DevOps World has been cancelled at the last minute as Hurricane Ian sweeps in from the Caribbean.
The event, which attracts thousands and which already had numerous delegates and sponsors getting ready at the Orlando World Center Marriott venue, was due to take place in Florida from September 27-29.
Organisers had been holding out hope until the last minute that the event – focussed on all things DevOps and led by primary sponsor CloudBees – would be able to continue, with the venue reportedly reassuring them over the weekend that it was able to continue supporting the event irrespective of the looming tropical storm.
But early Monday — as your humble scribe set off for the airport – the news came in that it had been kiboshed: “The DevOps World team has been closely following the state, local, and federal guidance on Tropical Storm Ian. The safety of all attendees is our primary consideration” its organisers wrote on the event's page.
“Therefore, out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to postpone this week's onsite event at Orlando World Center Marriott. The decision was not made lightly, but we firmly believe this is the best course of action given the information we have today. In the coming weeks, we will share details on dates and logistics for a rescheduled, virtual edition of DevOps World 2022. As we transition our efforts to create an exceptional virtual experience, our thoughts are with the people and communities in the path of this storm” they added.
The cancellation is a bitter blow for organisers, sponsors and delegates at the event, coming as it does just as in-person events return in the wake of the pandemic. It was not immediately clear how many had already made the trip out. Speakers had been lined up from CapitalOne, JPMorgan, Raytheon and many others.
The Stack presumes event organisers -- wary after the pandemic caused so many to be cancelled -- take out robust insurance policies to include extreme weather events and has contacted organisers to confirm. We have also sought clarification on the extent to which the cancellation was driven by the guidance of authorities.
The National Hurricane Center issued a Tropical Storm Warning for the lower Florida Keys over the weekend, with Ian forecast to become an intense hurricane on Monday. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to take precautions and declared a state of emergency for all 67 counties. A full hurricane warning is already in effect for Grand Cayman and the Cuban provinces of Isla de Juventud, Pinar del Rio, and Artemisa.In sympathy with those who had invested time and energy planning and setting up, The Stack thought that we would share a link to all sessions (hopefully to return virtually in the not-too-distant future) and sponsors, who include CloudBees, AWS, Sonatype, Gradle Enterprise, JFrog, Tricentis, LaunchDarkly, MacStadium, Wipro, Akeyless, Circonus, Cockroach Labs, CodeLogic, Contrast Security, CyberArk, Dynatrace, iTMethods, Lightlytics, Mend, NowSecure, Propelo, Source Labs, Sleuth, Snyk, SPK & Associates, Tidelift, Veracode, Appflow, Couchbase, Fidelity Investments, phoenixNAP, Quali, Uplevel, Zivra, and Zscaler. Our sympathies to all.
