The COVID-19 or coronavirus disease has already had wide-ranging effects on the tech industry, including store closures, production shortages, and manufacturing delays. Its latest victims seem to be conferences and events scheduled in the following months.
More and more conferences & events are either being cancelled or postponed in order to be cautious of a potential pandemic.
What started with the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and Facebook’s Global Marketing Summit has turned into a slew of cancelations all over the world and across industries, including Customer Success and Customer Experience. The biggest news so far is the cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show due to a law from the Swiss government banning gatherings of 1000 or more people.
We’ve put together a list of these upcoming events and have reached out to them to see if the coronavirus will have an effect on their schedules. This includes Customer Success conferences, as well as SaaS-oriented and global tech-related events.
We’ll continue to update this list as statements are released and more information becomes available.
Coronavirus update - March 2020
As of right now, the virus has spread to every region of China as well at least 40 other countries, with more than 81,000 people having been infected worldwide.
Based on that, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidelines for businesses, saying local communities and cities may need to "modify, postpone or cancel mass gatherings," and businesses should rely more heavily on remote work options.
Corporations have pulled their executives from attending conferences across the globe, including major trade shows in the US, amid fears of a possible pandemic.
Customer Success Conferences & Events
2020 Summit On Customer Engagement
March 2-4 | Burlingame, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Zendesk Relate 2020
March 3-5 | Miami, USA
Status: CANCELLED
Zendesk representatives have stated that “today, based on the most up to date information, the event will not be cancelled. We continue to evaluate daily, and if there is any change we will notify attendees and staff immediately.”
X4: The Experience Management Summit - 2020 | Qualtrics
March 10-13 | Salt Lake City, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
The official statement claims that Qualtrics is closely monitoring the Coronavirus developments and will take immediate action where needed with guidance from the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and local authorities.
SaaStr Annual 2020
March 10-12 | San Francisco, USA
Status: CANCELLED
SaaStr first stated that “individual attendees from China signed up to attend Annual 2020 have all since cancelled due to travel restrictions."
In a new statement they announced that following the Santa Clara County recommendation that large community events no longer proceed and guidance from the CDC, combined with “the growing escalation of the Covid-19 outbreak around the world and in the United States, SaaStr Annual must now be rescheduled and merged with our existing fall event into a new, less formal “SaaStr Bi-Annual” to take place in September 2020.
Oracle Modern Customer Experience
March 23–26 | Chicago, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
NGCX 2020: The Customer Experience Conference
March 23 - 25 | Indian Wells, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
The NGCX will be deferring to the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention to guide their decision affecting their conferences.
They’ve also stated that they are moving ahead with the conference but will be adhering to the travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. Department of State.
Adobe Summit 2020
March 29 - April 2 | Las Vegas, USA
Status: CANCELLED
Representatives have stated that they are “monitoring the COVID-19 situation carefully, and still plan to host Adobe Summit.”
Atlassian Summit 2020
March 31 - April 2| Las Vegas, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
Atlassian has stated that, while their concerns are rising, they “are taking every measure to provide a healthy environment at Summit 2020 and have no plans to cancel the conference.”
Support Driven Leadership Summit 2020
APRIL 1-2 | Portland, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Customer Experience Strategies Summit 2020
April 16-17 | Toronto, Canada
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Opentalk 2020 | Talkdesk
April 22-23 | San Francisco, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
Representatives have stated that there “are no plans to cancel Opentalk 2020.”
Smart Customer Service 2020
April 27-29 | Washington DC, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
CXPA Global Insight Exchange
April 27-30 | Orlando, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
The CXPA does not anticipate the coronavirus will impact their conference in Orlando, stating that they “anticipate the Global Insight Exchange event will operate as normally scheduled.”
ElevateCX
May 1-2 | Colorado, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Pulse 2020 | Gainsight
May 13-14 | San Francisco, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
Pulse representatives have stated that they are concerned, with several calls with city officials, hotels and venues in the next few days to further discuss Pulse and the next steps.
Tech Conferences & Events
HDC.Cloud 2020
February 11-12 | Shenzhen, China
Status: POSTPONED
HDC.Cloud 2020 was planned to take place in Shenzhen on February 11th to 12th but has been pushed back to March 27th-28th, according to the event’s website.
Mobile World Congress 2020
February 24-27 | Barcelona, Spain
Status: CANCELLED
Organizers of the world’s largest trade show for the mobile phone industry, on Feb. 12 pulled the plug on the show less than two weeks before it was set to start in Barcelona, Spain.
The cancellation marked a turning point for companies who fear the possibility of exposing their workers to the deadly new virus.
EmTech Asia
February 25-26 | Singapore
Status: POSTPONED
The organizers of the international technology summit EmTech Asia announced that the event would be postponed until August because of coronavirus concerns. The event included speakers from Google and Intel.
PAX East
February 27 - March 1| Boston, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
PAX East will still happen, with “enhanced cleaning and sanitization across the show.”
Capcom, CD Projekt Red, Facebook, PUBG Corp, Sony, Square Enix have all announced that they will not be attending, due to coronavirus concerns.
CP+
February 27 - March 1 | Yokohama, Japan
Status: CANCELLED
The Camera & Imaging Products Association announced the cancellation of CP+ 2020 on Feb. 14, 2020. Giving there are no effective treatment or containment measures to deal with the novel coronavirus, they have chosen to cancel the exhibition.
SupercomputingAsia Conference 2020
February 24-27 | Singapore
Status: CANCELLED
The physical SupercomputingAsia Conference 2020 (SCA20), which was being scheduled for 24-27 February 2020 in Singapore, has been cancelled in the light of COVID-19 developments.
Taipei Game Show
February 6-9 | Taipei, Taiwan
Status: POSTPONED
Due to the serious outbreak of Wuhan coronavirus, the organizers have decided to postpone the event to this summer, from Jun. 25 to 28, 2020.
Salesloft Rev2020
March 9–11 | San Francisco, California
Status: CANCELLED
BIO Asia Conference
March 10-11 | Tokyo, Japan
Status: CANCELLED
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) announced that it is canceling the annual BIO Asia conference in Tokyo scheduled for March 10-11. The decision was based on the global impact of COVID-19 and Japanese government recommendations.
TBEX EUROPE 2020
March 9-12 | Catania, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
As of now, everything is going forward as planned for TBEX Europe 2020 in Catania, as authorities believe they have isolated the current cases of coronavirus in Italy, and appear to avoid spreading the virus to other areas.
SEO&Love 2020
March 14 | Verona, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
Organizers have stated that the event is confirmed.
Richmond E-Commerce Forum
March 15-17 | Gubbio, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Ecommerce Strategies
March 14 | Padova, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
F5 Agility 2020
March 16-19 | Orlando, Florida
Status: CANCELLED
Domopalooza
March 17–20 | Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Status: CANCELLED (transitioned to Online)
Nvidia GTC 2020
March 23 - 26 | San José, California
Status: CANCELLED (transitioned to Online)
Advanced SEO Tool
March 27 | Bologna, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Affiliate Expo 2020
March 27-29 | Rome, Italy
Status: POSTPONED to 17-18-19 July 2020
No official statement has been released so far.
Cloud Expo Europe
March 11-12 | London, UK
Status: CONFIRMED
ExCeL remains open and events are taking place as planned, adding that “anyone who has traveled from China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, or Macau, in the last 14 days and is experiencing cough, fever or shortness of breath, should not travel to ExCeL, even if symptoms are mild.”
Game Developers Conference
March 16-20 | San Francisco, USA
Status: POSTPONED
The event will be going forward without Chinese participants. On its website, show organizers said about 2% of planned attendees were from China and they were affected by the Trump administration’s temporary ban on foreign nationals who have been in that country within the past 14 days.
Oculus Developers, Facebook, Sony, Kojima Productions, and Kowloon Nights have bowed out of the event.
CloudFest 2020
March 14-19 | Rust, Germany
Status: CANCELLED
CloudFest 2020 has been officially cancelled. The organizers “were forced to consider the growing risk of exposure, especially in the German state of Baden-Württemberg”, where the event is located. More information is available in the official statement.
Geneva Motor Show
March 5-15 | Geneva, Switzerland
Status: CANCELLED
The motor show, which attracts 600,000 visitors a year from across the world will NOT be going through with its organization.
The 2020 Geneva Motor Show is canceled after the Swiss government banned gatherings of 1,000 or more people due to concerns over the coronavirus. The ban is effective runs at least until March 15th.
Facebook Global Marketing Summit
March 9-12 | San Francisco, USA
Status: CANCELLED
Facebook cancelled its annual Global Marketing Summit scheduled for March 9 to 12 in San Francisco “out of an abundance of caution” over the virus. The event was expected to attract more than 4,000 participants.
International Symposium on Grids & Clouds 2020
March 8-13 | Taipei, Taiwan
Status: POSTPONED
Considering the heavy impact of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak evolving in Asia and almost 30 countries around the world, the organizers decided to postpone the ISGC 2020 Conference to 23-28 August, 2020.
Cisco Live Conference
March 3-6 | Melbourne, Australia
Status: CANCELLED
Cisco has also cancelled its Live conference in Melbourne, Australia, over coronavirus fears.
Microsoft MVP Summit
March 16- 20 | Bellevue and Redmond, Wa
Status: CANCELLED (transitioned to Online)
Blackhat Asia
March 31 - April 3 | Singapore
Status: POSTPONED
Blackhat Asia has made the decision to postpone its 2020 edition due to the coronavirus outbreak. The event will now take place September 29 - October 2 at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
PyCon Italy
April 2-5 | Florence, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
The event is confirmed so far, but organizers are carefully monitoring the progression of the situation and the development of the health emergency status, and are considering postponing the conference. Alternative proposed dates are 5th-8th November, and the organizers will come with a final decision by next week.
Play Copy
April 3-4 | Modena, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Vueday 2020
April 3 | Verona, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
As of now, Vueday 2020 is confirmed. The organizers will reach out immediately should the situation change.
droicon Italy
April 16-17 | Turin, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
At the present time droidcon Italy are continuing ‘business as usual’ but will make any adjustments – and communicate them accordingly – on the basis of further information from the authorities.
WordCamp Torino
April 17-18 | Torino, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
ADworld Experience
April 23-24 | Bologna, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
EDCON 2020
April 3-7 | Vienna, Austria
Status: CANCELLED
The Community Ethereum Development 2020 Conference has been cancelled, due to concerns for “the well-being of the Ethereum community.”
Google Cloud Next
April 5-8 | San Francisco, USA
Status: CANCELLED
No official statement has been released so far.
Netcomm Forum
May 6-7 | Milan, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Shopify Unite 2020
May 6-8 | Toronto, Canada
Status: CANCELLED
jsDay
May 12-13 | Verona, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Richmond Marketing Forum
May 17-19 | Rimini, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Florence Marketing Experience
May 20-22 | Florence, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
MailUp Marketing Conference
May 20 | Milan, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Google I/O
May 12-14 | Mountain View, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
F8 | Facebook
May 5-6 | San Jose, USA
Status: CANCELLED
Facebook is cancelling its biggest event of the year, which last year attracted thousands of attendees from dozens of countries. Instead, it will put on smaller “locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content.” More information is available in the official statement.
Microsoft Build
May 19-21 | Seattle, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
Confirmed for now but Microsoft has issued a statement that they are monitoring the situation and will act accordingly.
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
June 3-7 | San Jose, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Computex Taipei
June 2-6 | Taipei, Taiwan
Status: CONFIRMED
One of the Mobile World Congress’ main contenders released a statement announcing that it will be going through with its planned conference, with restrictions to Chinese attendees.
E3 Expo
June 9-11 | Los Angeles, USA
Status: CONFIRMED
“We will continue to be vigilant, as our first priority is the health, wellness and safety of all of our exhibitors and attendees,” the Entertainment Software Association, which organizes June’s E3 Expo, has stated, adding that “we are moving ahead full speed with E3 2020 planning.”
Web Marketing Festival
June 4-6 | Rimini, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
Angularday
June 11-12 | Verona, Italy
Status: CONFIRMED
No official statement has been released so far.
DEF CON Asia
August 6-9 | Beijing, China
Status: POSTPONED
The Middle Kingdom edition of the computer hacking conference has been called off due to the nation's latest coronavirus outbreak. No word yet on when it will be postponed to.
Other global events
2020 Tokyo Olympics
July 14 - August 9 | Tokyo, Japan
Status: UNSURE
With Japan having the second-highest rate of COVID-19 infections after China, speculation is mounting about one of the year’s biggest events due to take place directly in the orbit of the outbreak—the 2020 Olympic Games, which are to be held in Tokyo.
Organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori insisted Feb. 13, “we are not considering a cancelation or postponement of the Games—let me make that clear.” but the International Olympic Committee has warned that the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics have three months to decide the fate of the event amid the outbreak of coronavirus.
The Olympics torch relay is due to begin next month and traverse to all of Japan’s 47 prefectures over 121 days, coinciding with its popular cherry blossom bloom.
Pyongyang Marathon
April | Pyongyang, North Korea
Status: CANCELLED
North Korea has cancelled the Pyongyang Marathon, after imposing a border lockdown and travel curbs to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.
The World Poker Tour
March 13-22 | Vietnam
Status: CANCELLED or POSTPONED
The World Poker Tour has cancelled or postponed all of its Asia-Pacific events for the next three months as a result of the widespread disruption to regional travel caused by the Coronavirus.
