ConnectWise Cancels Some Events Over Coronavirus Fears

The company joins a long list of IT vendors who are re-evaluating live shows, for the time being, in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic.

ConnectWise has postponed several upcoming events as the coronavirus pandemic expands globally and across the United States.

Notably, IT Nation Connect Amsterdam, which was originally scheduled for May 12 to May 14 will be moved to a yet-to-be determined later date.

“We do not have details on the new dates yet but will share them when available,” the company said in a statement. “Anyone currently registered to participate in this event will automatically have their registration fees and status applied to the future event.”

Meanwhile an event set for today, IT Nation Security Day, will be recorded and shared with registered attendees at a later date, the company said in an email this morning. The IT Nation Share, Northwest Connectors event set for Friday in Seattle, will be streamed live for registered attendees. IT Nation Share, Connecting Vikings which is set for St. Patrick’s Day in Copenhagen, will be live streamed and shared with registered attendees.

ConnectWise said all other IT Nation events are still expected to go off as planned, including IT Nation Evolve, Service Executive Peer Groups, for March 30 to April 3.

“As strange as it sounds to say, it feels like its the right thing to do,” Matthew Hildebrandt, chief operations officer with StrataDefense, a Wisconsin-based MSP and ConnectWise Partner, told CRN.

The IT Service Management company joins a growing list of vendors who have canceled and pushed back up coming shows, during a season of normally robust travel.

Two of the nations leading IT distributors have delayed or canceled upcoming shows as the impact from the spread of the coronavirus reverberates through the tech world.

Ingram Micro said it is postponing its upcoming Cloud Summit planned for Miami Beach until early next year. Meanwhile, Synnex yesterday said it would cancel all of its events between now and May 1, including its Spring Varnex show as well as the Red, White & You event that immediately follows, both of which were set to kick off in the coming weeks.

Synnex Senior Vice President of Marketing for North America, Bob Stegner, sent an email to partners saying all Synnex-sponsored events in the U.S. and Canada would be canceled. Varnex was scheduled to begin on March 28 while Red, White & You was expected to begin March 31.

The National Association of Broadcasters has cancelled its annual NAB Show due to virus fears as well Gordon Smith, president and CEO of the NAB Show, on Wednesday wrote in blog posted on the organization's website that the conference has been carefully monitoring domestic and international developments, and has decided to look for alternatives.

The event features products and services aimed at audio and video professionals across the media and entertainment and technology business, including advertising, broadcast, security, film, government and military, sports, religion, and related industries. Last year the conference attracted 1,600-plus exhibitors and over 90,000 attendees from over 160 countries.

Nvidia announced Monday that it had canceled plans for a live webcast of its CEO Jensen Huang that was set to be part of the chipmaker's digital GPU Technology Conference. The news came a week after the company canceled the physical portion of its flagship event due to growing concerns about the coronavirus.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company announced on Monday that it will no longer hold a digital keynote with Huang, where he was expected to disclose several new products, and that it will instead issue news announcements for the products on March 24, with an investor call to follow.