Coronavirus Turning Life Upside Down for Many People Across Many Sectors

Few conferences, agencies and work routines in various business and public sectors were spared disruption Friday, the second full day since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Nearly 2,000 U.S. cases of COVID-19 were confirmed through Friday afternoon, including 41 deaths.

Here are some of the coronavirus-induced cancellations, schedule tweaks and other developments that became known Friday:

• The FTC Premerger Notification Office will implement a temporary e-filing system, the agency announced. DOJ will implement the same procedures, the commission said. All hard copy Hart-Scott-Rodino filings were suspended, and the new system will accept submissions starting Tuesday, the FTC said. Early termination won’t be granted for any filings during this temporary period. The new system will involve uploads to a “secure Accellion file-transfer platform using the same file formats as specified for DVD filings on the Style Sheet for Hart-Scott-Rodino Filings,” the agency said.

• The FTC cancelled Wednesday's workshop on the agency and DOJ's draft vertical merger guidelines, the commission announced. Last week, DOJ held its own version.

• The FCC said its March 26 forum on 5G virtualized radio access networks is "postponed until further notice out of an abundance of caution.” It and other agencies have been making changes due to the coronavirus (see 2003110062).

• Copyright Office users can submit applications and questions online through copyright.gov, the Library of Congress said in its closure announcement. The CO can be contacted at 202-707-3000.

• The FCC said a March 24 meeting of its Technological Advisory Council will be via conference call and available to the public via the internet rather than at the agency. The move was expected (see 2003050069).

• Apple's June Worldwide Developer Conference will be held online, with content available for consumers, media and developers, said Phil Schiller, senior vice president-worldwide marketing. Developers will get "early access" to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, and be able to engage with Apple engineers, said the company. The company didn't respond to questions.

• CEDIA canceled tech summits scheduled for March and April based on national and local public health reports on coronavirus, it said Friday. Tech summits were planned for Woodland Hills, California, March 31; Irvine, California, April 2; Dallas, April 14; and Houston, April 16. The group is working on rescheduling the events and said the remaining tech summits for 2020 are still planned, though the situation is “is very fluid.”

• The Association of National Advertisers canceled its March 25-27 annual media conference in Aventura, Florida, to “maintain the safety and well-being of our conference attendees, members, speakers, sponsors and staff,” it said. Future events “will be reviewed and evaluated on a case-by-case basis and any postponements or cancellations will be announced accordingly,” it said. ANA’s calendar shows six more conferences scheduled between April 13 and July 9.

• The Consortium for School Networking’s conference Monday in Washington was shifted to online-only, the organization emailed. “We have decided to transition CoSN2020 to a virtual experience and reschedule some programming to a later date.” General session speakers will deliver remarks via webinar in March, while the rest of the event will be online starting May 19.

• The Smart Cities Connect Spring Conference & Expo originally set for April 6 in Denver was postponed to the date and location of the fall conference, Nov. 17 in National Harbor, Maryland. The US Ignite Application Summit and Forum on Smart City Small Cells were also moved to the new date and location.