It was bound to happen.
NAB Show has cancelled its planned Las Vegas show that was intended to run from October 9 through October 13 at the Las Vegas Convention Center due to the continued surge of the Delta variant of the coronavirus pandemic that’s been raging over the past few months.
It looked like NAB got almost as close to having its annual show as it did with the planned April 2020 show, which was also cancelled a month before it was supposed to happen. After a number of delays, the NAB Show was set-up in Vegas to coincide in the same location with AES Vegas 2021, held by the Audio Engineering Society, as well as NAB’s Radio Show and Sales and Management Television Exchange. Oddly, AES has yet to cancel its own annual convention.
NAB Show has already redated its next conference, NAB Show 2022, for April 23 – 27, presumably at the same location. It also announced that it will have some virtual options for some of the planned NAB Show content through NAB Amplify, the virtual platform that was set up for the 2020 show.
Here is the statement sent to those who had registered for NAB Show earlier today:
To Our NAB Show Community:
For more than a year we have worked tirelessly to bring our industry together safely in Las Vegas at NAB Show. Unfortunately, the pandemic and surge of the Delta variant has presented unexpected and insurmountable challenges for our global community.
As we have always kept the best interest and safety of the industry as our priority, it has become apparent in the face of these challenges that we can no longer effectively host NAB Show or our co-located events, the Radio Show and Sales and Management Television Exchange, in person.
NAB Show is the premiere destination for the media and entertainment industry and we will not move forward with a show that delivers anything less than the excellence our community has come to expect and deserves from us.
While we are disappointed that we will not be together again in person next month, we look forward to converging at the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27, 2022, to reignite our passion for our business and focus on a bright future ahead.
Stay tuned for details regarding virtual options for accessing select 2021 NAB Show content through NAB Amplify.
