H5N1 is a major concern for global container transportation company APL Ltd., said Hector Fulgencio, an attendee at the CTL event who is director of disaster recovery and business continuity at APL.

The company regularly conducts table-top exercises akin to the one by CTL and is considering issues such as how to cope with mass absenteeism and a spike in remote computing sessions that a bird flu outbreak would produce, Fulgencio said.

The MIT simulation made for good theater at times, with convincing and breathless TV news bulletins from fictional CNN look-alike "CTL," including one report titled "Factory Under Siege!" about the quarantined Geeling plant. Reporters and company executives wrestle with conflicting information on the outbreak: Did the workers contract the flu from another human or from poultry? Could H5N1 survive on cell phones shipped from the plant? Was the outbreak limited to workers at the Chinese supplier or is the scope wider?

In one of the more amusing anecdotes, CERT members from Vaxxon try in vain to reel in a rogue executive who may have been exposed at the supplier's factory but ignores requests to stay put, touching off a minor civil emergency back in the U.S. after he returns to work at the company's headquarters -- possibly infected with H5N1.

With representatives from marquis corporations including Campbell's, Cisco Systems, General Motors, Michelin, and Procter & Gamble in the audience, the MIT simulation ultimately delivered a somber message: with the extent of the outbreak still unknown, Vaxxon's CEO steps in to cancel production of the much-heralded SlimPhone rather than risk tarnishing the company's image further.