DinoCon 2026, a Giant Event at Hilton Birmingham Metropole

The enormous two-day event that was DinoCon 2026 – the second of our dinosaur-focused comic con-style meetings – is over, and wow. It went so well, the attendance being around twice that of our first event of last year.

Caption: a DinoCon 2026 montage, showing our banner, a packed hall during a talk, and vendor stall (Jed Taylor’s) during set-up on Friday. Images: Darren Naish.

DinoCon 2026 was held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole over the weekend of July 25th and 26th and mostly occurred in two giant halls and an additional four or so smaller rooms, all located within a minute’s walk of each other. The venue did us well and the fact that many (albeit not all) attendees were staying on site meant that we had an excellent social atmosphere, people staying late in the hotel’s bars and restaurants. Remember that you are helping us run the event by being in, and spending money in, the hotel.

As was the tradition with TetZooCon before it (which ran from 2014 to 2024), DinoCon (which I co-run with Nathan and Annie Barling and a team of helpers) is a fusion of both popular and technical content on dinosaurs and other animals with palaeoart-themed events, a quiz, exhibitions and more. As per last year, we were joined by the Dinomania team and thus a number of life-sized juvenile ankylosaurs, a small Triceratops, and a few large theropods were wandering about the venue. Jurassic Park-themed jeeps and other vehicles were parked out front.

Caption: one of the several Jurassic Park vehicles we had parked at the front of the venue. Numerous people had fun getting their photos taken alongside. Image: Coco Ellenbogen.

Vending and vendors. What started as two tables of books and plush toys back in 2014 has expanded to a gigantic and slightly terrifying vendor hall, this year housing around 70 vendors, vaiously selling books, fossils, toys, models, sculptures, apparel, art and more. The quality and quantity was astounding and we know that many vendors did extremely well. I was moderately sensible in what I purchased and part of me wishes I was more reckless. Maybe next year.

Caption: stalls at DinoCon 2026. At left, Carnotaurus skull model at the EXEtinct stall. It had sold by the end of the event. At right, books on sale at the Warwick Books stall. Photos by Alfred Barwick.

No event is ever perfect and let me say upfront that we learnt a lot abut managing and running events of this size. Queuing and room size was an issue for some events and we did have a few problems with our AV setup. Rest assured that we’re very aware of these things and are putting measures in place to improve the experience for the future.

Talks and lectures. We’re now at the stage where so much is happening that I can’t hope to see all of it and there are many talks that I never got to see, nor did I even get to properly catch up with the speaker. Some talks – those we imagine to be more popular – were held in the gigantic Palace room while others – those we imagine to be a bit more on the technical side and thus maybe not as well attended – were held in the Library (it’s not actually a library, it’s a room that has a libraryesque feel). But we got things a bit wrong, since some technical talks were so popular that the Library was over-full, with numerous people standing at the back and sides of the room. We live and learn.

Talks on Saturday started with Matt Dempsey’s outstanding presentation on modelling dinosaurs: on how musculature is added, on the possible masses of select dinosaurs, and on what muscularity means for agility and locomotion. Happening in parallel was Sue Judd on ‘It Takes a Team to Build a T. rex’, a discussion on the design, creation and marketing of the new Tyrannosaurus model made by Everything Dinosaur (Sue is one half of the Everything Dinosaur team). Next up, Dean Lomax and Bob Nicholls gave a joint presentation on ‘The Secret History of Dinosaurs’, this given in conjunction with the recent publication of their excellent book of the same name (Lomax 2025). Both did a book signing later in the day and had to deal with a very substantial queue.

Caption: Dean Lomax on the DinoCon 2026 main stage, here discussing his own background. Image: Alfred Barwick.

Chelsey Kynff’s talk – ‘A Bone to Pick’ – discussed important women in the history of palaeontology, among them Mignon Talbot, Annie Alexander (of thalattosaur fame), Marie Leakey and others on a tour across history. David Unwin showcased new data gleaned from pterosaurs via the use of UV light while recently minted PhD Vicky Coules reviewed the cinematic events that brought dinosaurs and prehistory in general to the screen during the early 20th century.

Caption: Chelsey Kynff on stage, here discussing Mary Anning. Image: Alfred Barwick.

Caption: Vicky Coules on stage at DinoCon 2026, here discussing one of the several 20th century silent movies she presented (and showed). Several were comedic efforts involving prehistoric people. Image: Alfred Barwick.

A real standout performance last year came from filmmaker and artist David James Armsby who not only spoke about the making of his films (in particular SAURIA and Dinosauria) but also released one of his films as an exclusive premiere. So good was this presentation and the audience reception that we opted to host David as our 2026 Guest of Honour, and once again he put on an incredible show. The premiere film this time – Great Maia – is an outstanding piece of work and our audience did us proud in showing their appreciation.

Image: David James Armsby thrills the audience with the backstory to his Great Maia film, an exclusive at DinoCon 2026. Extended and rapturous applause occurred… more than once. Image: Alfred Barwick.

Image: David James Armsby on stage at DinoCon 2026, here with one of his sketchbooks. Some of the material included therein is obviously relevant to the films we’ve seen, but some is for projects not yet released or abandoned. Image: Alfred Barwick.

Other events. Saturday also featured a live recording of the Terrible Lizards podcast, run by Dave Hone and Iszi Lawrence, another book signing (Dave Hone and Mark Witton on their Spinosaur Tales), and a meet and greet event with David Armsby. Did I mention that David brought one of his sketchbooks along?

Caption: Iszi Lawrence and Dave Hone record an episode of the Terrible Lizards podcast in front of a DinoCon 2026 audience. The recording isn’t out (at the time of writing) but the back catalogue of the podcast is here. Image: Alfred Barwick.

Caption: Mark Witton (at back) and Dave Hone sign copies of their Spinosaur Tales at DinoCon 2026 while people wait patiently in line. The queue extended out the door and down the corridor outside. Image: Darren Naish.

Towards the end of Saturday we hosted a discussion panel whereby Nathan spoke to Emma Nicholls, Maria McNamara, Mathew Wedel and Mike Taylor about ‘Thriving in Palaeontology’: on how they’ve remained involved with the field and how they have, or have not, made careers out of their interests. Mike is a vocational palaeontologist employed in another field and Nathan runs a gaming and publishing company, so there are many ways to be involved in palaeontology even when not employed in academia.

Caption: Maria McNamara holds the floor during the panel event, this year devoted to thriving in palaeontology. It’s a notoriously difficult field to get into, with very very few opportunities. Nevertheless, it’s clearly possible. Image: Alfred Barwick.

Costumes and quiz. And then there was the costume competition. Once again, we welcomed people on stage as they displayed costumes, puppetry and other accoutrements, this culminating in judging and prize-giving.

Caption: suit-wearers and puppeteers on stage during the DinoCon 2026 costume competition. It’s interesting that theropods (maniraptorans in particular) are, by far, the most popular objects of focus for people building suits. Everyone here won something. Image: Alfred Barwick.

The quiz this year wasn’t wholly focused on Mesozoic dinosaurs as it was last year but instead included sections on Cenozoic mammals and birds, Mesozoic marine reptiles and Palaeozoic animals. Nathan is, I suppose quite rightly, of the opinion that palaeontology involves geology and therefore made the argument that our quiz should include a section on that topic. And so it was that we also had a section on sedimentology, mineralogy and such.

Caption: some quiz images. At left, the Age of Dinosaurs placard that accompanied the Sandbox VR tickets we gave out at prizes (we also showed the trailer, which you can watch here). At right, Max Stringer of ReptiMax discusses his Hatzegopteryx model, visible in its box in the middle of the image. Images: Alfred Barwick.

The prizes for the quiz were very special. In attendance this year was Max Stringer from South Africa, aka ReptiMax. Max very kindly donated a boxed version of his spectacular, big Hatzegopteryx model. That was first prize, as was a set of tickets for the Age of Dinosaurs Sandbox VR experience (facilities for which exist in Birmingham, plus in London and elsewhere in the UK). Second and third prizes were some special and sought-after dinosaur models kindly donated by Everything Dinosaur, plus more Age of Dinosaurs tickets for second place. James Appleby won first place, Tim Versteeg was second, Joschua Knüppe third. Thanks to everyone who took part. Knowing how to pitch a quiz for an audience of this sort is never easy given the level of expertise we have in the crowd. If it were even moderately easy, we’d have tens of very high scorers.

Caption: the DinoCon 2026 quiz was won by James Appleby, and here he’s holding the ReptiMax Hatzegopteryx model. Videos about this model can be found on the TetZooTowers_collection TikTok, incidentally. Image: Alfred Barwick.

The art exhibition. Running at the same time as the quiz was our art exhibition, once again showcasing work by attending artists interested in putting things on display. Some of the work was on sale. The whole thing was spectacular, featuring the work of around 20 world-class artists including established names (like Mark Witton, John Conway and Anthony Hutchings) as well as newcomers. I exhibited the giant Crocodylomorph Empire poster (copies of which were on sale at the Tet Zoo stall) alongside a compilation of images and captions on its backstory and compilation.

Caption: at left, my Crocodylomorph Empire poster; it was on sale at the event (a digital version will be on sale here soon). At right, part of the DinoCon 2026 art exhibition showing the poster as well as images and notes relevant to its backstory. Images: Darren Naish.

More talks: theropods, biomolecules and sea reptiles. Sunday was packed too, morning talks in the Palace including those by Emma Nicholls on ‘Bookending 200 Years of Megalosaurus’, Maria McNamara on ‘Could Jurassic Park Really Happen?’ and Dave Hone on ‘Spinosaurus – Ecology and Controversy’. All were phenomenally well attended, and I know that the Q&A for Dave’s talk extended something like an hour beyond the talk’s scheduled finish. He was ok with this and we had to force him to stop answering questions.

Caption: Emma Nicholls discusses our evolving knowledge of Megalosaurus, starting with its scientific recognition in the 1820s. Image: Coco Ellenbogen.

My own talk – ‘Mesozoic Marine Reptiles, the View From the Mid-2020s’ – happened in the Library and concerned exciting recent discoveries made about ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, it serving as a sort of update to my Ancient Sea Reptiles (which is on sale here at the Natural History Museum) (Naish 2022). A tangent on the claimed giant size of certain pliosaurids was made all the more timely thanks to the new paper by Eddy Bartlett and colleagues (Bartlett et al. 2026). Immediately on finishing I ran over to another part of the building for a book signing, not just of Ancient Sea Reptiles but for whatever books people wanted me to scribble in. It went well and I was kept busy for the next two hours, yikes. There is immense pressure to get through a queue, but I managed it. I’m always impressed by how gracious people are about waiting in line for so long.

Workshops. Occurring throughout the weekend were a number of palaeoart workshops, those for beginners being led by Dane Pavitt and those for people with some degree of experience being led by Joschua Knüppe. The latter had to be booked in advance but that wasn’t so for the former, and we substantially underestimated the interest there would be in attending. We apologise to the people who wanted to get in but couldn’t. We’re going to have to implement a ticketing system or some other way of limiting numbers in future.

Auctions. Our Live Charity Auction also happened on Sunday. This year we were raising funds for the Turtle Foundation. I get that an event like DinoCon is a huge exercise in escapism, but I feel strongly that we mustn’t move away from efforts to help preserve the natural world and we’ll continue to host auctions for conservation charities in future years. Harrison Watler of the Turtle Foundation gave a talk on the foundation’s work before the auction began.

Caption: Nathan and Darren on stage during the live auction, the lot here being an original Luis Rey painting, kindly donated by Russell Batten. It went for an amount over £300, as is appropriate for original art. Image: Coco Ellenbogen.

Auction items included bespoke and unique dinosaur models, original artwork (including by John Sibbick, Steve White and Luis Rey) and a signed first edition of Katrina van Grouw’s The Unfeathered Bird. A silent auction, involving books, art prints, dinosaur models and more also occurred. Massive thanks to everyone who donated or made bids.

Talks on palaeomedia. On afternoon talks, that by Paul Barrett – on ‘Zimbabwe’s Dinosaur Heritage’ – unfortunately didn’t happen as Paul was unable to make it through no fault of his own. We look forward to seeing him attend in future. If you pay attention to dinosaur-themed news you might have seen the brand-new publication of the sauropodomorph Musango matusadonaensis from Zimbabwe; Paul is one of the describers (Barrett et al. 2026). I wonder if he was planning to mention it, as an exclusive reveal, at DinoCon… I guess we’ll never know.

Caption: Tom Fletcher at DinoCon 2026… Tom discussed the making of palaeo-themed TV shows at Silverback Films. At right, promo image for the Netflix series The Dinosaurs, first broadcast in March 2026. I enjoyed it a lot more than I did Life On Our Planet. Images: Coco Ellenbogen; © Netflix.

Our final two talks focused on big-budget TV series about prehistoric life. First up was Tom Fletcher of Silverback Films who discussed the ups and downs of making, firstly, Life on Our Planet and then The Dinosaurs. It was a brilliantly fun talk that showed great (and exclusive) clips and segments.

Next up was Tim Haines, who absolutely got the most incredible introductory audience reception, his talk being ‘Surviving Earth – Why?’. This discussed the thinking behind his new series and the background to the extinction events it portrayed. By now, it’s no secret that Tim said – right at the end of his talk – things that were interpreted as an endorsement of generative AI, his primary point being that this is now part of the CGI pipeline. The audience did not respond well but this didn’t stop Tim from receiving appropriate applause at the end; if you’ve heard otherwise, it’s not accurate.

Caption: Tim Haines on stage at DinoCon 2026. One moment of Surviving Earth shows an adult pliosaur thrown ashore and pinned up in the air by some trees. Tim noted that this was very much inspired by Bob Nicholls’s image of a deceased mosasaur posed the same way, and appeared through agreement with Bob himself. Image: Coco Ellenbogen.

We closed by thanking the many people who worked with us in making it all come together – the AV team, the hotel staff, our volunteers and assistants and everyone who attended – before announcing the amount raised for charity by the audience. It was over £3200, a respectable amount that we’re pleased to pass on to the Turtle Foundation.

Caption: a fun and ever-present feature of DinoCon is the Dinomania team and their various charges. The two ankylosaurs Bramble and Conker proved really popular. Image: Coco Ellenbogen.

Goodbye DinoCon 2026! Packing up, tidying, and heading out involved a lot of work, but we did it in good time and I finally got to spend appropriate time in the bar on Sunday night. While there were assorted hiccups and scares of the sort that always occur in running these events, and while there are many things that could have been done better, DinoCon 2026 was a massive success and we owe huge thanks to everyone who attended for making it what it was. My co-organisers worked so, so hard in bringing it all together, as did the hotel staff, our volunteers, all of the many vendors, our photographers and videographers, and our speakers and presenters. Thank you all!

Caption: Sam Neil was mentioned in our opening ceremony, and we also had these two books of remembrance present throughout. Massive thanks to Vicky Robinson for working with us in setting this up. Image: Darren Naish.

It remains to be said that DinoCon has undergone such growth since the first one that we do expect things to become even bigger and better in future. Yes, we want YOU if you’re interested in vending, in attending, in speaking, or in helping as a volunteer. So, goodbye DinoCon 2026… watch our website and social media presence for news on what might happen in 2027!

Caption: goodbye DinoCon 2026! Image: Coco Ellenbogen.

For previous articles on DinoCon and its ancestor – TetZooCon – see these articles….

Articles like this are possible because of the support I receive at patreon. Please consider supporting my research and writing if you don’t already, thank you so much.

Refs - -

Barrett, P. M., Botha, J., Sciscio, L., Stuart, B. P., Lovegrove, J., Munyikwa, D., Zondo, M., Broderick, T. J., Edwards, S. F., Mbambo, E., Chapelle, K. E. J., Dollman, K. N., Tolan, S. & Choniere, J. N. 2026. A new sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Pebbly Arkose Formation (Upper Triassic: Norian) of Kariba, Zimbabwe. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 24, 2678610.

Bartlett, E. O., Martill, D. M. & Smith, R. E. 2026. Re-evaluating body size in the Middle Jurassic pliosaur Liopleurodon ferox Sauvage, 1873. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2691149.

Lomax, D. R. 2025. The Secret Lives of Dinosaurs. Columbia University Press, New York.

Naish, D. 2022. Ancient Sea Reptiles. Natural History Museum, London.