Coronavirus Puts CES Asia 2020 on Hold
Zhang Yushuo
DATE:  Mar 10 2020
/ SOURCE:  yicai
Coronavirus Puts CES Asia 2020 on Hold Coronavirus Puts CES Asia 2020 on Hold

(Yicai Global) March 10 -- The Asia Consumer Electronics Show Asia, which was set to run in Shanghai from June 10 - June 12, has now been postponed from fears of contagion by the novel coronavirus, according to an official statement yesterday.

Exhibitors will receive full refunds of payments for exhibit space, its host pledged.

The International CES Shanghai Exhibition is the owner and producer of the fair, which is co-produced by Shanghai Intex Exhibition. CES Asia has convened in the eastern Chinese financial hub each year since 2015.

"Our decision reflects the concerns of our stakeholders including exhibitors, buyers, media and speakers. Given the evolving global concerns about and impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19), we feel this is the best decision for everyone involved," said its organizer, the Arlington, Virginia-based Consumer Technology Association.

A premier event for the consumer technology industry, the event displayed the products of more than 20 sectors last year, spanning fifth-generation wireless communication networks, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality and auto technology.

The exhibition is the latest casualty of the epidemic that has killed more than 3,900 and infected over 111,000 and forced the cancellation, postponement or retreat online of scores of major gatherings, even threatening this year's Olympic Games scheduled for July in Tokyo -- which has already canceled its fabled cherry blossom festival -- while the US Trump administration has put off the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Las Vegas.

Other tech events that have thus far fallen victim and been called off, delayed or will go forward online include Facebooks's annual F8 conference and its annual Global Marketing Summit, Adobe's annual live summit, the health-technology conference HIMSS in Florida, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Workday's annual internal sales conference, the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco, Singapore's EmTech Asia and Google News Initiative Global Summit. Shopify canceled its annual developer conference, Unite, while Semi, a global organization whose member companies provide semiconductor production systems and materials, has nixed its Semicon conventions in Korea and China.

In other Shanghai sectors, the city's Fashion Week will still go ahead as planned, but will be live-streamed.

Editor: Ben Armour

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Keywords:   CES Asia,Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia