Yesterday exhibitors, guests and panelists found out Universal FanCon had been postponed a week out from its scheduled April 27-29 dates at the Baltimore Convention Center. Late Friday evening, the organizers of Universal FanCon released an official statement about why the convention had been postponed.

The TL:DR of the statement appeared to be caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. The official statement reads as an attempt to indemnify themselves against claims of legal or monetary responsibility. It did little to address the needs and frustration of fans, creators and artists who had purchased non-refundable tickets to attend the convention. Few felt comforted by the promise that tickets would be honored at some time in the future.

Many exhibitors and creators are out not only the fees they paid to table at Universal FanCon but the potential profit and ability to recover the cost of tabling and travel through sales of their work. There’s the added complexity of trying to recoup money for travel and lodging a week out from a planned trip. Generally speaking, cancellation policies are at the discretion of each hotel and airline and sadly. Few hotels or airlines will offer full refunds this close to a planned trip. This has placed many guests, attendees, creators and artists in a precarious financial position. Thankfully, there’s been an outpouring of people looking to help out creators recuperate some of their financial loses. We’ve listed some ways you can help and will update this post with additional information as we become aware of it.

1. Visit the Virtual Artist Alley

2. Learn About the Creators

There are so many examples of those on social media who have been using their status and followers for good. Below are some examples of people who are working to retweet and boost the work of creators and vendors. You can also find creators by doing a Twitter search, there’ll be some extraneous Tweets but many creators are using the hashtag #UniversalFanCon to link their work or other ways you can help support them.

https://twitter.com/MizTeeFranklin/status/987478337885962240

3. Link to Resources, Share Your Knowledge

The best thing about the mission of Universal FanCon was its goal of inclusion and support of every geek and nerd out there. It’s why so many rallied behind the convention. Now that it is cancelled, we still get to witness the incredible support and kindness of our community. We’re all rallying together to find ways of supporting each other in any way we can. This means sharing our knowledge and helping others who are still traveling to Baltimore come up with a list of activities to do while in town.

https://twitter.com/leeflower/status/987695130508488705

The situation is unfortunate, there’s no way around that. Thankfully, we have the ability to help. We can spend time raising awareness and making purchases to support the talent of the many creators, performers and artists who had planned to attend Universal FanCon. This community is vastly talented and I for one will be spending my weekend learning more about these creators and making purchases. Consider financially supporting a creator this weekend and if that’s not feasible for you, just take some time to learn more about the folks who planed to share their knowledge and love of fandom with us next week.

UPDATE: The organization Black Heroes Matter has rallied with several other organizers to finalize the location of their pop-up convention. Details can be found below.

https://twitter.com/BHMatter/status/987796223825448960