Microsoft Cancels In-Person Build Developer Conference and Moves Event Online

[MacRumors]

Microsoft has announced that the 2020 Build developer conference will not go ahead as an in-person gathering and will take place online this year instead, owing to concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The tech giant had planned to hold the annual conference in Seattle from May 19 to May 21, but Microsoft has decided to make it an altogether "digital event." A Microsoft spokesperson provided The Verge with the following statement:

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. We look forward to bringing together our ecosystem of developers in this new virtual format to learn, connect and code together. Stay tuned for more details to come.

Like Apple's WWDC, Build annually brings together thousands of developers from all over the world, and Microsoft typically uses the event to preview its latest software and services updates. This year, Microsoft is expected to share more details about its dual-screen plans for Android and Windows 10X.

It's not the first tech company to cancel a major developer event in light of the pandemic. Facebook's F8 and Google's I/O developer conferences have been canceled due to the coronavirus. On Wednesday, organizers for both the E3 gaming convention and NAB trade show also announced cancelations.

Other public events and sports seasons in the U.S. have been either canceled or suspended amid the viral outbreak, in an effort to limit the possibility of a rapid rise in infection rates. Similar containment measures have been implemented or are actively being considered in many other countries.

Apple hasn't provided word about its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, which is normally held in San Jose, California, in June, but it now seems only a matter of time before Apple announces that the event has been canceled or will be held in some digital capacity.

Article Link: Microsoft Cancels In-Person Build Developer Conference and Moves Event Online

 

[recoil80]

Apple hasn't announced WWDC yet, so they don't need to cancel it. They'll likely hold the event online so they'll announce it eventually. I guess they're still organising the online event so they're waiting to announce it.
Bummer for the fellow iOS developers who already booked the hotel in San Jose guessing the dates, hope they'll be able to get a full refund but booking in advance is always a risk if you're not sure about the dates.
They'll miss the networking opportunities and the labs, but save money. I couldn't afford to go there, so to me it would be the usual WWDC with online sessions.

 

[maflynn]

Can't say that I'm surprised - it seems that life in the US and the world are on hold.

 

[waquzy]

Can't say that I'm surprised - it seems that life in the US and the world are on hold.

Well of course!

People’s health > everything else in the world

 

[44267547]

Anything ‘mass’ based is slated for cancellation. In my state, any type of meeting/congregation with over a dozen individuals involved is cancelled. It’s the ‘norm’ for the foreseeable future.

 

[midwesthawkeye]

Apple's WWDC should have gone online 5 years ago (or earlier) anyway, just due to the fact that they have had to go to using a lottery to dial back attendance numbers. Forcibly reducing attendance is the antithesis of the purpose of a developer's conference anyway. Sure, going online messes up the ability for companies to use the WWDC as a promotional event, but it accomplishes the goal of educating as many developers as possible. Put the WWDC online, and if you must, create a separate event (Hello Macworld Expo?) that centers on the social aspects of the business.

 

[Moonjumper]

I think a lot of conferences will be a greater success online and decide to stay that way for the future. This virus may have a lot of long term affects that are both positive and negative. I can see the experiment in working-from-home saving a lot of people from the commute, but for those that have to, there will be less appetite for using public transport.

 

[citysnaps]

Anything ‘mass’ based is slated for cancellation. In my state, any type of meeting/congregation with over a dozen individuals involved is cancelled. It’s the ‘norm’ for the foreseeable future.

A dozen is an interesting number, considering that's what most juries are. But then there's usually an alternate or two.

 

[one more]

A very sensible thing to do, imho. I am just surprised that other big tech companies (Facebook & Google) have not gone the same way, cancelling their events altogether instead.

 

[theluggage]

Apple hasn't announced WWDC yet, so they don't need to cancel it. They'll likely hold the event online so they'll announce it eventually. I guess they're still organising the online event so they're waiting to announce it.

I think that all most of us know about WWDC (and similar conferences) is the keynote - which could quite clearly be done via video stream & press release (it's really just an opportunity to announce stuff "properly" before developers have to be told and it all leaks out anyway) .

So can anybody who has actually been say what the actual developers conference bit of WWDC is like? Are there nice, intimate, interactive sessions where you actually get to talk to Apple tech people about real things or is it all crowds of people in huge auditoriums watching a Powerpoint Keynote slideshow that you could have downloaded and skimmed in a quarter of the time?

Never been to a big tech conference like WWDC (well, not since a DEC user group conference in the 1980s) but I've been to conferences in other areas that fall into both "intimate" and "cattle market" categories. In the "cattle market" case, nothing of value will be lost... unless you work at a conference centre or hotel that depends on one (not funny, I know).

In the past, the main advantage of these things was that you could put work on hold to take time out of the office to catch up on new things without work imposing itself - but that came to a shuddering halt when the arrival of mobile phones and WiFi let the office follow you around... Even the "personal networking" thing fails if the conference is too huge (and software developers are not known for being particularly gregarious...).

I do wonder if the coronavirus will be seen as an opportunity for companies to greatly scale back these huge, expensive shenanigans in future.

 

[CarlJ]

Apple's WWDC should have gone online 5 years ago (or earlier) anyway, just due to the fact that they have had to go to using a lottery to dial back attendance numbers. Forcibly reducing attendance is the antithesis of the purpose of a developer's conference anyway. Sure, going online messes up the ability for companies to use the WWDC as a promotional event, but it accomplishes the goal of educating as many developers as possible. Put the WWDC online, and if you must, create a separate event (Hello Macworld Expo?) that centers on the social aspects of the business.

Apple has been moving more of the content of WWDC online for years - your first two sentences seem to be arguing in favor of something that has already happened - videos of all the sessions are available in Apple's "Developer" (previously called "WWDC") app.

The other big part of a conference like WWDC is the face-to-face interactions: what's long been called the "hallway track", random meetings with other developers who turn out to have novel answers to your questions, or clue you in to interesting techniques or technologies you hadn't seen before. Cross pollination. This is harder to replicate online in a coordinated way - sure you can say, "go look at Twitter", but that's drinking from a firehose, tons of information but most of it not on relevant topics - sure, you can search, but then you're self-limiting to the things you search for. But wandering the hallways at a convention, one is much more likely to happen across interesting and highly relevant conversations you weren't thinking to search for, that introduce you to hugely helpful ideas. Your mention of a social aspect seems to heavily downplay this - it's not getting together over beers to talk about sports, it's large amounts of exposure to very useful ideas/techniques that you didn't know you were looking for. Finding solutions to problems you have now, but also problems you haven't had yet.
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A dozen is an interesting number, considering that's what most juries are. But then there's usually an alternate or two.

I've heard in some places jury trials are on hold.

 

[GeoStructural]

Probably a little unrelated but I love how Microsoft is shining again. The user experience is getting better, the features are even richer. I love tech regardless of the company but I have a sweet spot for Microsoft.

 

[stars_fan]

Microsoft teams is a dumpster fire product. I wonder how they plan on pulling off an online event.