Facebook Cancels F8 2020 Over Coronavirus Concerns
Another one bites the dust: Facebook called off this year’s F8 developer conference due to “growing concerns” over novel coronavirus.
Scheduled for May 5 and 6 in San Jose, Calif., the in-person component of F8 2020 has been cancelled.
“This was a tough call to make,” according to Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook’s director of platform partnerships.
“F8 is an incredibly important event for Facebook and it’s one of our favorite ways to celebrate all of you from around the world,” he wrote in a blog announcement. “But we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees, and everyone who helps put F8 on.”
It’s unclear exactly what this means for the conference’s usual introduction of new features.
The social network is “planning other ways for our community to get together”—through locally hosted events, videos, and live-streamed content. Keep an eye out for more details in the coming weeks; sign up online for email updates.
“In the meantime, thanks for your patience and understanding,” Papamiltiadis said. “And we look forward to seeing our global community of developers at F8 2021.”
Conference or no conference, Facebook is sticking to tradition.
Every year, the company donates a portion of F8 ticket sales to an organization working to diversity the industry. This time it promised $500,000 to organizations serving local San Jose residents.
And, in lieu of hosting local students onsite, Facebook will still provide “an F8-inspired experience”—whatever that means.
This will be remembered as “The Year Coronavirus Cancelled.”
Following news of multiple major vendors (LG, Ericsson, Nvidia, Amazon) exiting Mobile World Congress over fears of COVID-19, GSMA shelved the 2020 event—which regularly attracts more than 100,000 visitors to Barcelona from 200-plus countries.
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