Nerd Conventions And The Coronavirus: Sony Bails On PAX East

Update: On Feb 19, Sony pulled out of PAX East in Boston over concerns about the coronavirus. While nobody at PAX East has responded to our email inquiries, Sony made the announcement in an update to a post on its Playstation blog. The short statement is as follows:

Today, Sony Interactive Entertainment made the decision to cancel its participation at PAX East in Boston this year due to increasing concerns related to COVID-19 (also known as “novel coronavirus”). We felt this was the safest option as the situation is changing daily. We are disappointed to cancel our participation in this event, but the health and safety of our global workforce is our highest concern.

Original Article:

In the past few days, one of the biggest international events for the mobile communications industry, Mobile World Congress, announced that a number of exhibitors pulled out of the show in Barcelona, scheduled for Feb. 24-27. Among those are tech giants Nvidia, LG and most recently even Intel. The reason, as stated by some of the company spokespeople, is concern over the current coronavirus epidemic. (Update 2/14/2020: Shortly after I posted this article on 2/12, MWC announced it was canceling the 2020 show.)

So how is the concern over possible coronavirus infections affecting nerd conventions coming up in the next few weeks?

One of the closest events on the calendar is Katsucon, the long-running anime-focused event held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, coming up this weekend, Feb. 14-16. Katsucon brings thousands of anime fans from all over the country to the National Harbor in Maryland, including a large number of cosplayers and cosplay photographers.

Chad Diederichs, press liaison for Katsucon, said in an email, “While we remain vigilant, we do not expect the Novel Coronavirus to be an issue of out-sized concern for our event.”

“At this time, there have been no confirmed cases of Novel Coronavirus in the Maryland/DC geographic region and unlike events such as Mobile World Congress,” Diederichs wrote, “Katsucon does not anticipate a large number of attendees from the regions most affected by this viral outbreak.”

When asked if Katsucon was experiencing the same exhibitor responses as MWC, Diederichs wrote, “We have not had any exhibitors, vendors, or guests pull out due to the Coronavirus threat.”

Coming up the weekend after MWC is both PAX East in Boston and C2E2 in Chicago. Both events are closer in size to MWC, which reported 109,500 attendees in 2019. PAX East reported 67,600 for last year’s con and C2E2 claimed 90,000. Katsucon, by comparison, had 21,400 attendees last year. And since both PAX East and C2E2 are closer to Canada than Katsucon, they generally have a higher percentage of foreign attendees. I’ve personally spoken to PAX East attendees from as far away as Germany and New Zealand.

I reached out to press representatives from both PAX East and C2E2, but after more than 24 hours haven’t heard back from either. Both conventions are managed by ReedPop, which is a division of Reed Exhibitions, based in London. That parent company has a statement about the coronavirus, part of which reads: In light of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan city and Hubei Province in mainland China, we continue to monitor developments closely. Our events will run as scheduled. (Bold emphasis theirs.) I will update this article with comments from PAX East or C2E2 if I receive any after posting.

The Reed Exhibitions post goes on to give advice from the World Health Organization for reducing your chance of contracting any infection, including the coronavirus. These actions should be considered basic behavior at any convention, whether or not there is any risk of contracting the novel coronavirus currently on the rise:

• Frequently clean hands by using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water;
• When coughing and sneezing cover mouth and nose with flexed elbow or tissue – throw tissue away immediately and wash hands;
• Avoid close contact with anyone who has fever and cough;
• If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing seek medical care early and share previous travel history with your health care provider.

The message from these upcoming cons seems to echo what most health experts are saying: Exercise the same caution you should at any event with large numbers of people and you should be as safe there as you would be at any other year. Whether or not convention attendees ever exercise those cautions is to be seen.

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