.com

Will do - thanks!

[Shell058]

Echoing the gratitude to NovelKeys for hosting a great 2024 event and for being gracious in handing the event back over to the community. Huge appreciation to rmendis and the rest of the inaugural steering committee for this well thought out plan for organizing Keycons into the future. I look forward to seeing where we go next, and will be more than happy to volunteer my time and assistance wherever needed to keep this fantastic community meetup rolling.

[TypicalOranges]

+1 for Chicago.

[onestraysheep]

Tuscon

There it is No one ever spells my home city correct, hahaha!

Nice form, filled out!

[rmendis]

Tuscon

There it is No one ever spells my home city correct, hahaha!

Nice form, filled out!

RIP, that's what happens when I create a form at 2am 

Thanks for filling it out!

[Puddsy]

Pueblo, CO or bust

[CPTBadAss]

I'm excited for DC. Thanks to all the teams who offered their time and services to help make Keycon 2025 a reality! Also yummy yummy stats.

[SeedyOne]

Close vote, grats to DC! Looking forward to it 

[danielsun23]

Excited to host Keycon next year in DC with a great group of volunteers and hope to put on a great event for y'all!

Huge shoutout to PRIME and Robotical who already do so much for their communities
I hope I can go to Chicago and Orlando for future Keycons <3

[Bub]

Awesome--looking forward to it.

[a_saker]

Looking forward to Keycon in DC. Daniel has consistently led great meetups in the DMV and I know this is going to be even better

[HubertThemad]

Hope everyone enjoys!

Maybe Chicago will win in the near future (closest large city to me), but even if not, it would be worth a trip out to DC next year to see and meet everyone for sure.

[HoffmanMyster]

Hope everyone enjoys!

Maybe Chicago will win in the near future (closest large city to me), but even if not, it would be worth a trip out to DC next year to see and meet everyone for sure.

Hope to see you there! I'm not 100% sure if I'll be able to attend in DC - fingers crossed

Here's hoping for Chicago the year after! Maybe?

[CPTBadAss]

OP was updated with the venue and date info! Check it out XD

[Kaptain Mike]

Hell yea, good stuff!

[SeedyOne]

Now we're talkin! 

[HoffmanMyster]

OP was updated with the venue and date info! Check it out XD

Let’s gooooooo!! Can’t wait!

[Osidian]

Cant wait! We'll be there 

[MakerMonkey]

Von mir auch danke