After WHO declared Coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic, there has been a significant shift in the functioning structure of the corporations across the world. Summer’s almost here, and it is that time of the year when leading tech giants, including the likes of Google, Facebook, and Apple organize separate yearly tech events unveiling what they have in the plate for their users. New gadgets are disclosed or announced, new in-app features are introduced, new corporate decisions are announced and what not.
However, after a strict imposition of martial law state in many countries, and people being strictly advised to stay back home, the tech giants have come forward to cancel their events to ensure that spread of the virus is contained, and WHO’s guidelines are properly followed.
Here are the significant events that have been cancelled or postponed amid pandemic situation:
1. Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2020
Apple’s WWDC is usually organized in May-June month of the year. Last year WWDC brought us some exciting news with the release of the new iOS 13 for iPhone users as well as a glimpse of the extravagant iPhone 11 models. Apple has cancelled this year’s show but is set to host an online-only event in June this year.
Apple always lives streams a lot of important sessions, and this time it’s going to stick to its Apple Park space and visit audiences through camera only.
2. Adobe Summit 2020
Adobe Summit last year was heavily focused on enhancing digital marketing experiences of its consumers through artificial intelligence and augmented reality tools. The company focused on how their suite of products will integrate AI and will amplify their efficiencies, offering automated support to the users.
This year, Adobe will delve deeper into the AI solutions for all sorts of brands out there, but in an online-event only after it cancelled its in-person summit this month.
3. Dell World
Dell has made news in the past few months with back to back success in its laptop division after the release of Dell XPS models and Alienware Area-51m gaming laptop. It would have been great to see what else Dell is planning to surprise us this year, but the May 2020 Dell World event has been cancelled. The show will go live online on the same dates, May 4-May 7.
4. E3 – Electronic Entertainment Expo
Last year, Sony skipped E3, and we never got a glimpse of PlayStation 5. This year I was hoping for a grand reveal of the much-awaited console at E3. But E3 has been unfortunately cancelled, and there is not going to be an online event either. The official statement from Entertainment Software Association said –
“After careful consultation with our member companies regarding the health and safety of everyone in our industry – our fans, our employees, our exhibitors and our longtime E3 partners – we have made the difficult decision to cancel E3 2020.”
People have widely praised the decision for ESA’s commitment to health concerns.
5. Facebook F8
Facebook’s F8 was all about privacy last year. The company which practically “owns” social media of the world has been scrutinized over security breach scandals and data theft cases for the past two years. This year, it would have been a report card for Facebook followed by new releases and upgrades in its services.
F8 has now been officially cancelled, and there are no plans from Facebook to host an online event or host it at a different date this year.
6. Game Developers Conference GDC
It was expected for Sony and Xbox Game Studios to compete here at GDC with Xbox releasing Series X and a possible glimpse of Project xCloud. However, when significant corporations such as Sony and Microsoft opted out of the participation, GDC has been postponed for good. The event’s future now depends on how early the world can contain the pandemic with collaborative efforts.
7. Google Cloud Next 2020
The Cloud Next is Google’s annual conference focused on promotion, trials, and marketing of its cloud services used for business administration. It is Google’s attempt to compete against competitors Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services and court developers to switch to Google.
Google Cloud Next 2020 will be an online-only event after the in-person conference was cancelled earlier this month.
8. Google I/O Conference
The biggest event organized by Google, the I/O Conference is the place where Google unveils its new services, updates, and products to consumers and developers across the globe. The 2020 event, however, has been wholly cancelled and will not take place this year.
Google was expected to talk about Android 11 this year’s conference. Google has cancelled the annual Google News Initiative Summit as well.
9. Microsoft Build 2020
The annual event organized by Microsoft to gather developers from all over the world and code new services and products has shifted to an online-only mode. The event will be streamed live on the decided dates it was supposed to be hosted,i.e. May 19-May 21.
10. NAB Show – National Association of Broadcasters 2020
The oldest trade show between entertainment media corporates from all sorts of genres including news broadcasting, streaming, TV, film, forecasting, CGI, etc. come together to put up one of the most significant exhibitions there can be. There are discussions, workshops, panels, lectures etc. about who these companies plan to produce new kind of content.
NAB Show experience visitors from 161 countries with thousand-plus exhibitors. The ban on international travel and the concerns amid the outbreak has led to total cancellation of the show for 2020.
11. South By Southwest – SXSW 2020
The ten-day conglomeration of conferences, trade shows, exhibitions, and festivals comprising people from backgrounds in film production, film technology, music production, and interactive media paradigms has been cancelled for the year. The event also hosts tech startups that are focused on developing technology useful for music and film production.
There are other tech conferences such as NVIDIA’s GTC and Gartner’s CIO that have been cancelled or postponed. The corporations have come together to avoid gatherings and are urging people to stay home. There have been cancellations of other events such as in sports and music. Many films have been pulled from releases after theatres across the globe were shutdown by respective governments.
Hopefully, we’ll get a glimpse of the tech gadgets we are all excited for online. For now, let us all stay home and stay safe to fight this pandemic altogether.
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