Coronavirus cancels IFA conference in Berlin this summer, sort of

IFA, the electronics fair that takes place every summer in Berlin, is the novel’s newest event Corona virus. The fair will not be canceled, but it will not go on as usual, the organizers said.

The organizers on Tuesday tweeted “IFA Berlin should start in 2020 with an innovative new concept.” They didn’t expand the plans, but said the show was “built on an innovative concept that was developed for unprecedented times”.

“The organizers … have been discussing a number of alternative concepts for a few weeks now,” tweeted the IFA. “Planning for a concept with which the IFA can fulfill its core functions for our industry is well advanced … as a global showcase for technological innovations and as an important meeting point for brands, manufacturers, retailers and the media.”

The group said they would share their updated plans later. The IFA did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

The move took place after the ban on all federal government events with more than 5,000 participants until October 24. The state of Bavaria had canceled this year’s Oktoberfest on Tuesday attracts millions of dirndl and lederhosen-dressed people to Munich from mid-September to early October. The Berlin Marathon, scheduled for September 27th, was also canceled because of concerns about the corona virus.

The new corona virus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, was first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year. In March, the World Health Organization declared the COVID 19 outbreak a pandemic. The crisis has resulted in cities and entire countries around the world being closed, resulting in closed shops, canceled events and the need for people to stay at home to curb the spread of the virus. over 2.5 million people were infected and more than 175,000 have died.

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IFA is not the only major tech event that has been canceled. Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile tech show, was canceled in February, less than two weeks before the start. At that time, the corona virus spread widely in Asia and was just emerging in Europe. Cancellation of the event was not an obvious option for the organizers of the Barcelona fair. Since then, however, the corona virus has spread across much of the world. Today it is unclear when people can return to work or leave their homes, let alone go to trade fairs.

Instead of phone starts in the past six weeks Apple, Huawei and OnePlus have held all digital events or presented devices in a press release.

The IFA organizers have not said what this year’s fair will look like, whether it will be carried out with far fewer participants or whether it will be converted to a digital format. MWC was completely canceledand exhibitors who had planned to launch equipment in Barcelona instead, she announced herself.

While IFA doesn’t usually have as much big news as CES (which takes place every January in Las Vegas) or MWC, it is a big show for electronics manufacturers, especially those that sell home appliances and computers. There is usually mobile news at IFA, and Samsung used to have major product launches in Berlin. Last year there was, among other things, the debut of Samsung’s revised Galaxy Fold and the first OLED television with integrated Amazon Alexa.

Like all technical conferences, the IFA is an important place for company executives to meet and do business with each other. This includes partnerships for retailers or network operators to give devices and businesses the opportunity to work together on technology. The face-to-face meetings are key for smaller businesses that have neither sales teams nor the money to travel around the world to do business.

The IFA also opens its congress halls to the public. Last year show had almost 2,000 exhibitorsand there are usually around 200,000 participants.