IDC cancels Santa Clara tech conference over disease fears
Cancellation comes on the heels of Facebook pulling the plug on its F8 developers conference
Another tech conference scheduled for the Bay Area has been cancelled due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus.
Technology research giant IDC has pulled the plug on its Directions conference, which was to be held on March 4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. In a statement, IDC said it chose to cancel the event as more details have emerged about the reach of coronavirus in and around the Silicon Valley region.
“We have made this choice out of an abundance of caution and believe it is the correct decision given the evolving public health concerns in the Bay Area,” IDC said in a statement about cancelling the Directions event. “The potential risk to the well-being of Directions attendees and our staff is something IDC takes seriously.”
Concerns about coronavirus in the Bay Area have grown this week following the disclosure that a woman in Solano County spent 11 days in a local hospital before test results confirmed she had contracted the disease. IDC said it is still planning on going ahead with its other Directions event on March 10, in Boston.
IDC’s cancellation came on the heels of Facebook saying on Thursday that it cancelled its annual F8 developers conference, which had been scheduled for May 5-6 in San Jose, due to concerns about coronavirus. Earlier this month, Facebook cited coronavirus as the reason it cancelled a marketing summit it was set to hold in San Francisco in March. Facebook, Microsoft, Sony and some other gaming-related companies have also withdrawn from next month’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco because of coronavirus fears.
Officials with GDC and the upcoming IoT World conference, which is scheduled to be held in San Jose, in April, have so far said they have no plans to cancel their events, but are monitoring the coronavirus situation and putting extra sanitary and cleaning protocols in place to help ensure the health of attendees.