The World Health Organization (WHO)[1] declared the novel coronavirus outbreak[2] a global pandemic in March 2020, and its affects on public health and the global economy are unmistakable.
As of October 2020, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University on COVID-19 cases[3] show over 41,000,000 cases and more than 1,120,000 deaths worldwide. In the US, officials have reported over 8,300,000 cases and over 220,000 deaths from the COVID-19 disease.
In response to the pandemic, governments around the world enacted travel bans, promoted and in some cases required social distancing measures, and passed stimulus packages designed to mitigate the public health and economic fallout from the outbreak. Despite these measures, COVID-19 has had a profoundly negative affect on the global economy and the tech sector[4], particularly when it comes to industry events. Whether as a result of travel bans, laws banning large gatherings, or an abundance of caution, tech conferences have been canceled, postponed, or converted to virtual events.
The following is a list of tech events that have been called off, pushed back, or changed format as a result of COVID-19.
SEE: 2021 IT budget research report: COVID-19's impact on projects and priorities [5](TechRepublic Premium)
2021 Tech conferences calendar
- Adobe MAX[6] (TBD)
- Adobe Summit[7] (Apr. 13-15 - virtual event)
- Apple WWDC[8] (Jun. expected)
- Atlassian Team 2021[9] (Virtual event series)
- AWS re:Invent[10] (TBD)
- BlackBerry Security Summit 2021[11] (TBD)
- Black Hat USA 2021[12] (Jul. 31-Aug. 3 in Las Vegas)
- CES 2021[13] (Jan. 11-14 - virtual event)
- Cisco Live[14] (Jun. 6-19 in Las Vegas)
- Cisco Live Melbourne[15] (Dec. 7-10 in Melbourne)
- Code PaLOUsa 2021[16] (TBD)
- Comic-Con[17]