Unrelated, but I have three big events I booked long ago that I'm either becoming weary of attending, or fear that they will be cancelled and I'll be on the hook for the hotel and other accommodations. One of them is at SF chase center (19K capacity) and SF recently announced infections. Not a good time to be a fan of live events.
EDIT: Here's an interesting twitter thread that gives an isight into what smaller event organizers are going through due to the coronavirus https://twitter.com/jessiechar/status/1235685514667126786
> The City of Austin has cancelled the March dates for SXSW and SXSW EDU. SXSW will faithfully follow the City’s directions. We are devastated to share this news with you. “The show must go on” is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation. As recently as Wednesday, Austin Public Health stated that “there’s no evidence that closing SXSW or any other gatherings will make the community safer.” However, this situation evolved rapidly, and we honor and respect the City of Austin’s decision. We are committed to do our part to help protect our staff, attendees, and fellow Austinites.
Private individuals shouldn’t have to parse health statistics or educate themselves to the level of virologists. Instead the government should do this work, and issue a decree. If not this, then when will government be useful?
This makes the delays even more incomprehensible. Seems it wasn't greed after all; it was just sheer irresponsibility.
2020 registrants can opt to defer to 2021,2022 or 23
It's not bad optics at all. This is a public decision that is most responsibly taken by public officials.
Sometimes, you just got to say no, we will not contribute to spreading this disease inadvertently and take the hit. SXSW organizers are unbelievable.
To the people only thinking of themselves about this just being a "flu", I read this yesterday: https://twitter.com/kumailn/status/1235015662117908481 It is not just about you. He pulled out of events because he wanted to limit contact to avoid spreading it to a vulnerable loved one.
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2020-03-06/sxsw-c...
Everyone on Wall Street is preparing for a catastrophic economic collapse from this.
American Airlines is likely to go bankrupt.
“#SXSW replied me saying they won't refund me Frowning face or exchange for 2021. For Brazilian standards the price of the ticket is VERY expensive and I'm cancelling my trip due to concerns related to coronavirus. I think they should refund me and the participants that decided not to attend”
So it very much depends on when you bought the retail ticket.
You have to make a chargeback complaint, have that investigated, get approval from your issuer, then wait for a refund.
If they're not issuing refund after the cancellation announcement, then they're finished. No more SXSW next year.
Our containment efforts could prevent any significant self-sustaining communities in the USA. This seems plausible.
Testing could advance to a point where Apple safely and effectively door tests attendees. This seems like something Apple would and will do, if they can (e.g. if testing advances far enough in the next month or so).
I think Apple will announce a decision between 30-15 days out from the event and by that time their choice will be an obvious one.
> But he understands the hesitance to cancel — because even if most major promoters probably spent extra to have communicable disease provisions in their cancellation insurance, it wouldn’t likely kick in if they made a unilateral decision to cancel without the city forcing their hand to do so.
In the above, "he" refers to an "entertainment manager" at an insurance company. Doesn't sound like firsthand knowledge, but it's still a very educated guess.
SXSW was definitely not going to cancel until forced.
The more important piece than insurance, I suspect, is that they don't have to give full refunds now. It also probably means they can unilaterally cancel contracts.
The CDC estimates that 31 million Americans caught the flu this year, resulting in about 200,000 hospitalizations, and between 12,000 - 30,000 people have died this season from flu-related complications. So as a rule of thumb you could say 10% of America infected, ~1% of those people are hospitalized, and 10% of those people die. Every year.
Do we close events during the winter because of the flu? Of course not. We would never be able to have a winter-season event ever again. The flu vaccine is not particularly effective, some years it's even almost entirely ineffective, although most years about 50/50...
I'm still of the (clearly unpopular) opinion that the response to COVID is 1 part science, and 3 parts hysteria.
At the gym today I heard a great saying. Almost 3 million people die every year from obesity. Maybe instead of yelling at everyone to wash their hands, we should be yelling at everyone to eat a damn salad. SXSW is substantially less hazardous to the public health than McDonalds.
Why is the response to this coronavirus so hysterical? You could come up with any number of fatality stats that have taken more lives since January than COVID-19. Lower respiratory infections (not COVID related) kill approximately 200,000 people a month. Malaria kills 50,000 a month. Even just driving kills 100,000 people a month.
Rather than thinking SXSW organizers are unbelievable for not canceling, I think that the Mayor/City of Austin is unbelievable for canceling. Anyway, I just got back from a trip to Orlando, and Disney World and Universal, while not packed, certainly seemed busy.
The CDC should do what they are setup to do; ensure that testing is both cheap, accurate, and readily available, that people are educated about how to reasonably decrease their chances of catching a virus, teach how to manage a mild infection and self-quarantine, and when to seek medical attention. IMO, we don't need to tank the world economy in order to do this.
