Dash is
Dani Vachon
Dash Management Ltd. is Dani Vachon, an experienced music industry professional and agency owner. Dani was in Vancouver from 1998 to 2015 and has since lived in Hope, BC with plans to relocate to Europe.
In 2000 Dani graduated design school. From there, her first job was at a design agency as a junior designer for industrial and retail clients. One year later she decided she wanted to work on more creative designs for the music industry.
In order to build a reputation amongst musicians in order to serve them in a design capacity, she and a partner Doug Gregoire (then Phillips) started WHAP! Productions which booked and promoted all ages/bar shows and ran one of the first online music magazines featuring interviews, articles, mp3s and show listings. In 2002 WHAP! booked Hot Hot Heat, Death From Above, and Arcade Fire, to name a few.
During this period, Dani recognized the talent in You Say Party! We Say Die!, a band from Abbotsford who played a show for WHAP! She and Doug discussed and agreed to form a record label and release the first album for You Say Party! The label was called Sound Document Records and it released a total of three albums, some artwork for which was created by Dani.
In 2003 Dani started Sealed With a Kiss Presents (SWAK) with Jason Lajeunesse, a serial entrepreneur based out of Seattle, and a silent partner. Jason was responsible for the booking and Dani the promotion and production. SWAK was responsible for hundreds of shows in Vancouver including for: Death Cab for Cutie, The National, Justice, TV on the Radio, Broken Social Scene, MGMT, Sufjan Stevens and many more.
Simultaneously, the inaugural You Say Party! album was selling well and the band needed management. Dani took them on as her first management client. They saw a sharp increase in popularity including being featured on the cover of NME and in Rolling Stone China within an article about Dani and all her endeavours. Meanwhile Dani temporarily managed Fake Shark! Real Zombie! (Light Organ Records) and Thunderbirds Are Now! (French Kiss Records)
In 2008, due to personal reasons, Dani closed shop on the management company and SWAK. The same year, she co-founded a multidisciplinary, multi-venue arts festival in Vancouver called Olio Festival which ran for four years. In its fourth year it saw over 10,000 attendees at 50 events across 5 days in the disciplines of music, film, comedy, art, skateboarding and fashion.
From 2010 to 2012 Dani was also involved in the launch of four live music venues. As an employee for the first time in 10 years, she did booking at Fortune Sound Club at its launch, followed by handling the branding, promotion, booking, and general management at Guilt & Co. in Gastown. The story goes on from there with two more venues, Electric Owl and Fan Club, and a decision to go back to being her own boss.
In 2013 Dani founded The Beacon Design Collective Inc., a creative agency that is still in operation today. Beacon has grown consistently since then. It serves/has served noteworthy nonprofit and government clients in the areas of branding and storytelling: The City of Vancouver, Oxfam Canada, Doctors Without Borders Canada, Green Municipal Fund, Coast Funds, Working Families Party and many more. Dani is still CEO of Beacon.
From 2015 to 2024 Dani was also the volunteer producer of Concerts In the Park in Hope, BC which brings 9 free shows to the town each summer. She grew the event series from an average of 25 attendees per show to an average of 450 attendees per show on a very limited budget.
In 2024 Dani launched Dash Management Ltd. in order to manage her favourite band from Sweden: BF/C. And that’s where we are today!