It’s conference season for nonprofits, and the coronavirus has attendees worried.
Bill Gates published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine warning that the coronavirus has “started behaving a lot like the once-in-a-century pathogen we’ve been worried about. I hope it’s not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently committed up to $100 million to improve coronavirus detection, isolation, and treatment efforts; protect at-risk populations in Africa and South Asia; and accelerate the development of vaccines, other drugs, and diagnostics.
Concerns about the coronavirus are heightened by the fact that several major nonprofit-related organizations are holding conferences this spring that will draw thousands of attendees from all over the world.
NTEN, a group of nonprofit-technology professionals, is holding its annual conference March 24 to 26 in Baltimore. CEO Amy Sample Ward, produced a video in response to questions from concerned participants.
Ward encourage people not to panic, saying, “it is not a reason for us to cancel the conference.”
She encouraged people to focus on “basic hygiene” including hand-washing. She said NTEN is adding hand-sanitizer stations to make sure they’re readily available everywhere at the conference.
“If you are feeling sick, we want you to stay home, and you can transfer your registration for free to anyone else,” she said.
A spokesman for NTEN said there haven’t been any cancellations as a result of coronavirus fears.
Fundraising Conference
The Association of Fundraising Professionals will be gathering this month in Baltimore as well. José Andrés will be the keynote speaker at the March 27 to 31 event. Mike Geiger, president of AFP, emailed conference registrants Monday saying the organization is monitoring the situation and following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and other agencies.
Geiger said the conference would be a “handshake-free” event and that “medical guidance” would be available on the site.
“We are on course for a great conference,” Geiger said in the email.
SXSW, an annual media conference whose attendees include hundreds of nonprofit leaders and experts, is under growing pressure to cancel its March 12 to 21 event in Austin, Tex. Twitter has pulled out of SXSW as part of a new policy to suspend “all noncritical business travel and events.” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, one of the featured speakers at the event, will not attend.
Also, a change.org petition calling for cancellation of the conference has drawn more than 17,000 online signatures.
SXSW responded by saying, “The 2020 event is proceeding with safety as a top priority.”
