By
Bena Ilyas
April 10th, 2024
Google has called off its I/O Developer Conference 2020 due to COVID-19 fears. It has joined the row of other major events globally to be canceled this year.
Google I/O developer conference 2020 has been canceled. This comes after Facebook also decided not to hold its F8 developer conference and Google also canceled its Cloud Next event as well.
Google I/O was scheduled for May 12th to 14th, 2020. It has been canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. An e-mail was sent to attendees giving them the news.
Sources indicate that Google said in a statement:
“Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre. Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with and continue to build our developer community. We’ll continue to update the Google I/O website.”
Google I/O Developer Conference is Google’s most popular annual event.
Google I/O Developer Conference 2020 Attendees to Get Refunds
Sources indicate that Google hasn’t revealed plans for taking the event remotely. Intended attendees will be refunded their funds. Attendees also get automatic tickets to the 2021 event.
Google has also indicated that it intends to release $1 million to local organizations involved in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM). The intended recipients are the local companies within the Mountainview California area.
Technology events are suffering across the board.
This year has seen some of the biggest event cancellation rates in recent times. As we have already mentioned they include Facebook’s F8 developer conference, the Mobile World Congress, the Game Developer Conference. The Geneva Motor Show is also a victim of the situation. This indicates that there are increased fears about the virus.
Remote services, however, seem to be the ultimate gainers during this period of uncertainty. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has indicated recently that video conferencing capabilities to Google’s Hangout line of products. He indicated in a tweet that video conferencing capabilities for G-Suite and G-Suite for schools will be free.
We want to help businesses and schools impacted by COVID-19 stay connected: starting this week, we'll roll out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020 to all G Suite customers globally. https://t.co/OWWF7s5jjR
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 3, 2020
Working Remotely May Be on the Rise
Remote meetings seem to be on the rise with the concerns that surround COVID-19. Sources indicate that most of the tech companies are encouraging their workers to work remotely. This will be the case until the Coronavirus issues are resolved. Companies include Stripe, Slack, Square, and even Twitter. It remains unclear working remotely will remain as a trend after COVID-19. However, for now, this seems the way to go as more infections and deaths are already sweeping through countries that have the virus.
Google seems to want to make digital meetups and linkups to be a thing. Their offering now includes free access for both video and audio. Meetings now have an improved capacity of up to 250 people. Live streams are also enhanced with an audience capacity of up to 100,000 people. This covers one domain only. Events can also be recorded and saved unto Google drive as well.
With all that is going on, a more interconnected world may be the harbinger of economic recovery that we are all looking for. As will all things the magic word that is required for technology convergence is the same one we all use every day in the technology world: adoption.