Department of Situational Irony
Does anyone feel reassured by this announcement? [from a page that tracks meetings https://www.northstarmeetingsgroup.com/News/Industry/coronavirus-meetings-Postponements-Cancellations-COVID-19
The Risk and Insurance Management Society is proceeding with its RIMS2020 Conference, taking place May 3-6 in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. Organizers for the group that specializes in assessing risk wrote in a March 6 statement that "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publicly deemed the health risk of coronavirus for the general American public to be low at this time. However, to ensure the safety of attendees, RIMS will incorporate guidance from the World Health Organization's newly released Public Health for Mass Gatherings: Key Considerations report."
I'm not. Meanwhile, other organizations have cancelled current and upcoming conventions. Considering that ICFA (the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts) is going ahead with its con in Orlando the following week, I wonder if they know that the doctors and public health workers have cancelled theirs. Interesting that Trump was a scheduled speaker--I guess they don't believe that he knows more about the virus than they do.
Global health care conference HIMSS, scheduled to take place in Orlando March 8-13, has been cancelled. The event was expected to draw 80,000 attendees, and feature President Trump as a speaker. Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, said in a statement: "Based on evaluation of evolving circumstances and coordination with an external advisory panel of medical professionals to support evidence-based decision making, it is clear that it would be an unacceptable risk to bring so many thousands of people together in Orlando next week."
Not listed on this page: "Emerald City Comic Con, a comic book and pop culture convention hosted annual in Seattle, has decided to push back the event until summer due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus."
Meanwhile, what of other genre conventions? Where will we be in July, when Readercon is scheduled? Will we be enacting The Stand or Contagion? Or will the current plague have fallen into the memory hole?
The Risk and Insurance Management Society is proceeding with its RIMS2020 Conference, taking place May 3-6 in Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. Organizers for the group that specializes in assessing risk wrote in a March 6 statement that "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publicly deemed the health risk of coronavirus for the general American public to be low at this time. However, to ensure the safety of attendees, RIMS will incorporate guidance from the World Health Organization's newly released Public Health for Mass Gatherings: Key Considerations report."
I'm not. Meanwhile, other organizations have cancelled current and upcoming conventions. Considering that ICFA (the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts) is going ahead with its con in Orlando the following week, I wonder if they know that the doctors and public health workers have cancelled theirs. Interesting that Trump was a scheduled speaker--I guess they don't believe that he knows more about the virus than they do.
Global health care conference HIMSS, scheduled to take place in Orlando March 8-13, has been cancelled. The event was expected to draw 80,000 attendees, and feature President Trump as a speaker. Hal Wolf, president and CEO of HIMSS, said in a statement: "Based on evaluation of evolving circumstances and coordination with an external advisory panel of medical professionals to support evidence-based decision making, it is clear that it would be an unacceptable risk to bring so many thousands of people together in Orlando next week."
Not listed on this page: "Emerald City Comic Con, a comic book and pop culture convention hosted annual in Seattle, has decided to push back the event until summer due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus."
Meanwhile, what of other genre conventions? Where will we be in July, when Readercon is scheduled? Will we be enacting The Stand or Contagion? Or will the current plague have fallen into the memory hole?