Will the Coronavirus Disrupt the RSA Show? IBM Decides to Skip

After shutting down Mobile World Congress, the coronavirus is threatening to disrupt another major technology trade show: the cybersecurity conference RSA.

On Friday, IBM announced it was withdrawing from the upcoming event, citing the coronavirus. "The health of IBMers continues to be our primary concern as we monitor upcoming events and travel relative to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19),” the company said in a statement. “As a result, we are cancelling our participation in this year's RSA conference.” The news was first reported by Protocol. 

IBM made the abrupt announcement a mere ten days before the show will be held in San Francisco from Feb. 24 to the 28th. Last year’s show attracted more than 42,000 attendees, along with the biggest companies in the cybersecurity sector, including Cisco, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, and many others.

Despite IBM's cancellation, RSA said the show will still go on. "The number of individuals, including those from IBM, who have canceled their registration is approximately .79 percent of the total number of expected attendees," the conference said in an online statement. "Also, the total number of exhibitors, including IBM, that have canceled their participation as a sponsor or exhibitor is eight. Six of them are from China; one of them is from the USA; and one of them is from Canada."

IBM's withdrawal occurs two days after the organizers behind Mobile World Congress decided to close down their own show. In MWC’s case, the event was slated to attract 100,000 attendees from all over the globe, with many of them coming from Asia. But at least 16 major vendors and mobile carriers eventually decided to bail on the festivities, citing the coronavirus and the travel restrictions to contain the outbreak. As a result, the organizers behind MWC decided to pull the plug on the show.

However, the organizers behind the RSA conference say they’re dealing with a different situation. They point to how most of the visitors to the show will be from the US, which has only reported 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

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“As of today, approximately 82 percent of our current registered attendees are from the United States as are 82 percent of our exhibiting organizations,” RSA said in today's statement. “The travel restrictions implemented by the US Government on January 31, 2020 remain in effect and according to the CDC’s latest situation summary, the health risk from Coronavirus for the general American public is considered low at this time.”

We’ll have to wait and see if other vendors decide to skip RSA. But on Friday, another trade show slated to be held in Japan, CP+ 2020, was also canceled on the coronavirus fears.  

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