undeadruler ([info]undeadruler) wrote in [info]arisia,
@ 2008-07-18 02:30:00
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Surprise Convention This Weekend
 The short, short version:

 Due to the cancellation of all of the Jumpcon cons (including the one that was supposed to take place this weekend here in Boston) and the complete meltdown of Fedcon in the middle of their con, there is a lot of resentment on both the celebrity side as well as the attendee side. 
 This is bad for all the media cons, not just the ones that failed. 
 A group of people that were supposed to attend Jumpcon Boston did not cancel their travel plans and are coming here anyway. They started to look into putting on their own convention.
 UFC, a well known group that threw a media con in Springfield for years, stepped in to sponsor the hotel space. The result is a hastily put together mini-con with no name being held this weekend. Details are:

Where: Back Bay Hilton
When: June 18, 19, 20. 3 - 10pm on Friday. 10am - 6pm on Saturday. Noon -6pm on Sunday 
What: Hybird con (media and fan run elements) featuring videos, vendors, auctions, discussion panels, celebrities, and gaming.
Cost: free (donations are being accepted but they are not required)

 I'm running the game section for this one. No scheduled games as I was told about this yesterday morning. It's a relaxicon type atmosphere and I'll be bringing in plenty of games to pick up and play. Hope to see you there.

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[info]wickedgoodgrrrl
2008-07-18 11:24 am UTC (link)
This is a really sweet "stone soup" solution to an awful situation. But you do mean "July 18, 19, 20", neh?

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[info]deguspice
2008-07-18 06:24 pm UTC (link)
Yes. It's this weekend.

The organizers for Jumpcon canceled at the last minute. So people have scrambled to come up with some sort of a solution.

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Spontaneous Con-bustion, FTW!!
[info]wickedgoodgrrrl
2008-07-19 01:11 pm UTC (link)
I went yesterday after work and it was AWESOME! Will go there again today!

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United Fan Con is coming to the rescue of fans in Boston
[info]nefe_vicechair
2008-07-18 01:12 pm UTC (link)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Randolph, MA. – July 17, 2008 – United Fan Con Inc., a small not-for-profit fan-run group located in Randolph MA, has stepped up to give the fans in Boston the fun-filled weekend that they were anticipating.

On Tuesday afternoon, July 15th, the Milford, NH based event promotions company, JumpCon LLC, cancelled a large Science Fiction / Pop Culture event scheduled for this weekend July 18th-20th at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. This is a second time in the last two months events like this have collapsed at the last minute, in June Fed Con USA in Dallas , TX canceled the rest of their show during the actual event itself.

United Fan Con has been producing fan-run events in Massachusetts for the past 17 years and knows when events are canceled like this it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouths; it hurts everyone involved: actors, agents, hotels, other promoters and especially the fans. This time it is different, a lot of fans that were planning to attend the now canceled Jumpcon Boston have rallied together to put on there own mini convention. It started with online forum posts discussing the situation and then moved to the realization that many people were still coming to Boston regardless of the JC cancellation. These fans decided to organize and started planning a mini fan event. United Fan Con stepped in to help the fans make it happen, giving the fans the funds to rent space at a new venue and use of any and all equipment and supplies needed to host an event. In addition UFC is contacting actors, agents and vendors with the hope of making this an exciting weekend.

This Fan Con will be free to all attendees and include; games, videos, fan panels, auctions, vendors and more. The event will take place at the Hilton Back Bay, located at 40 Dalton Street, Boston MA (directly across the street from the Boston Sheraton). The event will run from 3pm – 10pm on Friday, 10am – 6pm on Saturday and 12pm – 6pm on Sunday.


Here is what is being said about the fans efforts:
“It's really cool that you are trying to help these poor fans”. - Bob Catalano, Westland Productions
“I hope you can make something happen with the fans, thanks for doing this.” Julie Catlin Brown – Illumina Productions,
“How nice of you to reach out and see what can be done. We greatly appreciate your thoughts and willingness to try and make something positive out this fiasco Thank you”. Erin Gray - Heroes for Hire.

What we need is you, the fan, to get the word out! Tell all of your friends and tell us how you can help. This is a true FAN CON!

If you wish to help plan this event please join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jconcons/

For the latest information, visit http://www.nefe.us

(Reply to this)

Event Help
[info]nefe_vicechair
2008-07-18 02:07 pm UTC (link)
Hi guys-
Red Johnston from UFC/NEFE here. If anyone is going to be around this weekend and would like to help us out with the show, we'd welcome your assistance. Please email me at bubbared1@yahoo.com and let me know about availability.

Thanx in advance!
Red

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[info]nohwhere_man
2008-07-18 03:05 pm UTC (link)
So, inquiring minds want to know- what happened with jumpcon & fedcon? (Canceled, I know, but there must be a backstory.)

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[info]ron_newman
2008-07-18 04:32 pm UTC (link)
And whatever it is that happened ... is there any danger that it could happen to Arisia or Boskone or Pi-con?

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[info]deguspice
2008-07-18 06:27 pm UTC (link)
I really doubt anything like that will happen with Arisia (the same is probably true for other regional SF conventions). Unlike Jumpcon and Fedcon, we try to make sure that our eyes are not bigger than our stomach.

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[info]deguspice
2008-07-18 06:32 pm UTC (link)
FedCon and Jumpcon were hoping to be large media conventions. Instead of starting small and slowly growing their conventions, they jumped in with both feet and grand plans. They invited lots of famous (and not so famous) movie and TV stars to come to their conventions, which means lots of round trip, first class airline ticket and other expenses that need to be paid up front (before they have most of their membership income).

The income failed to appear when then needed it, so they couldn't afford to pay for the airline tickets, which means the actors weren't going to show up, ...

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[info]bovil
2008-07-18 08:01 pm UTC (link)
They were trying to out-Creation Creation, only without doing all the work (or having all the luck) that Creation did.

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Jumpcn
(Anonymous)
2008-07-19 05:34 pm UTC (link)
Want to know why jumpcon failed? If you went to their
site to buy a membership it came out outrageously expensive.
Jump con greatly out priced themselves.

The chances of Arisia and Boskone following suit? Somewhere between
slim and none. Both are solidly run conventions built on a
solid base.

Twenty yesrs from now Boskone and Arisia will still be around and
just as solid.

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Three cheers for Spontaneous Con-bustion!...
[info]wickedgoodgrrrl
2008-07-20 01:08 pm UTC (link)
... And Happy Birthday, Apollo 11 moon-landing!

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[info]thanos73
2008-07-20 06:05 pm UTC (link)
What A TERRIBLE weekend to have a convention. The people who ran Jumpcon really did not understand the areas other events that take large segments of the Boston/New England fan base away.

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[info]undeadruler
2008-07-21 10:35 am UTC (link)
Very true. Readercon was happening, Dexcon was in VT (that did get people from MA). I don't know what it was called but I remember hearing that there was some large event happening on the Boston Common as well over the weekend.
June and July, in general, are busy months in NE as far as conventions go. There's always something going on, so unless you are targeting a completely different fanbase, you really won't get a good turnout.

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(Anonymous)
2008-07-21 02:14 pm UTC (link)
What a great idea!

How did it go? Any word on numbers?

-Vonnie Carts-Powell

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[info]undeadruler
2008-07-21 06:53 pm UTC (link)
Had about 20 people on day 1.
Day two brought in 50 - 60.
Day 3 was between 30 - 40.

Mark Goddard stopped in on Friday and Saturday (local celebrity).
If you were there on Friday then you were in a group picture with Mark and a full-size, fully functional, remote control R2-D2.
There were two panels. One was a Dr. Who panel and the other was the speaker engagement with Mark Goddard.

Thank you to a few of you local gamers out there who stopped in to to play a few and also to the video gamers for unlocking so much stuff for me (video games were brought in on Saturday at the conchairs request once it was determined that space was available to do it).

A lot of the attendees, naturally, were people flying in from out-of-state for Jumpcon that could not cancel their travel plans. It appeared that everyone had fun.

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