Mobile World Congress has been canceled. The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has forced organizer GSMA to pull the plug on the tech show, which was scheduled to be held Feb. 24 to 27.
“The GSMA has canceled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concerns, and other circumstances make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” the association said Wednesday.
Mobile World Congress was expected to attract more than 100,000 attendees from across the globe. However, the coronavirus outbreak and fear of the illness spreading through the show’s venue prompted many of the leading electronics vendors, including LG, Amazon, Intel, and Nvidia, to cancel their attendance.
Initially, the GSMA remained committed to hosting the annual tech show, despite the cancellations. But by Wednesday, as many as 16 major tech companies and mobile carriers had declared that they would withdraw from the show, citing the coronavirus and the travel restrictions around containing the outbreak.
In today’s announcement, the GSMA also noted it wanted to keep Barcelona, the host city for MWC, safe from the illness. Spain has so far only reported two confirmed coronavirus cases. Nevertheless, the disease continues to spread, mainly in China, where its sickened more than 44,000 people and killed more than 1,000.
The cancellation of MWC means the tech industry is losing a major publicity event to show off their latest smartphones and mobile gadgets to the world. However, many vendors who withdrew from the show still plan on making MWC-related product announcements. You can expect them to be made online later this month, or at separate company events in the future.
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