Google cancels I/O developer conference over Coronavirus concerns

Google has today become the latest company to cancel their upcoming event over concerns surrounding Coronavirus (COVID-19).

People who applied for a ticket to the annual developer conference are being emailed this morning to advise the ‘physical’ event has been cancelled, with Google looking at alternate ways they can present their newest innovations to developers.

As the email states, Google will offer refunds of the $1,150 USD ticket ($375 USD for academics) by March 13th.

Google I/O has been held at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California – just across the road from their HQ, since 2016, with the first I/O developer conference taking place in 2008.

Coronavirus has so far caused the cancellation of Mobile World Congress in Spain, as well as GDC (Games Developer Conference) and Facebook cancelled their F8 Developer conference, which was scheduled to take place on May 5th and May 6th, last week over concerns about Coronavirus.

Google has generally streamed their Google I/O sessions, including the always exciting Keynote, through YouTube so it’s likely we’ll see something along these lines, but with the possibility of additional input with Google Developer Groups across the globe.

We’ve not seen any official announcement from Google as yet, but we’ll update when they’ve got something to say.