Google and Adobe cancel their events amid the Coronavirus outbreak

The Novel Coronavirus outbreak has taken the world by storm and as countries scramble to fight the virus, the tech giants are fighting a totally different battle. Ever since the outbreak became global, companies have been cancelling their events to prevent the spread of the virus and for the safety of their employees.

Earlier today, Microsoft informed all the existing MVPs that the company has decided to cancel the MVP Summit. The summit was slated to run from 15-20th March but Microsoft plans to make it online-only. Now, both Google and Adobe have announced the cancellation of their respective events. Google has confirmed that the company won’t be hosting Cloud Next ’20: Digital Connect. Instead, the event has been made online-only and is now free for everyone. The virtual event will take place from April 6-8, 2020.

Out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our customers, partners, employees and the community, and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO, and other relevant entities regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19), Google Cloud has decided to reimagine Google Cloud Next ’20. We are introducing Google Cloud Next ’20: Digital Connect, a free, global, digital-first, multi-day event, which will still take place from April 6-8, 2020.

– Google

Adobe, on the other hand, has cancelled its annual summit in Las Vegas. The company will also hold the summit as an online-only event to protect its employees and attendees from the infection. In a statement, Adobe said it cancelled the event “protect the health and wellbeing of Adobe Summit attendees.” Last year, the summit attracted over 16,000 from around the world. The virtual summit will take place from March 29 to April 2, 2020.

Last month, GSMA announced its decision to cancel MWC 2020 after most of the big players dropped out. This was then followed by Facebook cancelling F8 summit, Microsoft cancelling Ignite Tour in several countries and the cancellation of GDC 2020. Facebook has also cancelled its Global Marketing Summit which was followed by Oppo and Xiaomi cancelling their respective events.