Apple wwdc coronavirus
2 years ago
Published March 5, 2020 by

Apple’s WWDC 2020 at risk

The company hasn’t said anything about its signature June developers conference, but…

From Adrian Kingsley-Hughes’ “Why coronavirus will mean no Apple WWDC 2020” posted Wednesday on ZDNet:

Apple doesn’t usually announce the date for WWDC until April (last year’s March announcement was usually early). This means that the company has time to assess the situation, and that could mean it will be a few weeks before we know for sure that WWDC 2020 is going to be canceled. But given the size and scale of the coronavirus/COVID-19, it seems unlikely that Apple will choose to bring thousands of people from all over the world and put them in a room with a good chunk of the company’s high-level staff.

My guess — and it is a guess — is that Apple has already canceled the physical meet part of WWDC 2020, and is now putting together secondary plans, which will likely consist of a streamed keynote and developer sessions, and possible virtual development labs.

And who knows, coronavirus could pave the way for more virtual conferences, which from an environmental standpoint wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.

Apple could find itself reinventing tech conferences.

My question: If it’s a virtual WWDC, will the entry fee still be $1,599? I’ve asked Apple PR. (UPDATE: Apple PR had nothing to add.)

Below: ZDNet’s running list of bans and cancelations…

2 Comments

  1. Jerry Doyle said:
    “…. My question: If it’s a virtual WWDC, will the entry fee still be $1,599? I’ve asked Apple PR.”

    That’s an excellent question! If they lower the entry fee price, then think of the precedence lowering the price says, and does!

    “…. And who knows, coronavirus could pave the way for more virtual conferences, which from an environmental standpoint wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.”

    Agree, but I question it happens!

    I was a Staff Development Officer for a federal agency working in the Dallas Regional Office with State agencies, universities and NGOs in a geographic region covering a five State area that was fairly dispersed: New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. It was my job to hold small planning conferences for planning seminars, workshops, meetings and conferences where we would bring selective State agency staffs and others together from the five states. Governmental and NGOs’ travel budgets often are vulnerable to budget cuts, especially in dire times where the governor would put a freeze on State agencies’ out-of-state travel. Not so much a problem with universities and NGOs.

    With the advent of video conferencing I thought, wrongly, that I could reduce costs and save time away from one’s job by instituting this new format. It felled flat! Participants complained that they desired “face time,” and that much communication and learning went on “after hours” during the social interactions.

    Video conferencing never succeeded at that level. Of course today, we have come so much farther in the use of modern video technology and if anyone could pull it off, it would be Apple.

    No matter, I believe the same here exists in that Developers attending the conference will complain that so much is lost in “face time” with one another and in the social interactions with one another during evening hours.

    1
    March 5, 2020
  2. Gregg Thurman said:
    There is no way (currently) to replace the benefits of chance encounters that occur at scheduled congregations of similarly minded people.

    A single chance meeting could be worth the costs of attendance (including travel, lodging, and meals).

    0
    March 5, 2020

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