A partnership proposal · Houston · July 10–12, 2026

A sapphic community partner for Dream Con 2026 — in cosplay, all weekend.

She & HER is a community app for sapphic women (women who love women), founded in Houston. We want to show up for Dream Con — not as a sponsor, but as the people who bring a whole pocket of your city to the floor.

From Desirée Mayon, Founder
For partners@dreamconvention.com
Ask Community partner status + badges
The pitch in one line

Bring me in as a community partner. I'll bring the sapphics. I'll cosplay the whole weekend.

— Desirée Mayon, CEO & founder, She & HER

What the activation could look like

Five shapes this could take. You pick. I build.

The value exchange

A small ask, a real offer. That's the shape.

What we bring

The offer

  • ✓
    A sapphic community turnout — we drive traffic to the floor from a pocket of Houston fandom that doesn't default to con culture.
  • ✓
    An activation we build — meetup, panel, lounge corner, mixer. You pick the shape; we do the staffing, content, and social push.
  • ✓
    Co-marketing across our channels — landing pages, IG, partner emails (Queer Aunties, Pride partners). All routing back to Dream Con.
  • ✓
    A founder embedded in fandom — I'll be on the floor in cosplay the full three days. Not observing, participating.
  • ✓
    On-ground crew to run the activation, take care of community, and make sure nothing falls through.
in exchange for ⇌
What we need

The ask

  • ★
    Community partner recognition — listed on your partners page, mentioned where partner shout-outs happen.
  • ★
    Weekend badges for our core on-ground crew (we'll share the roster once partnership is confirmed).
  • ★
    A small slot of programming space if we co-create a panel or meetup — happy to work around what's already booked.
  • ★
    Some on-floor signage — enough to make the activation findable. Wayfinding to the meetup / lounge / panel, our name on the partners signage, and (if we host the after-hours) a mention on whatever official program sign goes out. We'll bring our own branded pieces; we just need permission to place them.
That's it. No booth real estate, no sponsor dollars, no logo across your hero banner.
Optional · Tier 2

Want more? I'll build you the Dream Con app.

If you want to go bigger than community partnership, here's the upgrade. I'll build Dream Con 2026 a custom companion app — yours, branded, real. The base offer (community + activation + cosplay) still stands either way.

  • Full 3-day schedule + push notifications when sessions you starred are starting
  • Indoor map of George R. Brown — artist alley, panel rooms, Main Stage, exits
  • RDC cast + featured talent profiles, with meet-and-greet schedules
  • Attendee-to-attendee community channels (sapphic-meetup, cosplay-coords, food, etc.)
  • Cosplay contest entry + audience voting
  • "Find my people" filter — opt-in tags so attendees actually meet each other on the floor

Why I can credibly offer this: She & HER itself is a Flutter + Firebase build. My background is 15+ years in ML and engineering — Google, Microsoft / Xbox, Cambridge, Etsy, Nordstrom, MS Bioinformatics from Texas A&M. A focused companion app at this scope is a real ~10-week build (today is April 26 — Dream Con is July 10). Tight, but doable. The right conversation is whether you want it.

9:41 Houston · Jul 11
Dream Con 2026 Saturday Schedule
Who we bring through the door

Three pockets of Houston & beyond who don't get served well by the fandom + community events already on their calendar.

Black sapphic fandom

Already love anime, cosplay, gaming. Typically show up at Dream Con without a community to meet inside the venue. We give them that.

QPOC cosplayers + creators

People who've been doing this work on their own feeds. An official partner presence gives them a cultural flag on the floor — we meet them there.

Sapphic women who don't feel home at typical queer events

The crowd that gets forked between LGBTQ+ events that aren't fandom-native and fandom cons that aren't community-safe. Dream Con can be both at once — that's what makes this a real opportunity.

The Houston angle

We're not a tourist brand. This is our city too.

She & HER is Houston-founded and Houston-run. Dream Con coming back to George R. Brown July 10–12 is a moment for Black fandom in our city, and a moment for queer Houston — which has never quite gotten to claim those two identities in the same room.

We want to show up for that. Not as a brand renting space — as the people who already live here, already go to Dream Con, already cosplay, already know the community you're trying to serve better.

$19.2M
Brought to Houston economy by Dream Con 2025
3 days
July 10–12, 2026
0 mi
Our distance from George R. Brown
P
Our on-the-ground Houston ally

Pearl Bar — Houston's only lesbian bar — is a direct She & HER affiliate.

Which means we're not pitching a community we have to go find. The room already exists, and they're with us. Pearl Bar can host the Saturday-night sapphic mixer, anchor pre-/post-con community moments, and make sure Dream Con weekend extends past the convention center walls into a venue that's been holding this exact crowd for years.

Tap each to expand
DREAM CON 2026 George R. Brown · July 10–12 George R. Brown · doors closing Pearl GRB · closed Pearl HOUSTON · OPEN ♪ ♫ ♪ ♥
Partnership credibility

We've done this shape of partnership before. Here's our current slate.

QA
Active
Queer Aunties

Exclusive experiential partner. NYC PrideFest 2026 activation anchor. Sapphic-of-color experiential collective.

NYC
Active
NYC Pride

Pride 2026 partner. Our community shows up on the ground in June, with co-programming in build.

UKBP
Active
UK Black Pride

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah's org. Europe's largest Black Pride. Brand reach across diaspora.

P
Active
Pearl Bar

Houston's only lesbian bar. Direct affiliate; venue + co-host for the Saturday after-hours.

Active
The No Homo Show

Sapphic comedy / cultural podcast partner. Cross-promo in the network we build for the meetup + after-hours.

The founder

Why the cosplay line isn't a bit. It's the whole thing.

Desirée Mayon — founder portrait, illustrated
Desirée Yvonne Mayon
CEO & Founder, She & HER · Houston, TX

I'm not a "brand voice" showing up at Dream Con. I'm someone who built a community app because the one I wanted for myself didn't exist — and who's been cosplaying since long before that was also a business conversation.

My background is fifteen-plus years in machine learning and data science — Google, Microsoft / Xbox, Cambridge, Etsy, Nordstrom — with an MS in Bioinformatics from Texas A&M. She & HER is the product of that work applied to something personal: building digital space for sapphic women that treats community, not matchmaking, as the point.

Which is a long way of saying: when I tell you I'll bring real people and cosplay the whole weekend, it's not a pitch line. It's Saturday for me anyway.

15+ yrs
ML / data science
She & HER
Delaware C-corp, 2025
Houston
Home base

Let's get this on the calendar.

Partnership confirmations land better over a 15-minute conversation than an email thread. Reply to the original note or tap below — we'll make Dream Con 2026 land.

Reply to the pitch Email Desirée direct