SuperComputingAsia 2020 latest virus-cancelled conference

The novel corona virus (Covid-19) continues to scythe down tech conferences around the world, with SuperComputingAsia 2020 the latest victim.

Scheduled to be held in Singapore between February 24 and 27, the annual event was cancelled over the weekend.

This year's SCA20 was set to be the biggest so far with over 500 attendees registered for the opening alone.

However, the SCA20 organisers said they had received concerns and considerations from key partners, sponsors and keynotes who cited advisories from their home countries to avoid non-essential travel to Singapore.

This in turn resulted in a number of withdrawals from the conference, and convinced the organisers that holding this year's physical event was untenable.

All registration fees for SCA20 will be refunded.

Singapore is currently at Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level orange, which means the pandemic is severe but with few cases in the island nation state and generally contained.

The is the second highest DORSCON level, with red meaning the Covid-19 pandemic is out of control.

SCA20 joins a growing number of events such as the MWC20, Cisco Live in Melbourne, and Facebook's global marketing summit that have been dropped because of the novel corona virus pandemic.

Linux and open source stalwart Red Hat which is scheduled to hold its annual summit in San Francisco on April 27 to April 29 this year still expects the event to go ahead however, a company spokesperson told iTnews.

Red Hat's owner IBM pulled out of the RSA security conference held next week, also in San Francisco.