Google announced on Twitter today that it has canceled its annual I/O developer conference out of concern for the health and safety of all involved. The company was announced on March 3rd that it canceled the physical I/O event, but now the whole thing is off. The company made clear that it does not intend to reschedule these events in person or in a virtual capacity at all this year and will look for other ways to inform the community of changes, updates, and new services in the coming months.
Google said in a statement “Out of concern for the health and safety of our developers, employees, and local communities — and in line with recent ‘shelter in place’ orders by the local Bay Area counties — we sadly will not be holding I/O in any capacity this year. Right now, the most important thing all of us can do is focus our attention on helping people with the new challenges we all face. Please know that we remain committed to finding other ways to share platform updates with you through our developer blogs and community forums. Take care of yourselves. We'll continue to do everything we can to help our communities stay safe, informed, and connected.” In the two weeks that passed since the initial cancellation, the COVID-19 epidemic turned into a global pandemic, and we're seeing unprecedented measures taken by governments to impose social distancing. Many tech conferences have been canceled, changed, or delayed this year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
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