- Okta is the latest tech company to cancel its upcoming conference and turn it into a virtual event due to health concerns over coronavirus.
- Oktane, which was to be held in San Francisco, usually gets thousands of attendees each year.
- The online only event will be free to anyone who wants to attend, and Okta said attendees who have already registered will get a full refund. It's scheduled for March 30 to April 2.
- Its the latest in a series of tech conferences getting canceled over concerns about coronavirus.
Okta is the latest tech company to cancel its upcoming conference and turn it into a virtual event amid worries over the coronavirus-linked disease, COVID-19.
The security and identity management company said it will make its annual Oktane conference for IT professionals, product leaders, and developers an online only event because its the best way to "safely engage with our whole community." The event usually has thousands of attendees.
The now virtual conference is scheduled for March 30 to April 2. The in-person event was set to held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The online only event will be available for free to anyone who wants to attend, and Okta said attendees who have already registered for the original in-person event will get a full refund.
"Our vision is to enable any organization to connect to any technology, and we're applying that vision to Oktane Live: we'll leverage the best technology to deliver an innovative attendee experience from wherever you are...Replacing the in-person event with dynamic video content will enable us to bring our customers, partners, and employees together in a healthy and productive way," Okta said in a blog post published Tuesday.
Okta's announcement comes as the coronavirus outbreak has caused companies throughout the world to adapt. Facebook, Google, Workday and others have cancelled upcoming conferences due to safety concerns.
Facebook has asked employees to stop bringing social guests to work and is cutting down on its on-site job interviews, while Salesforce, Amazon and Twitter have suspended all non-essential employee travel both in the US and overseas as well.
Meanwhile, employees at Amazon and Google who traveled overseas have been reported to be infected with the coronavirus. Two Amazon employees based in Italy have been infected, and a Google employee who traveled to Zurich was as well
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