Coronavirus: Big Canceled Events Affect Tech Industry

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The cancellation of the MWC because of the Covid-19 epidemic was only a first. Since then, the deletions of tech events have been linked. That of Google I / O, to be held in mid-May in Mountain View, confirms these disturbing disturbances.

In early February, we took stock of the first economic consequences of the coronavirus on the tech industry as the epidemic spread in Asia, shutting down many production lines. A few days later, the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress was like a bomb in the middle. It was really just a detonator. Since then, around forty international fairs, public or reserved for professionals, have been canceled. And not a day goes by without the list going on.

An avalanche of cancellations

If some events have simply been postponed, such as the Game Developers Conference which slipped from March to summer, others have been transformed into virtual conferences, with the help of ehealth conferences. This is the case of the GPU Technology Conference of Nvidia, which was to be held at the end of March and which will only exist on the Internet. Ditto, Adobe has chosen to transform its annual Summit, also scheduled for the end of March, into a 100% online event. But in most cases, outright cancellation is the order of the day, as with Facebook with the abandonment of the F8 conference which was planned from May 6 to 8 in San José.

Even if the spread of the epidemic and the scale it will have in two months are difficult to predict, industry players do not want to take any risks. A precautionary principle which also pushed Google to cancel its major I / O conference. While waiting to see if the Apple WWDCs and Microsoft Builds resist (or not) the coronavirus (they should be held in mid-May and in June), the cancellation of the Google I / O clearly marks a new escalation in the fighting the spread of the virus.

Health and Safety, Google's Priorities

“Due to concerns about the coronavirus, we have decided to cancel this year's physical event at the Shoreline amphitheater. It's sad that we can't come together as a developer community, but your health and safety are our priorities ”, justifies Google. This decision is not trivial: it was on this occasion that Google was to present Verbatim the new version of Android, and we were entitled to expect the announcement of new products.

The only consolation is that Google is considering a way to maintain certain presentations. Thus, specific conferences could be broadcast via YouTube, and it seems confirmed that the event website will host resources for developers. As a reminder, in addition to the main conferences, the Google I / O is a trade show during which thousands of developers from around the world attend workshops and round tables on Google technologies.

500 million dollars flown away, at least 

What we tend to forget is that these big developer events are a lucrative business – in addition to being a window on the flagship products of their organizers. A ticket for the Facebook F8 costs around $ 600, while the basic ticket for the Google I / O costs $ 1,150. And whenever reservations are open for these kinds of conferences, the ticket office is quick to post “Sold out”. Difficult nevertheless to estimate the direct shortfall that this represents.

In another register, if we believe the calculations of PredictHQ on which Recode relies, we learn that the indirect economic losses linked to the cancellation of these events have passed the half-billion dollar mark. To arrive at such a figure, this firm integrates the sums generated on the account of events canceled by airlines, hotels and local businesses.

The Mobile World Congress is paying the heaviest price. The cancellation of the Barcelona show, which was to accommodate more than 100,000 people, alone would be responsible for a shortfall of $ 480 million. The Google I / O (event bringing together 5,000 people) comes in second place, with losses estimated at 20 million dollars. Postponed, but not canceled, the Game Developers Conference (which brings together 30,000 people from the ehealth game industry) is not included in the estimates. By imagining that the WWDC and SXSW conferences are finally canceled, PredictHQ estimates that the losses could approach a billion dollars.

Airlines in the red, the planet is breathing

So many canceled trips that will contribute to the sharp reduction in air transport since the start of the epidemic, which has a very significant impact on airlines. The International Air Transport Association had, on February 20, already estimated at some $ 29 billion the shortfall for companies in the current year.

An evil for a good, some would say, pointing to the impressive images of Esa and NASA showing the impact that in a few weeks had the reduction in air traffic and – above all – the downturn in the economy on quality air in China. Some scientists say they have never observed such a drop of harmful particles in the air in such a short time, in connection with a specific event. It must be said that the situation illustrated by the cards in question speaks for itself. We see a very sharp drop in the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air between January 1 and February 25, 2020.

according to Carbon Brief, Chinese CO2 emissions would have dropped by 25% over the period, linked to the epidemic. Obviously, we should not declare victory too quickly: on the one hand, constant pollution remains very high in China; and on the other hand, the revival of economic activity could have serious consequences, since the industry will seek to compensate for the accumulated delay.

Widespread precautionary measures

To return to (and finish with) the high-tech industry, most of the global giants of the sector have adopted a relatively cautious attitude towards the threat of the coronavirus and have therefore taken all kinds of precautionary measures to protect their employees. Amazon advises its employees to avoid travel and has quarantined an infected employee. Twitter has done the same and has also adopted a temporary policy encouraging telework. Google also imposes containment measures in case of suspected infection … And these are only a few examples among many others.

Google which, in addition, announced the opening offree access to its Hangouts Meet ehealth conferencing solution until July 1 to help limit travel, the main factor in its spread. A good opportunity to encourage some to Review the solution before perhaps adopting it, say the most cynical.

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