Expo West Postponed: Why it was the Right Move, and How Your Company Should Respond to Coronavirus Fears

March is usually one of my favorite months. In addition to being national nutrition month, women’s history month and the start of spring, it’s also when the Hint team attends Natural Products Expo West, the world's largest organic and healthy product tradeshow. For the past 14 years, we look forward to sharing the latest Hint products, catching up with friends and collaborators at other health companies, and sampling a bunch of new goodies. 

Yesterday, after nearly 200 participants had pulled out of the convention in light of the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the expo’s sponsor, New Hope Network, finally postponed the event. It was supposed to kick off today. 

“It is clear the majority of those voices are saying they want Expo West, but not this week,” wrote Fred Linder, Group President of New Hope Network, in a statement released last night. “And so we are being guided by that majority in postponing the show.” A new date will be announced by mid-April, and the company claims that they are “working on credits and alternatives.”

From both a public health and a business standpoint, I think it was the right thing to do. And now we’re urging New Hope to refund or credit the exhibiting companies swiftly.  

A Responsibility to Public Health

First and foremost, New Hope and the participating vendors are all health-focused companies. And I believe that means we have a responsibility to public health as well. 

It’s not that I necessarily think everyone who attends a large convention like Expo West will get sick. But there is still plenty of uncertainty around the future of this novel coronavirus. Now isn’t the time to panic, but it is the time to make decisions based on the information we have. (Related: How to Talk About Current Events as a Company Leader)

Sagan Schultz, co-Founder & CEO at WellWell, who is both an MD and an Expo West attendee, explains it best: “...hosting an 85,000+ person gathering based largely on the sampling and sharing of food and beverage is an unbelievably terrible idea given that we know Covid-19 spreads primarily person-to-person by 1) people who are in close contact (within six feet) and 2) through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Its other primary method is by contact with infected surfaces or objects.” 

Personally, we see the spread of germs there every year—we always have several team members who come home with a bug—and this year, there’s a much riskier bug to catch. Plus, anyone attending an event like this could be at risk of quarantine if even one person exhibits symptoms. Because we don’t yet have a widely available and accurate test for the novel coronavirus, a few folks with a fever could force everyone in attendance to put their lives on pause for weeks or longer. At the same time, they see if they’ve been affected. I can’t imagine the strain on my employees’ well-being and my business if that were to happen. And, like many other business leaders, I think mitigating that risk as much as possible is the best way forward. 

A Responsibility to Business Owners

I fully support Expo West’s postponement and I applaud New Hope for taking the critical step in prioritizing the physical and financial health of the companies they serve. 

“It is our intention to work with all our Exhibitors and Attendees on future credits and support, with particular focus on the many entrepreneurs and small businesses who are the heartbeat of this community, for whom we are going to stand up a rebate fund of $5m targeted at their specific needs,” Linder wrote in his statement.

Attending Expo West is expensive. And for smaller companies, it can be a substantial financial burden. In some of Hint’s early days, it was most of our marketing spend for the year, and we relied on the sales that would come after to help us stay afloat. We’re happy to see that New Hope understands this and we’re big fans of what they do for the industry. We get that this is a tough situation, but they made the right call.

Tell me in the comments below if you agree and whether you’ve experienced cancelations in your own business trips and conferences around the globe.

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Kara Goldin is the founder and CEO of San Francisco–based Hint, a healthy lifestyle brand that produces the leading unsweetened flavored water scented sunscreen spray that’s oxybenzone and paraben-free and eucalyptus + lemon deodorant with 100% plant-derived ingredients and no aluminum. She is also the founder of The Kara Network (TKN), an online resource for aspiring and thriving business-minded people. Listen to her podcast, Unstoppable with Kara Goldin, where she interviews founders, entrepreneurs, and disruptors across various industries and keep up with her on Twitter,Facebook, and Instagram.