It’s the afternoon of March 2, 2020, and I was just sitting around beginning to get my NAB planning in full order (for me it’s mainly planning for teaching at the Post|Production World Conference) when I saw the news come across Twitter that AJA was pulling out of NAB. Everyone is following the rapidly developing story of the spread of the coronavirus so you know why. I clicked over to their website and saw the full details that I have pasted below.
AJA has made the decision to withdraw from @NABShow 2020. We are excited to share new products coming to market and are transitioning all planned meetings, news and demos to web-based video conferences. https://t.co/j9VtjtXJka #NABShow
— AJA Video Systems (@AJAVideo) March 2, 2020
It’s hard to tell the fact from the fiction, the hype from the careful thought when it comes to the spread of this virus. There have been many bing conferences canceled already from Mobile World Congress to Facebook’s F8 developer’s conference to the GDC Game Developer’s Conference. There are others that have been canceled and I’m sure there will be others.
I applaud AJA for making this decision to pull out of the show. I couldn’t have been an easy one as big vendors like AJA begin planning for the next NAB as soon as the current one is over. It takes some guts to be the first one so all of us with NAB plans will be closely watching to see if others follow. I’d talked to quite a few NAB regulars over the last couple of weeks and no one is really looking forward to going this year. Not like usual.
NAB’s powers-that-be have said that NAB is still on and you can follow NAB’s official updates on the official NAB site.
Or just check this link whenever you want:
http://isnabcancelledyet.com
Gotta love the internet.
AJA Video Systems Withdrawing from NAB 2020
March 2, 2020
It is with a heavy heart that AJA is withdrawing from the NAB 2020 show in Las Vegas due to the risks from the Coronavirus. We have made this decision out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our employees and partners worldwide.
While we will miss gathering with our friends and colleagues from around the world, AJA remains fully committed to transitioning all of our planned NAB events (product announcements and demos, channel partner meeting and press conference) to web-based video conferences. We have exciting product news to share, and we look forward to bringing those products to market as planned.
AJA is a community-based company with a majority of our staff, product development and manufacturing located in Grass Valley, California and in light of the risks presented by Covid-19, having a physical presence at NAB posed too great of a risk.
For the latest updates and developments regarding event participation and upcoming web events, please be sure to follow AJA on Twitter @AJAVideo