Justin Duino
Since the announcement that Mobile World Congress 2020 would be canceled due to Coronavirus concerns, numerous tech events such as Facebook’s F8, GDC, and more have been called off for similar precautions. Now, just a day after Google canceled its Cloud Next event, the company has scrapped the onsite portion of its annual developer conference, I/O 2020.
Google is currently emailing today’s news to those who won the I/O lottery and had the opportunity to purchase tickets to the conference. As you can read in the embedded tweet below, the decision to pull the plug was made after health authorities such as the CDC and WHO advised against large gatherings of people.
Google I/O canceled due to #Corvid19 , conference will be remote instead @AndroidPolice @arstechnica @Google @googledevs #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/YyQ2c8mTIP
— Nate Harris (@nwithan8) March 3, 2020
Developers who already paid for their tickets will receive a full refund by March 13, 2020. Additionally, guests will be offered the opportunity to purchase tickets to Google I/O 2021 without needing to enter next year’s drawing.
The email from Google ends with a message that it “will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community.” Although this hasn’t been confirmed, the company will likely host the conference online and livestream the panels that would have been hosted at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.
Google will update the I/O website with more information when it has decided how it will host the event.
