A3 Cancels Vision Show Amid Growing Coronavirus Uncertainty

Due to continued uncertainty surrounding the growing coronavirus outbreak, the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the parent organization of AIA, has made the decision to cancel The Vision Show and Conference on June 9-11, 2020, in Boston.

A3 stated via press release that although the situation was constantly changing, it felt it was important to reach a determination early to provide clarity to exhibitors and attendees. The decision was made after consulting with the AIA Vision Show Committee, which is made up of exhibitors and the association boards of directors.

“We didn’t make this decision lightly, but the safety of our visitors and exhibitors is our top priority. Out of an abundance of caution, we felt it best to cancel now,” said Jeff Burnstein, the president of A3. “It’s unfortunate because The Vision Show has grown into one of the marquee events of the vision industry. The Vision Show will be back — and it will be stronger than ever.”

In lieu of The Vision Show, A3 is planning an online Vision Conference later this year, providing the latest information on new vision technology, advances in integration solutions, and practical use cases that can be implemented immediately.

Two other A3 events, the Autonomous Mobile Robot Conference and the International Collaborative Robot Conference, which were to be co-located at The Vision Show, are postponed until fall 2020.

Other conferences recently affected include LASER World of Photonics China in Shanghai, scheduled for March 18 and now postponed until July 3-5; Photonics Europe in Strasbourg, France, scheduled for March 29-April 2, now postponed until tentatively July; Machine Vision Conference in Milton Keynes, England, scheduled for May 14 and now canceled but still making several educational sessions available online to conference registrants; and Embedded Vision Summit in Santa Clara, Calif., scheduled for May 18-21 and now postponed until October 2020.