Skip to content
‹ Back to IndustriesSoftware & Technology

Coronavirus and the Tech Industry: The Mecca Minute

The article discusses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the technology industry, focusing particularly on international trade events which are a key component for tech companies to showcase their innovations. With travel restrictions and event cancellations, the tech industry is witnessing significant disruptions, particularly in regions like China.

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Software & Technology teams put it to work with Executive Thought Leadership.

By Ben Thomas · CancelledCoronavirusEventsGerry Mecca
Share
Coronavirus and the Tech Industry: The Mecca Minute

Key takeaways

01

International trade events are critical for tech firms to test market waters and showcase products.

02

Many major global trade events are being cancelled or rescheduled due to coronavirus, impacting related industries.

03

There is optimism that coronavirus spread will be controlled, which may provide stock buying opportunities.

Free workspace

Turn your Software & Technology expertise into content.

Record interviews, organize footage, and write with AI in a free MarketScale workspace. Qualifying companies also get one professional video edit a month. No credit card.

Start free

Today I’d like to talk a little coronavirus and its impact on tech. Tech firms all over the world use international trade events to showcase their products and maybe even in many respects test the market waters to see how products might do in the industry. But this is important to the tech world because travel has now been restricted, and many of the biggest opportunities that exist in tech are coming out of Asian countries like China.

We’ve also learned now that major trade events are being cancelled or rescheduled. This affects attendees, but more importantly it affects the hotels, the airlines, the caterers, and beyond. So if you’re in the international trade event market, then you’re probably seeing a huge impact.

The US has still sort of avoided some of this. I don’t suspect they’ll be any impact on local trade events, or smaller events that involve you traveling one or two counties. However, if you’re into the Gartner International events, the international CIO events, the international mobile technology events or anything in the dev OPS, agile or operations excellence, you’re probably going to find yourself curtailed.

I happen to be one of those folks who is still optimistic that the Coronavirus spread is going to be controlled, and that it won’t stack up to be a long term issue. Hey, at a minimum, buy some tech stock back up and get a good opportunity when the market is down.

Check out previous editions of the Mecca Minute here!

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale

Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Software & Technology starts with a company putting its solutions engineers, product teams, and customer engineers on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Buyers ask AI engines who to consider, and published expert answers are what those engines cite.

Get your team featuredSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.

About the author

Ben Thomas
Ben ThomasHead of Pro AV, MarketScale

Ben Thomas serves as Head of Pro AV at MarketScale, where he leads content and media strategy for the pro AV sector. With over 15 years of award-winning experience across large-scale events, network television, OTT platforms, and podcasting, he has guided major B2B brands including Intel, Sennheiser, Samsung, and Philips to billions of content interactions. He holds a B.A. in Mass Communications and is recognized for his expertise in podcast hosting, public speaking, marketing, and content strategy.

B2B Weekly

The week in Software & Technology, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Software & Technology: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Software & Technology buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free plan

You just read one Software & Technology expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your solutions engineers, product teams, and customer engineers into the articles, video, and social content Software & Technology buyers are searching for. Create a free workspace and see it with your own people. No credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What you get, free

Your own MarketScale workspace, up to 10 people
One professional video edit a month for qualifying companies
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
$0. No credit card. Company confirmation required.

More Software & Technology Insights

Scoped agents help Copilot search 10,000 SharePoint sites

Scoped agents help Copilot search 10,000 SharePoint sites

Improving Vice President of Technology Michael Slater says his firm runs more than 10,000 SharePoint sites, and generic AI queries across them are unlikely to find the right document. He says scoped agents in Copilot, Google Workspace or Glean can improve retrieval, and that bronze, silver and gold data pipelines with strong quality gates are where much of the work sits. Dataversity reports 84% of infrastructure leaders overran AI budgets.

  • 01A medium sized firm can run more than 10,000 SharePoint sites, and Slater says a generic AI question across that many sites finds the right document only by luck.
  • 02TSG, citing Gartner in a blog post, says 50% of AI projects fail to move beyond the pilot stage, often over scalability, integration and operationalization; Slater puts the hard part in the same place, cascading every source change through bronze, silver and gold.

Sep 23, 2026

Power first: AI data center siting now starts at the substation

Power first: AI data center siting now starts at the substation

Sandeep Prakash, a senior program manager in data center infrastructure planning, said on Amphenol Broadband Solutions’ Wavelengths podcast that new data center site decisions now start with the substation and utility interconnection, with fiber and latency planned alongside. RAND estimates AI data centers could need 68 gigawatts of power by 2027 and cites four to seven year grid queues in Virginia. The IEA reports AI-focused data center electricity consumption surged 50% in 2025.

  • 01AI-focused data center electricity use rose 50% in 2025 while energy per AI task fell by an order of magnitude a year, the IEA says, and both curves belong in the same capacity plan.

Sep 22, 2026

Ping says mobile driver’s licenses can narrow false positives

Ping says mobile driver’s licenses can narrow false positives

Ping Identity product lead Diana Gouard tells Mitek's Fraud in Focus podcast that a bank forcing document verification on every branch visit stopped fraud but burdened tellers and customers. She recommends proving identity once, then carrying trust forward with bindings such as a confirmed email or facial biometric and using cryptographic verification (including mobile driver’s licenses and NFC passport reads) as adoption grows. She also notes NIST’s SP 800-63-4 superseded SP 800-63-3 as of August 1, 2025, and says the new version highlights cryptographic verification.

  • 01A bank that re-verified every visitor's document on every branch visit stopped fraud but pushed failure handling onto tellers; the fix now underway is enrolling a face once and using a tablet glance after that.
  • 02Identity proofing should happen once, with an email or facial biometric bound to that event carrying trust through the account lifecycle until trust is dissolved.

Sep 22, 2026

Explore More Software & Technology Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Software & Technology.

Browse Software & Technology Hub

About the Expert

Ben Thomas
Ben Thomas

Head of Pro AV, MarketScale

MarketScale

Ben Thomas serves as Head of Pro AV at MarketScale. He has experience in analyzing industry trends and providing insights on technology-related topics. His work includes discussions on global trade events and their impact on the technology sector.

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Software & Technology and beyond.

Book a 15-minute demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512