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NEWS: Baltimore's Universal FanCon Convention Postponed 1 Week Before Opening

As I was working to spread the mission of Universal Fan Con, I did not involve myself with financial or legal matters. To be frank — I didn’t know what was coming in nor what was going out. I didn’t sign any contracts. And in hindsight, I realize that this should have been a major priority. However, I acknowledge that in hindsight, that does not remedy the aftermath. On April 3, a bomb was dropped on me about our finances. I was shocked that outstanding bills were not paid and that the likelihood of FanCon would be no longer.

I help oversee our Affiliates team — our team of bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, etc who are the cheerleaders that have helped to spread the word of Universal Fan Con. We discussed having an emergency Go Fund Me and I even created a video as a last-ditch effort. I was reluctant and didn’t like how it would look that I was being asked to be the face of the video, but I went with it anyway. However, I guess I was positioned as the leader and representative of the fandom community, and I recorded a video about our need for funds. After we had our meeting with Affiliates, most agreed a Go Fund Me would be a good idea. I had a secondary meeting with the FanCon board and we decided rather than putting the onus on fans and asking for money which we already did during the Kickstarter, I agreed that we should try to find ways to scale down the size of the space and try to defray costs. I also worked with a sponsor at the last minute to help us out that provided a generous donation that I thought would have us in a better position.

48 hours ago, I found out that we owed more money and that there was no way to run this con with the debt that was owed. I called the team myself and requested an emergency board meeting to discuss what we need to do and what went wrong. As it turns out there was a balloon budget that would make it impossible to run this convention by Friday, April 27. I was sick to my stomach, devastated and I’m still in shock by all of this because at the time I thought FanCon was okay. I had a press coverage meeting with my team a few days before and I was prepping my schedule as to what we plan to cover at the event. I was completely blindsided by this news and frankly still don’t understand what happened.

Welcome to Dashcon 2.0!

or the anime equivalent of the Frye Festival in the Bahamas.

According to this statement from this Universal FanCon's Director of Community Outreach dated April 21st, it was known as early as April 3rd that there was financial problems: https://www.blackgirlnerds.com/jamie-broadnax-statement-on-universal-fan-con/

I worked for Universal Fan Con as a volunteer. I was never paid but was promised part of the profits.

Considering airfare for a lot of guests were not purchased even a month before con, I think their financial troubles started long before April. I forgot who it was, but one of the domestic guests mentioned on Twitter that they never got contacted about their flights.

The relatively seamless relocation of Otakon seems to have left a lingering scar. Do many Baltimoreans mind taking the journey to the next city along?

Edit: Oh, forgot. Saori Kobayashi said she was going to surprise everyone and bring Eri Itoh along. Itoh sang the lion’s share of Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu (PD Saga) and Anu Orta Veniya (Orta). The last time she was in the US for MAGFest, she brought in Akane bandmate Yumiko Takahashi, who did those songs live, but had limited parts in the original recordings.

Yeah, I was just referring to what she did with Kobayashi.

Terrible headline NEWS: Baltimore's Universal FanCon Convention Postponed 1 Week Before Opening

Should read: NEWS: Baltimore's Universal FanCon Convention Postponed Indefinitely One Week Before Opening

It's like reading over copy from my damn first year interns at Kyodo all over again. As originally written, the reader may be given the impression the con's official open is delayed by one week. Technically every word is not suppose to be in caps either. I'll send ANN a copy of the current AP Style Guide.