You’re doing everything right—Training both sides. Eating well. Hitting the gym and the studio. …But…
PoleCon 2025: Recap
Thank you so much for coming to PoleCon 2025 at—our home for the foreseeable future in the DMV—Maryland Live! Hotel and Casino.
This is my tenth live PoleCon as CEO/owner, the fourteenth overall live event since its founding, and people still love it!
From one attendee: “Such a spectacular event and well organized by all. 10/10. I’m work in corporate and attend massive conferences like this that can only dream of being as professionally run and put together as this one is. Truly an excellent experience and I hope to bring more people from the home studio here in the future.”
PoleCon 2025 officially had ~1,125 people attend, including attendees, exhibitors, and workshop leaders over the course of the weekend; not everyone is at the convention all at one time and not all of us are in one place all the time. This is a 20% decrease from last year.
Why did we decrease? We expected a potential 5-10% decrease in attendance with the new PoleCon: West event drawing some folks away from “main” PoleCon.
The rest of the downturn is from the uncertainty in the economy. Historically PoleCon has drawn 25-50% of attendance from the local area. The DMV has been heavily impacted by the changes of the current administration, with many local folks losing their jobs or living in fear of losing their jobs.
A special note to our vegan and veggie friends: there was a snafu during lunch on Saturday and PoleCon takes full responsibility for the mix up. The hotel was able to provide some appropriate options, but we know that some people likely left before the situation was improved. We also know that vegan lunch Friday wasn’t very good. We are working with the hotel to improve and appreciate your patience!
Showcases
We reprised 20 unique showcases highlighting the diversity of pole throughout the weekend.
Black Girls Pole Showcase on Friday night remains the largest showcase with the most live attendance.
This year we also continued our multi-camera livestream, featuring all showcases free/pay-what-you-can on our YouTube channel. At one point we had more than 1,000 people concurrently watching the livestream! Unfortunately, YouTube has blocked the replay on some of the days due to copyright issues.
We will be posting individual HD videos on our YouTube channel per usual once we receive them from our amazing videographer. Any video that does not appear is because of music copyright issues on that platform NOT because we censored it OR because a performer has requested their video not be posted.
People from all walks of life, all gender expressions, all colors, all shapes, and all sizes performed on our stage and had a great time!
PoleCon really is a family affair, and several generations of pole dancers and pole dance enthusiasts came to take part in some aspect of the Convention.
Survey and Next Year
Per last year, after I review survey responses (going on now!) I may make some adjustments to aspects of the event moving forward.
I will write another blog to explain the changes so y’all are prepared.
Where are we going for 2026?
PoleCon has found a home at the Maryland Live! Hotel and Casino for the foreseeable future.
We will be returning June 11-14, 2026!
AND
To provide more opportunities for more people to be involved in the event, PoleCon: West is debuting SOON!!
PoleCon: West! September 5-7, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency Denver in Denver, Colorado.
The Full Schedule for West will be available June 15, 2025!
Passes available now, booths and sponsorships available now, workshops will go on sale June 15 when the schedule is released.
The event will be slightly smaller (2 less paid workshop rooms and 1 less day) as we test to see how running two large-scale, convention-style events goes. It will follow the same basic PoleCon format with showcases, a vendor area, and workshops. We will feature some new showcases at this event. There will be no privates held at PoleCon: West (we don’t have the space!)
As soon as we know that PoleCon: West is a viable event, we’ll let you know when (likely around the same weekend) and where (somewhere out west!) it’ll be held in 2026.
From an attendee: “This was my first PoleCon experience, and it definitely exceeded expectations! Everyone was friendly, welcoming, uplifting and helpful. The workshops and instructors were educational and fun. The vendors had a lot of variety for every body shape, theme, and lifestyle. The staff were extremely helpful and positive. I will definitely try to be back next year!”
Keep tagging #polecon2025 in your memories and we’ll keep sharing them!
Thank you for believing in PoleCon and in the community we all love and support.
Colleen Jolly is an entrepreneur and a pole dance enthusiast. She has been poling for 13 years, is the CEO of PoleCon and the Executive Director of the IPIA. She teaches pole, lyra, floorwork, and mobility online and in-person in the DC metro area. She has been active in leadership roles in several international businesses over the past two decades and is also an award-winning pole dancer, artist, writer, and speaker. She is certified in several movement modalities and wrote the book "Mobility for Pole" to help pole dancers move better.
Latest posts by Colleen (see all)
- PoleCon 2025: Recap - June 4, 2025
- Interview with New PoleCon Instructor: Melonsl - May 9, 2025
- PoleCon Hub Page: PoleCon Info - April 25, 2025
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