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The major tech events affected by the spread of coronavirus

The major tech events affected by the spread of coronavirus

A wrap-up of all the significant events in the channel affected by the coronavirus outbreak

Credit: Photo 171081916 © Dgmate - Dreamstime.com

Microsoft, Apple open virtual dev conferences to all

Microsoft and Apple have both opened their annual developer conferences to all and will not charge admission for the virtual events.

Microsoft will host its Build confab May 19-21 and Apple will start its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 22. Apple did not say how long WWDC will run, but historically the conference has gone from Monday to Friday. June 22 is the second-to-last Monday of the month.

Previously, the companies had announced the cancellations of their usual physical events and replacement by all-digital versions. Both firms cited the ongoing pandemic as the reasons for their moves.

Digital-only Microsoft Inspire now free to attend

Microsoft has waived registration fees for Inspire 2020 as the world’s largest channel conference goes digital-only from July 21-22.

With registration set to open in June, there will now be no cost to attend for partners following cancellation of the in-person event, which was originally scheduled to house 18,000 attendees in Las Vegas. Pre-Covid-19, registration prices started at US$2,295, rising to $2,595 after three weeks of early-bird sign-ups.

According to Gavriella Schuster - corporate vice president of One Commercial Partner at Microsoft - the digital-only conference will be “absolutely free” for partners across the world.

All of Facebook’s physical events cancelled up until June 2021

Facebook has moved to cancel physical events with 50 or more people up until June 2021.

Announced by Mark Zuckerberg on a Facebook post, the decision was made after receiving guidance by experts “that it won't be advisable to have large groups of people get together for a while”.

“Given this, we're canceling any large physical events we had planned with 50 or more people through June 2021,” Zuckerberg said.

He added that some of these events will be replaced by virtual versions.

Previously, Facebook made the move to cancel its annual F8 developer conference due to the coronavirus pandemic

VMworld 2020 goes virtual amid coronavirus pandemic

VMware’s VMworld 2020 event has been postponed and digitised due to the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The digital-only event will be held during the week of 28 September, pushing it back from the US iteration’s 30 August to 3 September time frame. The European iteration of the event, originally scheduled for 9-12 November in Barcelona, has been cancelled.

The event will be open to a global audience and will include information on new technology, VMware executives sharing their perspectives, educational and technical content as well as opportunities to engage with experts.

AWS reveals Summit Online Australia and New Zealand for May

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has revealed the digital version of its Summit conference for Australia and New Zealand, scheduled for 13 May.

This will be the first time an AWS Summit Online conference has been held for Australia and New Zealand.

The event  is free to attend and will feature Amazon’s chief technology officer, Werner Vogels, as a keynote speaker.

The physical Sydney version of the conference, originally scheduled for 31 March to 2 April at Sydney’s International Convention Centre, was cancelled after “careful review of the current situation with COVID-19”.

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