Really. It communicates a sense of stability; you've got responsible people in charge, you're careful about what you say and how you say it, and even in the face of disaster you can remain calm and put the best face possible on things.
It would crush the Austin economy, there are businesses in the downtown which rent out their "space" for the 2/3 weeks of SXSW and make more money in this period of time, than they would otherwise do all year long!
"The annual festival increased its economic impact to the City of Austin to $355.9 million in 2019, according to an analysis by Greyhill Advisors and South by Southwest." [1]
Yes! It's not a surprise that the cloud companies like Google or Amazon or Salesforce want to cancel events. They don't lose much -- and might even gain by encouraging more digital interaction.
It's the waiters, hotel workers, cab drivers etc. who are really going to be squeezed. It's going to be rough for them.
> Regarding the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak: SXSW is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event. As a result of this dialogue and the recommendations of Austin Public Health, we are proceeding with the 2020 event with the health and safety of our attendees, staff, and volunteers as our top priority.
I don’t think they’ve fully faced the emerging danger of COVID-19 for an event like this. It’s not just the 400,000 attendees, it’s the 2.2 million people in greater Austin.
COVID-19 can render a victim contagious within 12-24 hours after contact. That person can be asymptomatic for 5-7 days, even longer.
Attendees either start to get sick near the end, or on the trip back home. Or bring it to home and their workplace.
There are no vaccines, no one has any immunity. It is NOT the flu.
I’d bet it will be cancelled, when the promoters realize how many people have bailed already and the massive public health risk it poses.
In Italy they are playing soccer games to empty stadiums.
Even if it’s not cancelled, there’s no way it’s as big as normal. Major sponsors already dropping out, some speakers the same... it would probably end up being a pretty tame event though. Might even be more fun for introverts!
It's still effectively cancelled. An online-only streaming event is not the same thing as a 30,000 attendee in-person event. (where the networking is more important than the presentations that are live-streamed anyway)
There's a question I've proposed to some of my friends, which I will also propose here:
Do you think that we will see Chinese style quarantining in the US? If not: why not? What do you think is different about the US that would allow us to attack this disease differently?
This is terribly uninformed but I imagine they'll shift from containment to mitigation soon (before it hits the US in a bit way), so quarantining won't be the prevalent strategy.
Quarantining isn't a magic wand. It needs a lot of manpower who is also dedicated. The enforcers in China are communist party members. China can build a 1000bed hospital in 10 days. In America that's the time needed for PowerPoint slides during meetings and money-funneling off it.
Not the parent poster; but yeah, that and also because of the expected resistance (possibly violent) by the population; it seems that the Chinese have mostly been compliant with the quarantines and it seems that Americans will not be as compliant, so any quarantine attempts will be less effective, bring less benefit.
If we're looking at the recent Covid-19 detections, they are in (for example) Seattle and Manhattan, so these particular urban areas are likely among the first to need quarantine, and they aren't predominantly black.
Only a very small fraction of the population live in truly rural areas, but they would also be affected by quarantine restrictions on long-distance travel, and have a large proportion of "true individualists" who might be motivated to intentionally sabotage (for example) such checkpoints as a matter of principle.
Also, suburbs would definitely need quarantine, although it's easier in literal gated communities.
However, I think that you may have a point regarding the sensitivity of the racial relationships. If some government actions start harmfully affecting predominantly groups of one race (and it will be different groups in different places), then given the historically strained relationships in USA, it's likely that some of these groups will perceive the government as their enemy and try to resist any measures even if they're actually helpful for the health of their community.
You seem very bitter towards Americans, and black people. I hope you figure out how to be a bit happier and less biased. Maybe less Russian troll too, that would be nice.
Yes it is a "spin" and yes technically the "in person" component is canceled (but who knows how they will emulate the hallway tracks)... but frankly this is a responsible change.
Does anyone know what happens to the Airline tickets?
The expo booth shipping/handling? Do the companies eat the cost? Some of the big booths can cost thousands to ship to the conference and typically get shipped out weeks prior (for cheaper rates / slower transit).
It would be fun to see at the end of the year that the worldwide cancellation of useless events (not picking on this particular one) had exactly zero economic impact.
Google Cloud, Azure and AWS all support internet companies like Netflix or Amazon. Is it any mystery that they compete against F2F companies like malls, theaters, and stadia? Is it a surprise that they're being so cautious? They have little to lose and lots to gain.
I feel sorry for the service workers who are being squeezed so hard by this disease.
