In an email recently sent to company employees, Microsoft stated that all events - like Build 2020 has already been confirmed to be - will be digital until July 2021.

As the Covid-19 outbreak pushes companies and organisations to cancel, postpone or reimagine their conferences as digital events, Microsoft has announced that all their events - both internal and external - will be virtual until July of next year.

The news was revealed in an email sent to employees reading "In light of the challenges presented by Covid-19, Microsoft has been closely monitoring the developing global situation and re-assessing the overall company-wide in-person event strategy. As a company, Microsoft has made the decision to transition all external and internal events to a digital-first experience through July 2021."

It was already announced that the company's upcoming Build developer conference was going digital this May, now the MVP Summit, RD Summit, Ignite and any Surface hardware events will be virtual events as well.

Digitalising these conferences will doubtlessly be an undertaking for the Microsoft team while employees continue to work from home as the coronavirus risk remains high. Nevertheless, such a shift could also prompt a paradigm shift in how industry conferences are held - if digital conferences prove to be successful and less expensive for the company, why shift back to physical events?

 - AFP Relaxnews