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Google Announces Early April Conference Will Be Streamed Digital Event Due To Coronavirus

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Officials at Google on Monday announced the planned Google Cloud Next conference scheduled for the first week of April would now be a multi-day digital streaming event due to coronavirus concerns.

The annual conference set to take place at San Francisco's Moscone Center April 6-8. On the conference website, organizers said because of "the growing concern around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in alignment with the best practices laid out by the CDC, WHO and other relevant entities," Google Cloud would be reimagining the event as Google Cloud Next '20: Digital Connect, a free, digital-first multi-day streaming event.

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The website states all registered attendees would be getting refunds for fees paid within the next few weeks and be automatically registered for the free online event. The three-day online conference will feature the usual keynote speeches, breakout sessions and interactive learning as well "ask an expert" sessions with Google teams.

"Innovation is in Google's DNA and we are leveraging this strength to bring you an immersive and inspiring event this year without the risk of travel," the announcement on the conference website read.

So far, there is no word whether Google will make a similar switch for the company's planned Google I/O event scheduled for May 12-14 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View.

Last week, the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was postponed until sometime this summer, while Facebook's annual F8 event in San Jose was cancelled.

 

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