Coronavirus cancels Cisco Live in Melbourne

Cisco has cancelled its flagship Cisco Live conference in Melbourne due to “ongoing concerns” about the coronavirus outbreak.

Set for 3-6 March, the vendor’s annual event in Asia Pacific plays host to around 8500 attendees from across the region, spanning channel partners, customers, distributors and alliance vendors.

“Our customers, partners and employees are our top priority and we strongly believe this is the right decision given the current circumstances,” a Cisco statement read. “Our thoughts are with those directly impacted by this situation.”

The conference – which was due to be held at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC) – had a sponsorship line-up which included Optus, Telstra, OutcomeX and NTT, in addition to Cohesity, Hitachi and IBM.

Keynote speakers scheduled to present included Miyuki Suzuki – president of Asia Pacific, Japan and China at Cisco and Anuj Kapur – senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Cisco.

This was in addition to fellow Cisco executives Maria Martinez as chief customer experience officer, Scott Harrell as senior vice president of Intent Based Networking and Kevin Bloch as CTO of Australia and New Zealand.

At this stage, it’s unclear whether the event will remain cancelled in 2020, or rescheduled for a later date.

The news follows the cancellation of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which annually pulls in crowds of more than 100,000.

“With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” a statement read.

“The Host City Parties respect and understand this decision. The GSMA and the Host City Parties will continue to be working in unison and supporting each other for MWC Barcelona 2021 and future editions.”