Today, Facebook announced that its developer conference, F8 2020, has been cancelled.
In recent years, F8 has served as a meeting place for developers who make use of Facebook's various platforms, as well as a press conference to announce new products and services.
Pre-orders for the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S, for example, opened at last year's F8 event (2019).
"Annually, we look forward to connecting with our global developer community at F8 and sharing our vision for the future we are building together," Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, director of platform partnerships, said in a post on Facebook's developer site. "But given the growing concerns surrounding COVID-19, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the personal component of the F8 2020."
Facebook donates a portion of ticket sales to "an organization that works to diversify the tech industry" in San Jose - the host city of F8 - every year, but as no tickets will be sold in 2020, Facebook will donate US $500.000 directly to organizations serving San Jose.
"It was a difficult decision to make - F8 is an incredibly important event for Facebook and is one of our favorite ways to celebrate all of you from around the world - but we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone world that helps dress the F8," added Papamiltiadis. "We explored other ways to keep the F8 personal, but it's important to us to host an inclusive event and it didn't feel right to have the F8 without our international developers in attendance."
Facebook will also "provide an F8-inspired experience" for local students who would have attended the conference, though no details were provided.
Finally, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Director of Platforms and Developer Programs, explained that while the main event has been cancelled, Facebook still plans to give the community a chance to come together through "a combination of locally hosted events, videos and content. broadcast live".
More plans on these live and live events will be shared in the coming weeks.
