Organizers say they are evaluating the coronavirus impact

Apr 5, 2020 13:11 GMT  ·  By

The tech world has been hit hard by the coronavirus impact, and large companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook and so many others have already canceled their events, moving to virtual conferences that completely eliminate the risk of infection for attendees.

The OpenSuSE + LibreOffice Conference, scheduled to take place in October, is still on, The Document Foundation said in an announcement today, but the organizers are still keeping an eye on the virus outbreak to adjust their plans in a timely manner.

TDF says in a blog post that while it doesn’t yet cancel the physical event, it’s already considering alternative solutions, including a virtual conference.

“In these difficult times, we want to assure our communities that we are actively engaged in a good outcome for all members, sponsors and interested parties involved with a successful openSUSE + LibreOffice Conference. We are looking at alternatives for the conference like possibly doing a virtual conference and exploring what tools might help us to achieve this should we decide it’s a viable option,” a recent post reads.

Monitoring the outbreak

Since it’s only April, it’s pretty difficult to anticipate that’s going to happen in the remaining months until October when the event is supposed to take place, so if the authorities lift some of their restrictions, the organizers could very well hold the conference.

2020 is the year when openSUSE and LibreOffice Projects joined forces for a mixed annual conference that would help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the LibreOffice Project and the 15th anniversary of the openSUSE project.

“We are moving forward, assuming the conference will take place as planned from October 13 to October 16 in Nurnberg, and will keep our communities informed of any decisions we make regarding the plans for the conference and any alternative options like a virtual conference,” TDF says.

At the time of writing, over 1.2 million people have already been infected with the new coronavirus. More than 65,000 people have died after contracting the virus.