One after another, the world’s leading IT and tech events are either getting cancelled, postponed, or being switched to virtual events because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Let’s take a look at the top events and conferences around the globe that have been impacted by COVID-19.
The spread of deadly COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, is having a huge impact on every industry. Not only the leading IT events and conferences are getting cancelled or postponed, but also the big festivals, international concerts, and sports leagues have faced this difficult question— Can a public gathering be hosted at the risk of spreading the coronavirus?
And the answer, for every event, has been a big NO.
What is coronavirus and how did the outbreak begin?
Coronavirus is a family of viruses that causes diseases in animals. Some of the coronaviruses are capable of transmitting from animals to humans.
The coronavirus outbreak started from a wet market in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Both dead and live animals, fishes, and birds were being sold at the wet market. Such places are very likely to spread viruses from animals to humans because the hygiene standards aren’t high where both the live and dead animals are butchered.
Although the actual animal source that caused the coronavirus hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it is believed that the bats are the original hosts of COVID-19.
Countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases
Currently, there have been over 220K coronavirus cases around the world, with around 9K cases resulting in deaths. The top 10 countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases include China, Italy, Iran, Spain, Germany, USA, France, South Korea, Switzerland, and UK.
Impact of coronavirus on global economy
According to Oxford Economics, the coronavirus outbreak will cost the global economy over $1 trillion, which is around 1.3% of the total global economy in 2020.
Last month, Apple reported that the company wouldn’t be able to meet the quarterly revenue target because of shortage in iPhone supply in the Chinese market. This shortage is the result of COVID-19.
“Work is starting to resume around the country, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated. As a result, we do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter,” Apple mentioned.
Along with Apple, most of the tech giants and businesses in other industries will fail to meet their quarterly revenue target.
Complete list of IT and tech events cancelled or postponed due to coronavirus
Since the time World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the coronavirus a pandemic, the businesses, events, concerts, and conferences were forced to change their plans.
As an official media partner of several IT and tech industry events and conferences in 2020, including MWC Barcelona, Blockchain Expo Global, Convergence India 2020, Cloud Expo Asia, Smart Nation Expo, and many more, we have heard from many events that the event has either got cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19.
While the COVID-19 outbreak is widespread, the events are ensuring a safe experience for the attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors. In March and April only, our team had four trips to cover the partner events. Now, we have none. For the remaining months this year, we have more than ten conferences to attend, and we just hope that things get better and everything comes down to normal.
Nonetheless, most of the events in March, April, and May have got postponed only to June or the coming months. But we are keeping a track on the websites of all the major events to keep our readers and audience informed.
Below is a complete list of all the IT and tech events and conferences that have got cancelled, postponed or switched to virtual-only.
1. Adobe Summit
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 31
2. Agility 2020
Status: Cancelled
3. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: June (final dates yet to be announced)
4. Atlassian Summit
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: April 1-2
5. Atmosphere’20
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 22-27
6. Big Data & AI Toronto
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 28-29
Venue: Toronto
Related read: Top 4 AI engines to look out for in 2020
7. Black Hat Asia
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 29 – October 2
Venue: Singapore
8.
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Yet to be announced
9. CanSecWest 2020
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 18-20
10. Cisco Live
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: June 2-3
11.
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 23-24
Venue: Hong Kong
12. CloudTalk Global – 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: June 11
Venue: Istanbul
Must read: 5 cloud computing trends for 2020 that will redefine cloud industry
13. Cloud Summit 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: Early 2021
Venue: To be announced
14. Code Conference 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 8-10
Venue: US
15. Collision
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: June 22-25
16
Status: Postponed
New Date: July 7-9
Venue: Yet to be announced
17. Data Innovation Summit
Status: Postponed
New Date August 20-21
Venue: Sweden
18. DEF CON China 2.0
Status: Postponed
Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Beijing
19. Dell Technologies World 2020
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: Yet to be announced
20. DocuSign Momentum 2020
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 4
21
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Yet to be announced
22. DTG Summit
Status: Postponed
New Date: October 5
Venue: London
23. E3 Expo
Status: Cancelled
24. EmTech Asia
Status: Postponed
New Date: August 4-5
Venue: Singapore
25. Esri Developer Summit
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 10
26. Enterprise Connect Orlando 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: August 3-6
Venue: San Francisco
Related read: 15 latest e-commerce trends to watch out for in 2020
27. Facebook Developer Conference (F8)
Status: Cancelled
28. Game Developers Conference (GDC)
Status: Postponed
New Date: August 4-6
Venue: San Francisco
29. Gartner Data & Analytics Summit
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 9-11
Venue: London
30. Gartner Data & Analytics Summit
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 21-24
Venue: Grapevine, TX
31. Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo
Status: Postponed
New Date: October 18-22
Venue: Orlando, FL
32. Google Cloud Next ‘20
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: US
33. Google I/O
Status: Cancelled
Date: May 12, 13, 14
Venue: California
34. Internet of Things (IoT) World
Status: Postponed
New Date: August 10-13
Venue: USA
Must read: IoT security comparison: Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud
35. Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit (SAS 2020)
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Yet to be announced
36. Microsoft Build
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: May 19-21
37. Microsoft Ignite
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 21-25
Venue: New Orleans, LA
38. MSPWorld 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 30- October 2
Venue: New Orleans, LA
39. MVP Global Summit
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 16-19
Must read: Managed WordPress Hosting Providers comparison: Kinsta vs WP Engine vs ZNetLive
40.
Status: Cancelled
Date: February 24-27
Venue: Barcelona, Spain
41. NAB Show – National Association of Broadcasters
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Yet to be announced
42. NVIDIA GTC 2020
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: Yet to be announced
43. ODSC East 2020
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: April 14-17
44. Oracle Code One
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 21-24
Venue: Las Vegas
45. Oracle Modern Business Experience
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 21-24
Venue: Las Vegas
46. Oracle Open World 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 21-24
Venue: Las Vegas
47. Percona Live
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Yet to be announced
48. Paris Blockchain Week Summit
Status: Postponed
New Date: December 9-10
Venue: Paris, France
49. Red Hat Summit
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: April 28-29
Related read: Top 10 best data center providers in Singapore in 2020
50. Rising 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: June 19
Venue: Bangalore, India
51. Shopify Unite 2020
Status: Cancelled
52. SaaStr Annual 2020
Status: Postponed
New Date: September (exact dates yet to be announced)
Venue: San Francisco
53. SAP Concur Fusion
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: April 10
54. SAP Ariba LIVE
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 18
55. SAP SAPPHIRE Now
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: Yet to be announced
56. SAS Global Forum
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: Yet to be announced
57. Semicon Korea
Status: Postponed
New Date: February 3 – 5
Venue: COEX, Seoul
58
Status: Postponed
New Date: September 8-10
Venue: Kuala Lumpur
Smart Nation 2020 Expo postponed due to coronavirus
59. Strata Data & AI
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 17-18
60. SXSW Conference
Status: Cancelled
61. TNW Conference
Status: Postponed
New Date: October 1-2
Venue: Amsterdam
62. The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2020)
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 8-12
63. WiCyS (Women in Cybersecurity)
Status: Cancelled
64. WSLConf
Status: Switched to virtual
Date: March 10-11
65. X4: The Experience Management Summit
Status: Postponed
New Date: Yet to be announced
Venue: London and Sydney
Wrapping up:
These are a few of the top IT events and conferences in 2020 that have been either cancelled, postponed, or are going virtual/digital due to coronavirus. Let’s just hope for the best and take precautions to avoid the COVID-19 disease till things come down to normal.
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