Concerns about the rapid spread of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant have led organizers of the RSA Conference to postpone the event, while several major tech firms earlier canceled plans to exhibit at CES. 

The RSA Conference is one of the cybersecurity industry’s most important events, with an attendance that reached tens of thousands of people in previous years. CES, in turn, is the world’s largest trade fair dedicated to consumer technology. CES drew 182,000 attendees and 4,500 exhibitors in January 2019. 

The four-day RSA Conference was originally scheduled to kick off on Feb. 7, 2022. Today, the organizers of the event announced today it has been decided to push back the date to June 6 following “careful consideration and ongoing dialogue with RSA Conference stakeholders.” The venue, the Moscone Center in San Francisco, will remain the same. 

“The health and safety of our community remains our highest priority,” said Linda Gray Martin, vice Ppresident of the RSA Conference. “With the surge in cases of the Omicron variant in the U.S. and around the world, we believe the best decision we can make is to delay the event until later in the year when we can bring the industry safely together in-person.”

Earlier, on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that several major tech companies have dropped out of CES, which is scheduled to take place from Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas. Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Pinterest Inc., Twitter Inc., T-Mobile USA Inc. and multiple news outlets have stated that they no longer plan to attend the event. 

Amazon said in a statement that “the health and safety of our employees is our top priority. Due to the quickly shifting situation and uncertainty around the Omicron variant, we will no longer have an on-site presence at CES.”

Despite the cancellations, CES is set to take place early next month as originally planned. “CES will still take place Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas with strong safety measures in place,” the Consumer Technology Association, the industry group that organizes the event, told Axios in a statement.

The safety measures that the Consumer Technology Association is implementing at CES reportedly include widening the aisles between exhibits and upgrading the conference venue’s ventilation systems. Additionally, each CES attendee will receive kits containing two rapid tests. 

A number of major tech firms reportedly still plan to attend the event. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will have a limited presence at CES, The Verge reported on Tuesday. Qualcomm Inc. is also reportedly among the companies that plan to attend. 

Photo: CES