Coronavirus Concerns Prompt Industry Conference Cancellations, Postponements

The difficult but prudent decision to cancel tech events over health concerns about the spreading coronavirus, both here and abroad, has swept across the industry.

This began, most notably, when large vendors such as Amazon, Cisco, Facebook and Intel, to name a few, pulled the plug on their attendance, in early February, at Mobile World Congress (MWC), Barcelona, scheduled for later that month. MWC event organizers ultimately cancelled the conference.

Since that time, tech industry events that draw tens of thousands of attendees, sponsors and exhibitors are being cancelled with some vendors promising to reschedule; others will create a virtual experience to deliver some of the originally planned content.

This wave of postponements and cancellations certainly has impacted the Channel Partners/Channel Futures family, as we last week officially postponed our Channel Partners Conference & Expo, originally slated for March 9-12. Stay tuned for updates on when, where, and in what form, it will return.

IBM Think 2020, a client and developer conference, and PartnerWorld, for business partners, are being recreated as a global, digital-first event, May 5-7, the same dates that were planned for the now canceled, physical event in San Francisco. 

Late last week, Dell Technologies canceled is annual Las Vegas event, Dell Technologies World 2020, May 4-7, and will be posting updates about a virtual event soon.

“The core of what we set out to accomplish together is still important, which is why we will deliver keynotes, select breakout sessions and live chats with experts as a virtual experience,” the vendor posted on the event website. 

Red Hat cancelled its physical event (April 27-29) and is offering a virtual experience April 28-29. And, Enterprise Connect, originally scheduled for March 30-April 2 in Orlando, is rescheduled for August 3-5 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. However, Enterprise Connect organizers said that they’ll be presenting several key elements of the Enterprise Connect program on-line in a virtual format during the week of March 30th – details to follow.

Other cancelled events: Aruba Atmosphere 2020 (March 22-27); Cisco Partner Connection Week (March 23-26); F5 Agility 2020; Google Cloud Next (April 6-8); ImpartnerCon 2020; Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2020; (May 12-14); MSPAlliance’s MSPWorld conference (March 15-17); Synnex Spring Varnex and the Red, White & Your (March 29-April 1). 

There are many conferences of interest to partners that are still scheduled as planned. That said, the coronavirus situation is fluid and event planners are monitoring the situation, so attendees are advised to check status updates for cancelations. 

Here’s what we know: 

HPE Discover 2020, scheduled for June 23-25, in Las Vegas, is still scheduled, as is HPE Partner Growth Summit 2020, which runs June 22-24, during the Discover event. VMworld, scheduled for Aug. 31-Sept. 3, in San Francisco, is also still being held as scheduled. 

Others conferences still on the books through the end of May: Build IT 2020, May 17-19, Jersey City, N.J.; Citrix Synergy, May 19-21, Orlando, Florida; Cisco Live US, May 31-June 4; Kasaya Connect IT, May 4-7, Las Vegas; SapphireNow, May 12-14, Orlando; SuiteWorld for Oracle NetSuite, April 20-23, Las Vegas; ServiceNow Knowledge 2020, May 3-7, Orlando; TBI’s Big Event, May 14, Chicago; VeeamOn 2020, May 4-6, Las Vegas; ZertoCon, May 18-20, Hollywood, Florida.