[hugh4life]

A bit OT, but the World Figure Skating Championships are being held in Montreal at about the exact same time as SXSW is suppose to be held(a couple weeks in mid-March). Which is fine by me. They're taking a lot of precautions but a lot of these people who attend these events come from east-asian countries... especially Japan. And they don't offer refunds on tickets which I think could result in quite a few people attending because of the "sunk cost" mentality that they don't want to lose what they paid for.

Governments are extremely reluctant to restrict travel and thus event organizers too are reluctant to do much more if it affects how much money they make.

I live nowhere near Montreal, but if I did I would lobby the local governments to see what can be done to reduce travel from the most affected countries.