United Fan Con

Convention
Name:	United Fan Con
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Type:	fancon
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United Fan Con

In 2008, New England Fan Experience and United Fan Con put on a free fan con called NonJumpCon, arranged at the very last minute (like, less than 48 hours!) after JumpCon was canceled.

15: 2005

flyer

It took place November 11-13, 2005 at the Marriott Hotel in Springfield, MA, US.

Patrick Stewart was the planned guest of honor.

17: 2007

Comments by Peter David:

I was one of the first people to accept an invite from United Fan Con up in Springfield, MA, in November…and, as of last night, was the very first one (and, to my knowledge, the only one) to be disinvited. As opposed to Orlando where I was simply summarily dumped from the roster, this time I was contacted by the convention organizer who explained that, well, they only had so much money to go around, and they were so busy paying for the appearance fees and hotel rooms for the–y’know–important guests, and their advance registration or interest in purchasing photo ops or signed pictures in advance had been so far below projection, that they could no longer afford to have me out even though I don’t charge appearance fees. They had to cut the budget somewhere and apparently I’m it. They couldn’t afford hotel stay and travel costs for the guy who signs tons of comic books and such for free because they needed to be able to accommodate all the folks who charge fans $20/$30 a pop for signatures.

I doubt that anyone was coming to United Fan Con just to see me–certainly the convention organizers are banking on that–but if you were, and you were hoping to get free autographs, you’re out of luck.

You know, I just can’t get enough of having regional conventions use my name for initial promotion and then dump me at the last minute. Actually, now that I think about it…I can. I’m going to be thinking long and hard before accepting invites for any smaller conventions; I’m just tired of having my face stepped on.

Photos

• photos of Michael Shank, unknown date; archive link