There are a number of industry events coming up in the next month or so that are definitely under threat from the #CoronaVirus outbreak.
- #ISE2020 takes place in Amsterdam February 10-14, 2020. As we’ve tweeted exhaustively, we think this event is lucky to be going ahead at all [1]. The organisers initially, steadfastly refused to take any decisive action to protect the health of attendees. Luckily for them (and attendees) it is becoming increasingly difficult for Chinese exhibitors to get to the show. We know of at least 20 exhibitors who have already told the organisers they will not be there and two other Chinese manufacturers; Video capture device manufacturer Magewell [2] and LED supplier ROE Visual [3] have been proactive in indicating to potential attendees that they are leaving their China based employees at home for this show
- Prolight + Sound Guangzhou 2020 which was scheduled for February 19 – 22, 2020 at Area A & B China Import & Export Fair Complex, Guangzhou has already been postponed.
- EuroShop 2020 is the World’s Largest Retail Trade Fair [4]. At the last show in 2017 the attendance was about 113,000. It is scheduled to take place in Dusseldorf from February 16-20, 2020. It does not have a huge attendance from Chinese exhibitors so is likely the safest to go ahead amongst this list.
- #MWC2020 is the world’s largest mobile industry exhibition attracting 109,000 people who are interested in meeting with global mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors, and content owners. 250 Chinese exhibitors are expected to attend but yesterday, Korean giant LG announced that it would not be exhibiting [5] quoting “With the safety of its employees and general public foremost in mind, LG has decided to withdraw from exhibiting and participating in MWC 2020 later this month in Barcelona, Spain. This decision will prevent needlessly exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel, which most health experts have advised”. As the #coronavirus situation worsens, we would be very surprised if this event goes ahead in its current form. It is scheduled to take place February 24-27, 2020. Last week the organisers, GSMA issued a wishy-washy everything will be okay press release which actually addressed none of the concerns of those who were planning to attend.
- AVIXA have another big decision to make soon as their Beijing InfoComm China event [6] is due to be held March 26 – 28, 2020. It was announced on Monday Feb 3, 2020 that this event has now been postponed [7]. It is an event that has been plagued by problems, only last year the 2019 Show [8], which was to be held April 8-10, 2019 was re-scheduled at the very last minute to July 17–19, 2019.
Passenger Terminal EXPO 2020 which takes place in Paris March 31 – April 2, 2020 is likely to be unaffected, so too FESPA’s Global Print Expo 2020 which takes place in Madrid March 24-27, 2020 and has little Chinese interest.
Our business travel over the next few weeks is a trip to Tokyo in March and AdTECH: OOH – Singapore in April. Both remain unaffected at this point in time.