"I regret to announce the cancellation of our Boston event. Many factors that needed to come together to make it happen simply did not. We tried everything humanly possible and were unable to overcome the insurmountable obstacles. This is not to say that I don't take the blame myself, I do..."

So begins the official apology posted on the JumpCon website on Tuesday 15th July 2008.  But what lies behind those words, laid out in full at the foot of this piece, is a trail of angry actors and artists from all reaches of the sci-fi spectrum to - most importantly - angry ripped off fans who will lose large amounts of their hard-earned cash.
Our good friend Ian Liston contacted us and insisted that we help spread the news about JumpCon far and wide.
We're only too happy to help...

"I have had emails from fans who have paid hundreds of dollars for advance tickets, booked accommodation and paid for flights. It's shameful

They have been well and truly ‘scalped’ by JumpCon (just as they were by FedCon a few weeks back) and I hope that Shane/the Emperor, or whatever title this disgusting piece of non-creative garbage wants to give himself, pays back every penny to the fans who had put their faith in him.

He’s done the whole convention circuit a massive disservice with the ineptitude of his shambling attempts to create his so called “new style of convention”.

Be they fan or guest, he’s rightly caused many people to doubt or trust this sort of venture ever again.

All the ‘guests’ of my acquaintance are well and truly appalled by this: doubtless the story doesn’t end here."

Ian - "Although we all received signed contracts, we had some doubts from the start with the terms that were offered. We were all invited, originally, to 56 weekend conventions between June 2008 and Autumn 2009 and allowed to pick the ones we wanted. First class flights for self and spouse/partner, a generous fee and per diems and various ‘fringe’ benefits. Mind you, they wanted us to start at 7 a.m. for breakfast with paying fans, same for lunch and evening meal with signings, talks, groups etc in between! Our day would have stretched from 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. for three days! Totally unrealistic. Apart from anything else, guests don’t want to be tired and exhausted when meeting the fans who have paid good money to be there.

We queried with each other at the time how they could afford this and make it work with at least a dozen guests from the UK alone. Imagine what those air fares would have cost 1^st or even Club class!

Even worse was JumpCon’s total inability to make contact with guests and keep them informed. – Most guests were not aware of the cancelled conventions at Stamford and Kalamazoo until they saw it on the JumpCon website or heard about it from chat rooms etc. Pittsburgh (which I was scheduled to do) was cancelled 24 hours before Boston but I only knew about it from the website.

It’s worth pointing out that, as I think you know, MOST of the actors/guests take their responsibilities quite seriously, just as they would in their everyday lives as professional working actors. A Convention is no different.

You will see from many of the other sites how angry people like Robert Picardo, John Billingsley, Vaughn Armstrong, Jason Carter etc to name but a few are with this sort of situation.

I think you’ll also find that most of the “guests” i.e. actors, are on the side of the fans because the odds are that if the guests are being scammed by an unscrupulous conference organiser, so are the fans. And vice versa ….. and it has to stop."

Announcement to fans coming to JumpCon Boston:

Sincerely,
Shane Senter