For the first time in 35 years, the show won’t go on for the Applied Power Electronics Conference. On Tuesday, show organizers and sponsors decided to cancel APEC 2020.
We all know why – the COVID-19 coronavirus has already claimed South by Southwest (SXSW), Mobile World Congress, Gamers Developers Conference, Geneva International Motor Show, and countless others. As of 3/10, 1/3 of the U.S. has declared a state of emergency, and global commerce has ground to a halt.
And on Tuesday, APEC became the latest casualty of a growing international crisis.
“In light of growing concerns surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, and after much thoughtful deliberation, APEC and its sponsors, IEEE IAS, IEEE PELS, and PSMA have decided not to move forward with the in-person conference event scheduled for March 15- 19, in New Orleans, Louisiana,” claimed the show organizers.
For my own part, over half my schedule had already dropped out (over those same concerns) and understandably so.
To “preserve value for attendees, speakers, and exhibitors,” APEC is currently exploring some sort of virtual conference, and they’ve assured us that “peer reviewed papers accepted by the conference will still be submitted to IEEE Xplore.”
Check out the official announcement here: http://apec-conf.org/news/important-update-about-apec-2020/
