NRF Expo Canceled, First Trade Show in 2021 to Fall to COVID

COVID-19 forced the National Retail Federation to cancel its Jan. 17-19 NRF 2021 expo and conference as a physical show at New York’s Javits Convention Center, said the association Thursday. It’s the first known major trade show in 2021 to fall to the pandemic. NRF 2021 was scheduled to open as an in-person show about a week after CES 2021 closes Jan. 9. NRF will move the physical show to June 6-8, and host a virtual event over five days in January. The online event and the physical show in June will be themed “Forward Together,” said NRF. “Given the understandable concerns among all of our stakeholders regarding the availability and effectiveness of treatments or a vaccine for the coronavirus, we have concluded it is not feasible to maintain our original schedule of an in-person January 2021 trade show,” said NRF CEO Matthew Shay. Another complication is the use of Javits as a 2,500-bed COVID-19 Army field hospital. Those circumstances forced the cancellation last month of the Oct. 21-22 NAB Show New York as a physical event (see 2006090058)