Mobile World Congress Cancellation Over Coronavirus Is Foreboding Sign for Events
Photo Credit: Attendees at Samsung's Virtual Reality MWC 2016 Press Conference. Flickr / Maurizio Pesce
Skift Take
The cancellation of a major event outside of China is a serious warning for meeting planners to take action to preempt concerns over the coronavirus.
The Mobile World Congress, one of the biggest tech events of the year attracting 100,000 attendees and over 28,000 exhibitors — many from China — has canceled this year's event in Barcelona due to mounting concerns over coronavirus. This marks the highest-profile example yet of the impact to events.
High-profile exhibitors had continued to drop out of the Barcelona event scheduled for February 24–27 due to concerns over the level of risk an event of this scale presents — despite a detailed list of enhanced safety measures published by GSM Association (GSMA).
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"With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today," said John Hoffman, CEO of the GMSMA Limited in a statement Wednesday, "the GSMA has canceled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern, and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSM
