It’s truly unbelievable what a little cell can do. We’ve seen the number of cases go over 100k with a mortality rate of about 2%. I feel for the people of China and especially Wuhan. The economic impact has been even worse!

I was supposed to go to SXSW, one of the most popular conferences/music festivals in the nation, with a few of my friends in a few weeks. I went a few years ago and was just amazed by how much fun I had. SXSW is set up for you to discover the new artist in every bar or concert hall that you go to.

My friends and I were monitoring the outbreak and the chatter by the city of Austin to see if SXSW was going to happen still. Unfortunately, Yesterday, the Mayor of Austin SXSW was officially canceled.

There were mixed feelings by my group of friends about whether they wanted to go still. At this point, I didn’t want to force a trip. I went to Austin a few weeks ago for work, so wasn’t interested in just going to Austin for the sake of going. According to Greyhill Advisors, SXSW brought about $355.9 Million into the city of Austin, it’s truly a shame that SXSW won’t be able to bring into the local community there.

Yes, I’m a little bummed about not going to SXSW, but outside of my retirement account falling a bit, I’m relatively unscathed (*knock on wood) from the virus. I’m fortunate that none of my friends or family have been deeply affected by this, even my Chinese friends’ family in China seems to be ok.

I’m not sure how these things are going to play out, but it’s ridiculous the amount of disruption from our global supply chain to overwhelmed hospitals. I’m hoping that all of this passes and that everyone can on to live normally without the anxiety of the virus spreading.

I wish everyone the best!