Conferences in the Time of Coronavirus
Our first conference of 2020, An Event Apart DC, is now just one month away, with our Seattle event a month after that.
Given all the recent news about the coronavirus, it’s natural to ask whether these conferences will be cancelled, or if they’re going ahead as planned.
At this time, all six conferences for 2020 are proceeding as planned. We will continue to watch developments, particularly guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and adjust course as needed—but for now, we’re planning to keep on keepin’ on.
Why would we choose this path, when so many events are cancelling?
One reason is that the events that are cancelling are giant shows drawing thousands of attendees from all over the globe to mix in huge crowds. The scale of An Event Apart is quite different: that of a few hundred attendees in a “classroom” setting, with very few international attendees, and no trade floor where people jostle each other to get into vendor booths. The CDC has not recommended that gatherings of our size be cancelled, and similarly has not recommended suspension of domestic travel.
Other reasons we’re keeping our doors open are that people are still registering to attend; many attendees have already committed to plane flights, hotel reservations, and more; and the venues’ staffs are preparing for our arrival. Our friends at the PerfMatters Conference put it perfectly:
Cancelling would hurt a lot of people: from those of you who have non-refundable airline tickets, to the local small businesses we focus on patronizing who rely on the money you spend while in town, to the shift-workers at our venues who will suddenly be out four days of work.
These are effects we must balance with everything else, including the safety of our attendees and those who assist us in producing the conference. It’s challenging, but we’re up to it. There will be extra measures in place at our events to help maintain that balance, which we’ll communicate to attendees before they arrive.
An Event Apart weathered H1N1 back in 2009 and MERS in 2013, among others. While every health scare has its own character, we’re putting lessons learned then into practice now, updated for today’s realities.
Of course, if your employer, family, or doctor issues you a directive forbidding travel, we understand. Get in touch and we’ll see what we can do to help. Options include:
- Remote access to the sessions via synchronized audio and slides after the event is over.
- Transferring your registration to someone else at no extra cost, up until the day of the event.
- Moving your registration to a different An Event Apart conference at no extra cost.
Regardless of which option you think is right for you, if you’re already certain you won’t be able to make it, please let us know as soon as possible, so we can make adjustments with the hotel. This will help them reduce waste as much as possible.
Again, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the CDC, and if a cancellation does become mandatory, we’ll say so here, and we’ll immediately get in touch directly with everyone who is registered for the affected event. As of now, though, our doors remain open and we hope to welcome you in person, and in a hygienically prudent manner, very soon!