SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 3, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Experience management company Qualtrics, which has co-headquarters in Provo, and Seattle, Washington, is rescheduling its annual user conference amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.
The X4 Experience Management Summit was set to be held Tuesday, March 10, through Friday, March 13 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
The company had lined up speakers including Michelle Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Matthew McConaughey, Chip and Joanna Gaines, Tony Hawk and Arianna Huffington.
A blog post from the company Tuesday said the following:
The health and safety of our customers, employees, and partners is our highest priority. Given the state of coronavirus (COVID-19) globally, we are rescheduling X4 to early fall.
X4 London and Sydney will also be postponed. Details on those events will be shared as soon as possible.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our attendees. At Qualtrics we have amazing customers and partners, which is always on full display during X4. Our incredible line-up of speakers and entertainers have been incredibly gracious during this time. We appreciate your understanding and willingness to work with us through this process.
The world’s largest experience management event, with 16,000 attendees, is being moved to later this year in order to provide the experience that our customers, partners, and employees expect and deserve. We look forward to providing an amazing X4 for everyone in early fall.
The company has not given the exact dates the conference will take place.
Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist, who is leading the public health response to COVID-19, said at a press conference at the Utah State Capitol Monday that the focus of the Utah Department of Health at this time is identifying any person in the state who could possibly have the COVID-19 virus.
She said the state has tested 17 Utahns for COVID-19; there have been 15 negative tests, and two results are pending. Those final two results should come back in the next day or two, she said.
Dunn says there are approximately 65 people who are being actively monitored, who are deemed to be at risk of contracting the virus. These are mostly travelers that have returned from mainland China. All of these individuals are maintaining quarantine in their own homes in case they do test positive for COVID-19.
Officials in Washington state, where the second headquarters of Qualtrics is, declared a public health emergency Monday as a ninth person in the Seattle area died from the coronavirus.
The State Health Department confirmed that eight of the deaths were in King County, which includes Seattle, and that one was in Snohomish County. Washington is the only state where people have died so far.
For frequently asked questions on the X4 Summit click here.
