Mikey Campbell
Google and Adobe on Monday became the latest companies to see convention plans disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak, announcing that online sessions will replace in-person meetups at their respective Google Cloud Next 2020 and Adobe Summit gatherings.
Originally scheduled to take place in San Francisco from April 6-8, Google's convention, which last year hosted 30,000 attendees, will now be livestreamed as the rebranded "Google Cloud Next '20: Digital Connect," reports CNBC.
"Out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our customers, partners and employees, and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO and other relevant entities regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19), Google Cloud has decided to reimagine Google Cloud Next '20," the company said.
Google appears prepared and will offer "keynotes, breakout sessions, interactive learning and digital ask an expert' sessions with Google teams" online as a contingency to live interactions.
Adobe, too, has cancelled the live portion of its upcoming Adobe Summit in Las Vegas. The convention was slated to take place between March 29 and April 2.
"Over the past few weeks, we have been closely monitoring and evaluating the situation around COVID-19 to ensure we are taking the necessary measures to protect the health and wellbeing of Adobe Summit attendees," Adobe said. "As a result, we have made the difficult but important decision to make Adobe Summit 2020 an online event this year and to cancel the live event in Las Vegas."
A number of major international events have been cancelled due to concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19. Facebook in February nixed its annual F8 conference, while GSMA cancelled the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. Most recently, Informa last week called off the 2020 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The spate of cancellations comes four months ahead of Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Though dates have not been announced, Apple typically holds the important event in the San Francisco Bay Area in June to introduce developers and the public to next-generation operating systems set for release this fall.
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4 Comments
AJA pulled out of NAB 2020 today and likely will not be the only company. NAB ultimately may be canceled this year.
30,000 google-people won’t be flying... that’s a 60,000 airline ticket hit... next thing you know airlines are gonna be a-hurting’...
Although it was just speculation, I am further speculating that this may impact the rumoured Apple March event.
While the possibility of a press release is there to announce the new products, I suppose it makes sense to postpone the event to a later time, considering that supplies will also be constrained.
So this could probably be one of those years when we may end up getting hardware announcements at WWDC.