2026 Dallas Pen Show Recap

Just when I think I’ve finally caught up on sleep from the 2026 San Francisco Pen Show, it’s time for another show - this time, it was the 2026 Dallas Pen Show. Dallas has traditionally been a reliable show from year-to-year with few things changing, see last year’s recap as an example. This year though, the Dallas Show decided to REALLY change things up. Other than being at the same hotel on the last weekend of September, the show had a couple of very big changes - (1) going from 2 day to 4 day show, and (2) changing to the large ballroom. It’s difficult to talk about them completely independently, so I’ll start with a quick overview of the layout changes before talking about the schedule change, and then we’ll check out the vendors in the different areas and all that fun stuff.Side note: As usual, I was working at the show, but not at the Franklin-Christoph tables. This time, I was behind the (many) Dromgoole’s tables, so my picture-taking and shopping opportunities were even more…