Salesforce: One of the first major events to go virtual ahead of the coronavirus pandemic was Salesforce’s World Tour Sydney Reimagined, according to Business Insider. Salesforce made the call to switch to an all virtual event roughly two weeks prior to its original date. The event was set to take place in Australia and in the past has attracted tens of thousands of technology leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region. On March 4, the entire conference was streamed online and much of its content is on demand. Check it out here.
COMIC-CON: After canceling its 130,000-attendee event originally slated for July, Comic-Con International has announced a “Comic-Con at Home” virtual event. Further details have not yet been released, but this cult property will definitely be taking place virtually!
Microsoft’s BUILD Developer Conference: Build is one of Microsoft’s biggest news events of the year, despite being primarily focused on developers. The software maker typically uses Build to preview the latest changes to Windows, Office, and other software and services. The software giant was planning on holding its annual developer conference in Seattle from May 19th to May 21st, but Microsoft has decided to make it a “digital event.” The official statement reads: “The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event. We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come”
WEBBY AWARDS: Comedian Patton Oswalt will host the 2020 Webby Awards, which will focus on how people have used the Internet to address COVID-19. The virtual ceremony takes place May 19. As per tradition, winners will give five-word acceptance speeches.
F8 Developer Conference (Facebook): Originally scheduled for early May, Facebook’s annual F8 Developer Conference in San Jose has been canceled in place of a mixed format event. While a new date and specifics haven’t been announced, in a statement Facebook says it’s “planning other ways for [its] community to get together through a combo of locally hosted events, videos and live streamed content.” In its statement, Facebook said: “…Given the growing concerns around COVID-19, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 2020 … We explored other ways to keep the in-person part of F8, but it’s important to us to host an inclusive event and it didn’t feel right to have F8 without our international developers in attendance.”
ADOBE MAX CONFERENCE: Adobe’s annual Adobe MAX conference is going virtual. The creativity-focused conference will take place October 19-21; all keynote and breakout sessions will be available for free.
As we write this post, many other global events worldwide are planning their digital/ virtual/ hybrid events. We will keep updating this page with the latest news on which events choose the virtual route. Stay tuned!!
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