Coronavirus Update: Google I/O, Facebook F8 and more 2020 tech conference cancellations and travel bans

The coronavirus could make remote work the norm, what businesses need to know
The coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak could be the catalyst for a dramatic increase in telecommuting. Enterprises should prepare for an increase in remote work and the long-term effects on marketing budgets, corporate travel, and commercial real estate values.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare the current coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. But as the infectious disease continues to spread and public health concerns rise, the WHO categorizes the risk from the virus as “very high”. On Tuesday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the novel coronavirus disease is more deadly than the seasonal flu, but appears to spread less easily.

As of Wednesday, health officials have reported more than 93,000 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 disease and over 3,200 deaths, including 172 outside of mainland China (the epicenter of the outbreak). The virus has been detected in over 80 countries and territories and the overall effect on global health is till unknown. In the US, officials have reported more than 100 cases in 16 states and 11 deaths. On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence announced that travelers coming into the US on direct flights from Italy and South Korea will be screened for symptoms, travelers from China were already being screened.

latest developments

Coronavirus: Business and technology in a pandemic

From cancelled conferences to disrupted supply chains, not a corner of the global economy is immune to the spread of COVID-19.

Read More

In last week’s Monday Morning Opener, Larry Dignan examined how the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is affecting global supply chains and consumer demand. On Friday he looked at how the disease may accelerate the future of work, including an increase in telecommuting, greater importance on video conferencing and digital collaboration technology, and less travel. As Larry wrote, “One thing is certain: The coronavirus is likely to mean the definition of business, as usual, will change.”

SEE: Coronavirus having major effect on tech industry beyond supply chain delays (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

While we won’t know the coronavirus’ effects on the overall nature of work for some time, one sector of the tech economy that’s already feeling an immediate impact is industry events. Whether as a result of travel bans, laws banning large gatherings, or an abundance of caution, officials are being canceling, postponing, or converting tech events to virtual conferences…leaving show organizers, attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors scrambling to make alternative plans. Companies are also instituting travel restrictions for employees. So, I decided to use this Monday Morning Opener to compile a list of the events that have been called off, pushed back, changed format, or are being held as scheduled.

Note: The coronavirus’ effect on the tech industry is a rapidly-changing story. We will do our best to update this list as news of conference cancellations and travel restrictions breaks.

Also: Coronavirus: Effective strategies and tools for remote work during a pandemic 

Tech conferences canceled, postponed, or going virtual

• Adobe Summit (Mar. 29-Apr. 2 in Las Vegas) – In-person canceled; online-only event 
• Apple WWDC (June) – TBD no announcement as yet
• Aruba Networks Atmosphere 2020 (Mar. 23-26) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• Atlassian Summit 2020 (Mar. 31-Apr. 2 in Las Vegas) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• Black Hat Asia 2020 (Mar. 31-Apr. 3 in Singapore) – Postponed until Sep. 29-Oct. 2
• Cisco Live (May 31- Jun. 4 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• Cisco Live Melbourne (Mar. 3-6 in Melbourne) – Canceled
• Dell World (May 4-7 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• DocuSign Momentum (Mar. 4 in San Francisco) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• Domopalooza (Mar. 18-19 in Salt Lake City, UT) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• EmTech Asia (Mar. 24-36 in Singapore) – Postponed to Aug. 4-5
• Enterprise Connect 2020 (Mar. 30-Apr. 2 in Orlando) – Being held as scheduled
• F5 Agility 2020 (Mar. 16-19 in Orlando, FL) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• Facebook F8 (May 6-8 in San Jose, CA) – Canceled
• Facebook Global Marketing Summit (Mar. 9-12 in San Francisco) – Canceled
• Game Developers Conference (GDC) (Mar. 16-20 in San Francisco) – Postponed to Summer 2020
• Gartner CIO Symposium/ITxPo (Oct. 18-22 in Orlando) – Being held as scheduled
• Gartner Data and Analytics Summit (Mar. 23-26 in Grapevine, TX) – Being held as scheduled
• Google Cloud Next (Apr. 6-8 in San Francisco) – In-person canceled; online-only event 
• Google I/O (May 12-14 in Mountain View, CA) – Canceled
• Google News Initiative Summit (Late Apr. in Sunnyvale, CA) – Canceled
• HPE Discover (Jun. 23-25 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• Infor Inforum 2020 (Sep. 14-16 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• Ingram Micro Cloud Cloud Summit 2020 (May 12-14 in Miami Beach, FL) – Postponed until early 2021
• IoT World Developer Conference (Apr. 6-9, 2020 in San Jose, CA) – Being held as scheduled
• Kaspersky’s Security Analyst Summit (April 6 – 9 in Barcelona) – Postponed until Fall 2020 
• Microsoft Build (May 19-21 in Seattle) – Being held as scheduled  
• Microsoft Ignite (Sep. 21-25 in New Orleans) – Being held as scheduled
• Microsoft WSLConf (March 10-11 in Redmond, WA) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• Microsoft MVP Global Summit (Mar. 15-20 in Bellevue Redmond, WA) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (Feb. 24-27 in Barcelona) – Canceled
• MSPWorld (Mar. 15-17 in New Orleans) – Being held as scheduled
• MWC Americas (Oct. 28-30 in Los Angeles) – Being held as scheduled
• NAB Show – National Association of Broadcasters (Apr. 18-22 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• Nvidia GTC – GPU Technology Conference (Mar. 22-26 in San Jose, CA) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• O’Reilly Strata Data AI Conference (Mar. 15-18, San Jose, CA) – Postponed; Merged with Strata Data AI (Sep. 14–17)
• ODSC East 2020 – Open Data Science Conference (Apr. 13-17 in Boston) – Being held as scheduled, offering virtual option.
• OFC 2020 (Mar. 8-12 in San Diego, CA) – Being held as scheduled
• Oktane Live – (Mar. 30-Apr. 2) Online-only event
• Oracle Code One (Sep. 21-24 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• Oracle Modern Business Experience (Mar. 23-26 in Chicago) – Postponed until Sep. 21-24 to coincide with OpenWorld
• Oracle OpenWorld (Sep. 21-24 in Las Vegas) – Being held as scheduled
• Paris Blockchain Week Summit (Mar. 31-Apr. 1 in Paris) – Postponed until Dec. 9-10
• Percona Live Open Source Database Conference (May 18-20 in Austin, TX) – Being held as scheduled
• Recode Code Conference 2020 (May 26-28 in Beverly Hills, CA) – Being held as scheduled
• RSA Conference (Feb. 24-28 in San Francisco) – Held as planned (IBM, ATT, Verizon, and other vendors withdrew)
• SaaS Connect – Cloud Software Association (Apr. 15-16 in San Francisco) – Being held as scheduled
• SaaStr Annual 2020 – (Mar. 10-12 in San Jose, CA) – Being held as scheduled
• Salesforce World Tour Sydney (Mar. 4 in Sydney) – In-person canceled; online-only event
• SAP SAPPHIRE NOW (May 12-14 in Orlando) – Being held as scheduled
• SAS Global Forum (Mar. 29-Apr. 1 in Washington, DC) – Being held as scheduled
• Shopify Unite 2020 developers conference (May 6-8 in Toronto) – In-person canceled; online-only event 
• SXSW (Mar. 12-22 in Austin, Texas) – Being held as scheduled (Apple, Twitter, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon Studios, IBM, and others have withdrawn)
• TNW Conference (Jun, 18-19 in Amsterdam) – Postponed until Oct. 1-2
• VMworld (Aug. 31-Sep. 3 in San Francisco) – Being held as scheduled

SEE: Facebook cancels F8: How the coronavirus is disrupting tech conferences worldwide (TechRepublic)

Major tech companies institute travel restrictions and work-from-home policies due to coronavirus

As of February 29, 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued multiple travel warnings due to the coronavirus disease. The CDC recommends travelers avoid nonessential travel to China, Iran, South Korea, and Italy.

Amazon is asking all staff in the Seattle and Bellevue area to work from home after an employee at the company’s Seattle headquarters tested positive for COVID-19. “We are recommending that employees in Seattle/Bellevue who are able to work from home do so through the end of the month,” Amazon told CBS News. Earlier, Amazon had asked all of its 798,000 employees to stop all nonessential travel, both domestic and internationally, immediately, according to an Amazon spokesperson.

Microsoft has also asked employees to work from home until at least March 25. “Consistent with King County guidance, we are recommending all employees who are in a job that can be done from home should do so through March 25th,” the company said in a public statement. Microsoft also urged employee to “postpone travel to Puget Sound or Bay Area campuses unless essential for the continuity of Microsoft.” The company had already told employees to cancel non-essential business travel in “regions with active COVID-19.”

In addition to cancelling its annual F8 conference, Facebook has placed restrictions on employee travel. The company has also closed two buildings in Seattle after a contractor based in the city tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

After a Google employee in Switzerland tested positive for coronavirus, the company expanded employee travel restrictions. Twitter has canceled all non-essential employee travel until further notice, including CEO Jack Dorsey’s appearance at SXSW. On Monday, Twitter also asked employees, which the company refers to as Tweeps, to work from home if possible. “We are operating out of an abundance of caution and the utmost dedication to keeping our Tweeps healthy,” the company said in a blog post.

On Monday, Salesforce announced a series of employee health and safety measures for the month of March, “including prohibiting cross border travel, restricting all but the most critical domestic travel, replacing our in-person customer events with digital experiences, and enhancing our office protocols to ensure we provide the healthiest work environment possible.”

On Wednesday, March 4, IBM announced travel restrictions, suspending domestic travel for internal meetings and for external events with more than 1,000 people. International travel will be limited to “business-critical situations when virtual methods are insufficient.” The company is also requiring employees to self-quarantine if they travel to restricted locations. “If IBMers have personal travel to restricted locations, they must inform their manager and must self-quarantine for 14 days after their trip is completed, per recommendations by health organizations,” IBM said in a statement.

Apple,  and others have also implemented employee travel restrictions.

ZDNET’S MONDAY MORNING OPENER:

The Monday Morning Opener is our opening salvo for the week in tech. Since we run a global site, this editorial publishes on Monday at 8am AEST in Sydney, Australia, which is 6pm Eastern Time on Sunday in the US. It is written by a member of ZDNet’s global editorial board, which is comprised of our lead editors across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.

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Updated March 2, 2020: Updated coronavirus information, added information about Salesforce, added information about Twitter’s employee travel restrictions and updated list of conference cancellations.

Updated March 3, 2020: Added information about Twitter’s work from home announcement and updated the list of conference cancellations and reordered alphabetically by conference name.

Updated March 4, 2020: Updated coronavirus information, US screening plans, and the list of conference cancellations.

Updated March 5, 2020 12:26am: Updated coronavirus information, corporate travel restrictions, and conference cancellations.

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