Microsoft is canceling its Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Summit and moving the event online due to the COVID-19 coronavirus. The company has been notifying attendees that the event, which was scheduled for March 15-20 in Bellevue and Redmond, Wash., is canceled.
- The cancelation comes amid increasing reports of coronavirus cases in the Seattle region, where Microsoft is headquartered. The Washington Department of Health reported 18 confirmed cases and 6 deaths on Monday.
- The MVP Summit is one of many tech events that have been canceled or moved online due to the virus, including Mobile World Congress and Facebook’s F8 conference.
- Microsoft pulled out of the Game Developers Conference last week. The company also said it will miss quarterly revenue guidance for its “More Personal Computing” business segment due to the coronavirus outbreak.
- The announcement puts the fate of Microsoft Build, one of the company’s biggest events, in jeopardy. Build is currently scheduled for May 19-21 in Seattle.
Microsoft has canceled its MVP Summit due to coronavirus concerns. A potential sign of things to come for Build https://t.co/zWTyLLWoXp
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) March 2, 2020
Update: Microsoft provided this statement on MVP’s cancelation.
“The health and safety of our MVP community is a top priority. Due to growing concern, we’ve decided to shift our 2020 MVP Global Summit to a digital experience with exclusive, in-depth technical sessions on March 16-20.”
