The Cisco Live Melbourne and Mobile World Congress Barcelona technology conferences have been cancelled for 2020, with organisers citing concerns about coronavirus.

The Cisco Live Melbourne customer and partner conference was to take place from March 3 to 6. It was to include more than 300 technical and business sessions, including sessions focussed on IoT. Cisco expected more than 8,500 attendees, according to its web site.

A statement on the Cisco Live Melbourne site reads: “Due to ongoing concerns about the current outbreak of Coronavirus, Cisco has made the difficult decision to cancel Cisco Live Melbourne scheduled for March 3-6, 2020 in Australia.

Our customers, partners and employees are our top priority and we strongly believe this is the right decision given the current circumstances. Our thoughts are with those directly impacted by this situation.”

Meanwhile, the producers of Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona have announced that they have cancelled their 2020 event, which was to take place from 24 to 26 of February.

“With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” stated John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA, the producer of MWC Barcelona.

MWC organisers expected the 2020 event to include more than 2400 exhibitors, and planned sessions about 5G, IoT and AI, among other topics. Key speakers were to include Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger and Airbus Digital Transformation Officer Marc Fontaine.