After 20 years, Intel has announced that it will no longer be hosting its annual Intel Developer Forum (IDF), which showcases the latest news from the company.
The axing of the event has been made due to the waning appeal of the IDF amid the slowing PC market and a shift in focus for Intel towards other avenues of revenue, such as data centres and AI.
IDF started in 1997 as a small gathering in San Jose but quickly expanded and moved to San Francisco’s Moscone Centre. The Event was scheduled for mid August, according to the Moscone Centre’s calendar, though now this will no longer be happening.
The company released a statement on its website today saying: “Intel has evolved its event portfolio and decided to retire the IDF program moving forward.
“Thank you for nearly 20 great years with the Intel Developer Forum! Intel has a number of resources available on intel.com, including a Resource and Design Center with documentation, software, and tools for designers, engineers, and developers. As always, our customers, partners, and developers should reach out to their Intel representative with questions.”
Another sign that the company was veering away from its IDF conference came last year following the announcement that it would no longer be holding its partner event in China as of 2017.
This year the company has also made the decision to pull support from both the International Science and Engineering Fair and the national Science Talent search.
Agnes Kwan, spokesperson for Intel, said: “Our CEO has been talking about Intel no longer being a PC-centric company, but a data-centric one. We are in areas like AI (artificial intelligence), VR (virtual reality) and IOT (intenet of things). Wherever there is data, you will see us there.”
“We have a new audience that validates our portfolio. We are looking into more and different events to get our message across such as industry conferences.”
The company has said that it will counter this cancellation with more appearances at smaller conferences, such as the recent Manufacturing Day event where they argued that Moore’s Law is still in full effect despite slowing product cycles.
