Fears over coronavirus prompt Shopify to cancel annual conference in Toronto

Shopify Inc. says the recent outbreak of a novel form of coronavirus has prompted it to cancel its annual conference.

The Ottawa-based e-commerce giant says the Unite conference was set to take place in Toronto on May 7, but evolving public health concerns have derailed those plans.

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The company says in a statement to The Canadian Press that it believes cancelling the conference is the best option to make sure no one’s health and safety is at risk.

Shopify is in the process of contacting people who had planned to attend, issuing refunds on tickets and working out how to share the product and service announcements it planned to use the conference for.

Shopify says more than 1,000 people from across the globe attended the conference in its last two years, where they were first to learn about the company’s plans for a U.S. fulfilment network and its first brick-and-mortar location in California.

The new form of the coronavirus has spread to a handful of Canadians and tens of thousands more around the globe.