Update: March 20, 2020 – We have updated the list to show that the Game Developers Conference has now been rescheduled for August 4-6.
Original article: As of March 13, the number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases have surged past a total of 110,000. More than 4,200 people have lost their lives to the deadly virus which is claiming more victims on a daily basis. In the midst of this global health pandemic, tech companies around the world are issuing travel bans or asking their employees to work from home.
For instance, Google, Apple, Amazon, and many other tech firms have halted international travel either completely or to certain countries. The spread of the virus has also prompted some tech firms like Microsoft and Twitter to make their employees work from home. Smartphone makers like Xiaomi, LG, Apple, Samsung, and others are also suffering from production and supply chain issues given the lockdown on factories in China.
Be it because of travel bans, laws against big gatherings, or simply for caution, multiple major conferences and gatherings around the world are getting scrapped. In the tech industry, the spate of event cancellations started with Mobile World Congress 2020 which was scheduled to be held from February 24-27 in Barcelona, Spain, but was canceled just weeks before. A domino effect followed and one-by-one most major tech events, launches, and conferences of 2020 were delayed, rescheduled, or axed completely.
Here’s a list of all major tech events that were either canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus:
Tech events canceled, postponed, or going online due to coronavirus
- Mobile World Congress (MWC), February 24-27: Canceled
- SXSW, March 12-22: Canceled
- Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 16-20: Postponed to August 4-6
- Nvidia GPU Technology Conference, March 22-26: In-person event canceled. Online-only event
- Adobe Summit, March 29-Apr 2: In-person canceled. Online-only event
- IFA Global Press Conference (GPC), April 2-4: Canceled
- Google Cloud Next, April 6-8: Postponed, no new date set
- Red Hat Summit, April 28-29: In-person event canceled. Online-only event
- Dell World, May 4-7: In-person event canceled. Online-only event
- Facebook F8, May 6-8: Canceled
- Google I/O, May 12-14: Canceled
- Microsoft Build, May 19-21: In-person event canceled. Online-only event
- Computex 2020: June 2-6: Still On
- E3, June 19-21: Canceled
- Apple WWDC, Early June 2020: In-person event canceled. Online-only event
- HPE Discover, June 23-25: Still On
We will update this article as and when we know more about the cancellation or postponement of any other upcoming tech conference. Have a tip about a big tech event getting scrapped? Drop us a line in the comments section below.
