Microsoft events will be digital-only in 2020 and maybe partly in 2021

Microsoft will cancel all of its physical events in 2020. The planned events will continue digitally. That was already known from the Build conference in May, but it now also applies to Ignite in September and other events. Perhaps this also applies to 2021.

Microsoft is canceling all of its physical events until June 2021, according to ZDnet sources. If that’s true, the Build conference next year would also take place digitally. Microsoft has confirmed to the site that at least all events in 2020 will be replaced by a digital version. The company has not confirmed anything about events for next year.

In a statement, Microsoft said it will embrace “the opportunity to experiment with digital events” for the remainder of this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The website of the annual Ingnite event now also states that this edition will only take place digitally.

According to ZDnet’s sources, Microsoft has made the rigorous decision to properly prepare for the upcoming digital events. Tech companies around the world have recently scrapped many physical events that would take place in the coming months. Microsoft is the first major tech company to cancel all of its events for a long period of time.

Microsoft released guidelines for customers on Tuesday on its site with information about organizing digital events. The software giant will allow customers to organize digital events with 100,000 participants through its platform until July 2020, instead of the maximum of 10,000 participants.