Paul Metthews (IT Professionals NZ)
Major New Zealand technology conferences are starting to follow the pattern seen overseas, with another significant event postponed yesterday.
IT Professionals NZ chief executive Paul Matthews announced in a blog-post that the organisation's keynote ITx 2020 conference had been delayed by six to eight months to mid 2021 in light of the spreading Covid-19 coronavirus,
"This decision wasn't made lightly, however the mix of health and safety concerns, combined with general anxiety in relation to attendance at larger conferences and the decision taken by many businesses and individuals to not travel or attend large events has meant we believe this is the only prudent option," Matthews wrote.
While the conference was scheduled for late in 2020, to run it would have necessitated us calling for speakers, sponsors, attendees and more over the next month or two when things aren't great globally, Matthews wrote.
IT Professionals would also put several other events where attendance was expected to exceed 100 people.
Smaller events will still go ahead, but with precautions to protect members.
Earlier this month, Ingram Micro cancelled its Showcase 2020 event while PB Tech cancelled its Expo 2020 in February.
AWS also cancelled its Sydney Summit earlier this month.
