Twitter CEO pulls out of SXSW; Petition to cancel conference reaches 15,000 signatures

[dalton99a]

https://www.kxan.com/news/sxsw/petition-to-cancel-sxsw-reaches-14000-signatures-twitter-keynote-speaker-drops-out/
Twitter CEO pulls out of SXSW; Petition to cancel conference reaches 15,000 signatures
by: Todd Bailey
Posted: Mar 2, 2020 / 06:47 AM CST / Updated: Mar 2, 2020 / 08:16 AM CST

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has canceled plans to speak at South by Southwest amid the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus. Dorsey was set to be a featured speaker at this year’s conference.

The news comes less than 24 hours after San Antonio announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a patient from quarantine and that patient later tested positive for the disease. By that time, they had already spent time outside of the quarantine with other people.

Twitter issued a blog post Sunday where the company said it was banning “all non-critical business travel and events.”

Some groups have also canceled, including China Gathering, which announced in an open letter on its website that the last few months have been difficult deciding to “suspend the program.”

Hundreds of thousands of people from across the world visit Austin to attend South By Southwest. The festival runs from March 13 to March 22.

Twitter has a storied history with SXSW. Many people believe Twitter launched at SXSW in 2007. While that is not the case, the 2007 conference did help Twitter explode in popularity and become one of the world’s most recognized social media platforms.

[Leghorn21]

1. Yeah, I chatted with a friend in Austin yesterday, and he was wondering about the fate of

SXSW...”hanging by a thread” looks like...too bad, it’s a biggie, but the way this pestilence is going, might be the right/smart thing to do...

[Javaman]

2. I work downtown and during SXSW I usually avoid the entire area and work from home.

it's a perk I take full advantage of during the festival.

Now I have a great reason.

[cbdo2007]

3. The rest of 2020 is going to see lots of stuff shut down - concerts, amusement parks,

conferences, graduations.

It still feels surreal but is going to be significant and commonplace when they start really canceling stuff to keep people from going out in public.

[dalton99a]

4. Facebook backs out of SXSW over coronavirus fears

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/02/tech/facebook-sxsw-coronavirus/index.html
Facebook backs out of SXSW over coronavirus fears
By Rishi Iyengar, CNN Business

San Francisco (CNN Business) Facebook will skip one of the tech industry's biggest annual events as companies restrict travel over fears about the novel coronavirus.

The company has decided not to attend this year's South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, it confirmed on Monday.

"Due to concerns related to coronavirus, our company and employees will not be participating in SXSW this year," a Facebook (FB) spokesperson told CNN Business.

Founded in 1987, SXSW brings together some of the biggest names in technology, film, media and music in Austin each year. It occasionally helps usher in tech's next big thing, with notable beneficiaries including Twitter and Foursquare.

Twitter, which announced over the weekend that it would suspend all "non-critical business travel and events" and is encouraging employees to work from home, will also reportedly give the conference a miss. A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge that the company's travel restrictions include SXSW, where CEO Jack Dorsey was scheduled to speak.