The coronavirus has had an effect on several major mobile events that we normally see in the first half of the year, and now it looks like it's starting to affect events that typically come in the second half of the year, too.
IFA, or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, announced today that IFA Berlin will be taking place this year but that it'll have "an innovative new concept". This is because of COVID-19 and the Berlin government's decision to ban all events with more than 5,000 participants until October 24th.
IFA 2020 was scheduled to take place from September 4th through September 9th.
In a thread of tweets sent today, IFA explains that it's anticipated that the IFA 2020 event would not be able to take place as originally planned and so it's been discussing its options for several weeks now.
As for what it'll do in place of the normal show, IFA has teased that it's planning a concept that will allow it to "deliver on its core functions for our industry as a global showcase for technology innovation and an important meeting place for brands, manufacturers, retailers and media." It adds that it will share the details of this concept in the near future.
While not exclusively focused on mobile, IFA has brought us several major mobile announcements over the years. With events like MWC and Google I/O getting canceled for 2020, Apple moving to a new online format for WWDC, and the coronavirus pandemic still ongoing, it's no surprise to learn that IFA 2020 won't be a traditional show. What will be interesting is seeing how the organizers change things up for this year's event.
#IFA20: Set for an innovative concept designed for unprecedented times.
IFA Berlin is set to go ahead in 2020, but with an innovative new concept, following the decision by the Berlin government to ban all events with more than 5,000 participants until 24 October 2020.
1/6 pic.twitter.com/MLDvamLXzf— IFA Berlin (@IFA_Berlin) April 21, 2020
