SDxCentral has decided to not attend this year’s MWC Barcelona event due to ongoing concerns regarding the coronavirus. We are not making this decision lightly due to the importance of the annual conference for SDxCentral and our readers, but we cannot in good conscience ask our staff to risk their health to attend this year’s event.

We are also not the first to make this decision. We were taking the tact being followed by most exhibitors of monitoring the situation to see which direction the viral outbreak was going to take. But with just a couple of weeks to go, we decided that it was not breaking enough in a positive direction to warrant the risk.

The event is seeing a growing number of larger operators and vendors backing out, which obviously reduces its overall “value.” And reports indicate that event organizer GSMA plans on meeting later this week to decide on the overall fate of MWC Barcelona.

This is obviously a difficult decision for GSMA to make both from a financial and prestige perspective. I have no idea on the exact financial impact the event has on its bottom line, but from just passing conversations I would put it somewhere in the “immense” category.

This impact is likely part of why GSMA has so far slow-played its hand. I don’t think it would have been smart to immediately cancel the event at the first sign of exhibitor distress, but I also don’t think the GSMA’s most recent plan that includes the statement “attendees will need to self-certify they have not been in contact with anyone infected” inspired confidence or is medically sound.

Despite my own past misgivings about attending such a large event, MWC Barcelona is important to the industry. I know in this day and age that most communications are handled via email and phone, and that video conferencing allows for putting together the “names and faces." But there is something more organic about face-to-face meetings that is lost in the digital age. And because of that, I hope that whatever happens with this year’s event is just a one-year blip and does not impact any in the future.

But the worst thing that can happen is for there to be any expansion of a virus tied to a major industry event. Some vendors that are still planning on attending the event have announced various quarantine initiatives to ease concerns. These are probably the right things to do, but also leave a weird “camp” taste in my mouth.

And at the end of the day, it’s just a trade show. A quick glance at my upcoming trade show calendar indicates there will be at least a dozen more events each week for the next year, so I doubt this overall model is in any danger.

Despite not being there in person, SDxCentral will still be covering news from MWC Barcelona. Make sure to check back with us each day during the show for the latest updates.