Slated for May 19-21 in Seattle, Microsoft’s huge developers conference will now be available online only, as the coronavirus forces more companies to cancel in-person events.
Microsoft is switching gears on one of its biggest annual tech conferences because of the growing spread of the coronavirus. On Thursday, the software giant revealed that it’s cancelling its in-person Build developer’s conference and will instead hold the event as a virtual forum available only online.
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Microsoft shared the news in a statement sent to TechRepublic, ZDNet, and other tech publishers:
“The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event. We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect, and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come.”
Aimed at software and web developers, the Build conference is an annual event at which Microsoft discusses its various tools and technologies and explains how tech professionals can take advantage of them. This year’s conference has been scheduled for May 19-21, and Microsoft hasn’t indicated any changes to those dates.
Microsoft’s Build website has yet to be updated with news of the switch to online-only. Instead, the site simply provides the following statement:
“In light of the global health concerns due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Microsoft is monitoring public health guidance in relation to in-person events. We are looking carefully at our event calendar as well as our presence at industry events in the coming months. We are not taking decisions lightly, but the health and well-being of our customers, partners, guests, suppliers, and employees remain our ultimate priority.
We will continue to monitor and make any necessary changes as the situation evolves.”
Prior to the latest news, Microsoft posted refund information for Build attendees living in countries under travel bans due to COVID-19. But there’s no word yet on how such refunds might work with the event now taking place online.
In light of the coronavirus, Microsoft had already cancelled its annual Most Valuable Professional Summit, which will also shift to an online event. The MVP Summit was set for March 15-20 in Bellevue and Redmond, WA. The company also switched its WSLConf event to online-only. Of course, Microsoft joins a growing list of other companies and organizations all cancelling or postponing in-person events due to the virus outbreak.
GSMA cancelled its Mobile World Congress in Barcelona after a number of companies started to drop out. Likewise, the Entertainment Software Association cancelled its E3 video game event slated for June 9-11 in Los Angeles.
Facebook pulled the plug on its annual Global Marketing Summit that had been set for San Francisco this past week and its F8 developer conference that was scheduled for May 6-8 in San Jose, CA. Google has cancelled its I/O conference set for May 12-14 in Mountain View, CA, and has moved its Cloud Next conference to an online venue.
Other tech companies forced to cancel, postpone, or change in-person events include Adobe, Cisco, Dell, Gartner, Kaspersky, Oracle, and SAP.
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