Thread by @jessiechar

Here’s what’s going on with conference organizers right now: a thread of unknown length because I’m rambling. [1/?]

So there’s a super bad outbreak that’s teetering on the brink of pandemic. That is VERY bad. In addition to the basic badness of people falling ill, there’s also the badness of people who do fall ill not having access to proper care. [2/?]

Then on top of that, people like Trump are trying to claim that this is being played up by the democrats, which means there could a lot of people not exercising proper caution because they don’t think it’s a real threat. That is so so bad. [3/?]

Meanwhile, we have large events getting cancelled. This makes a LOT of sense. These events have thousands of international travelers which becomes exponentially more risky and difficult to contain/control/manage/sanitize/etc. [4/?]

And while today’s logic doesn’t conclude that small events are at risk, the domino effect is already knocking down our options.

Contracts are becoming much harder to negotiate, because every industry rightfully wants a contract that protects them from getting hurt. [5/?]

So in the vendor side of things, people are tightening up insurance policies and cancellation fees because their businesses are in peril and they can’t afford to promise services to people who will cancel. Even sharing liability with our vendors would put us all in the red. [6/?]

And then there’s the other side: potential attendees.
Companies are instating WFH policies and halting travel, especially to conferences. Even for things further out, they’ll likely start requiring fully refundable options, which again, places liability on the organizers. [7/?]

There’s also the worry that people will think we’re assholes if we’re promoting our events during an outbreak. It’s just not a good look, even if we are taking every possible precaution. [8/?]

So we’re all kind of stuck. We have no leverage in this situation, insurance providers have no reason to protect us, and attendees have no way to guarantee their presence. [9/?]

Right now our only option is to wait and see what happens. But that also undermines the work we’re supposed to be doing right now: making plans. And it feels like we can’t. And it feels like we might not be able to for awhile. And we don’t know what that means for us.
[10/?]

And in case you didn’t know: conference organizers don’t have piles of money! We might cater to the tech industry and charge a lot for tickets, but events rarely make meaningful profit and the financial liability under normal conditions is already terrifying. [11/?]

Most events have to start planning a year in advance, meaning every event this year has already been affected in some way or another, even if the virus disappears tomorrow. We’re all losing time, money, and opportunities while this is a thing. [12/?]

Even if a small event is generally deemed safe, the financial liabilities we’re being forced into right now make it unsafe for us. And the alternative to that high risk situation is what we’re trying to understand now, because it shouldn’t just be to cancel&quit. [13/?]

[1 day later...] Last night Santa Clara County announced that large events and mass gatherings should be cancelled for the time being. That sounds like a clear directive- but it also didn't define what qualifies as "large" or "mass" or give any actual timeframe. [14/?]