Dell Technologies World joins growing list of events hit by Covid-19

The ongoing impact of coronovirus on the channel calendar has struck again, with Dell deciding it will turn its Las Vegas get-together in May into a virtual event.

The vendor has been getting partners revved up about Dell Technologies World, which had been due to take place in Las Vegas between 4 and 7 May. Channel executives talked about meeting with partners when they spoke at the vendor’s kick-off event last month.

But with Covid-19 continuing to spread and more firms instructing staff to avoid travel, the decision has been made to go for the virtual option.

“Because nothing is more important than the health and safety of our team members, customers, partners and suppliers, we have decided to make Dell Technologies World 2020 a virtual event. This decision was not made lightly. As we learn more about the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, we know this is the right thing to do, given the global nature of Dell Technologies World,” the firm stated.

“The core of what we set out to accomplish together is still important, which is why we will deliver keynotes, select breakout sessions and live chats with experts as a virtual experience,” it added.

The firm said it would be shortly getting in touch with those partners that had already booked their tickets.

The decision to pull Dell Technologies World adds to a growing number of events that have been affected by coronavirus, forcing resellers to cancel travel plans and clear their diaries for the next couple of months.

HP Reinvent, which had been due to take place in a couple of weeks in California, was one of the other big vendor events to be hit by the virus.

“According to the World Health Organization [WHO], coronavirus continues to escalate, rather than subside, with widespread implications in multiple countries and markets. We must place the wellbeing of our employees, our partners, and our media and industry analyst community as our number one priority,” the vendor stated when it made the decision last month to postpone the event.

Partners have already seen Mobile World Congress and Intel’s event affected by the virus. IBM decided it would not attend the RSA Security event, along with others which left their booths empty. Fortinet also pulled the plug on its Accelerate partner conference in Barcelona.

The lists of events that have been cancelled or postponed includes the Adobe Summit in Vegas, Cisco partner connection week in Florida, Google Cloud Next in San Francisco, various Microsoft Ignite tour dates in Amsterdam, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and the Red Hat Summit in San Francisco.

The government held its latest Cobra meeting to review planning for the virus this morning, and so far there have not been official calls for large public gatherings to be postponed.

But given the rapid spread of coronavirus, with daily increases in cases in the UK and around the world, it is likely that more events will be affected in the next couple of months.