Amid the growing number of coronavirus infection in the United States, Microsoft announced Thursday that it will be canceling the annual Build developer conference in Seattle, set to run from May 19-21, and will conduct the event online instead.
“The safety of our community is a top priority. In light of the health safety recommendations for Washington State, we will deliver our annual Microsoft Build event for developers as a digital event, in lieu of an in-person event,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. “We look forward to bringing together our community of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect, and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come.”
Build developer conference is one of the tech giant’s biggest events where the company will launch new technology across various product lines. For the last nine years, Microsoft has held the Build conference brought together thousands of people for its Professional Developer Conference and Mix events.
The company also estimates that in the highly-anticipated event this year, around 6,000 people would attend. Microsoft also canceled smaller in-person events such as the MVP Summit for handpicked non-employees and the WSLConf for discussing the Windows Subsystem for Linux technology, earlier this year.
Other tech companies like Facebook and Google also decided not to hold in-person marketing and developer conferences this year.
The company also estimates that in the highly-anticipated event this year, around 6,000 people would attend. Microsoft also canceled smaller in-person events such as the MVP Summit for handpicked non-employees and the WSLConf for discussing the Windows Subsystem for Linux technology, earlier this year. Other tech companies like Facebook and Google also decided not to hold in-person marketing and developer conferences this year.
In the United States alone, at least 1,323 are diagnosed with COVID-19, and 38 have already died due to the virus. Globally, there are more than 127,800 confirmed with at least 4,718 deaths
