[Influencenews I Hyeseon LEE, Correspondent] The major North American tech conference Collision has canceled due to concerns for COVID-19.

Collision cited the “uncertainty facing a large number of public events around the world due to the progression of COVID-19” as the reason to cancel all in-person events and move online.

The conference already announced the first 100 speakers, stages, and sold tickets for the event. They are currently offering refunds for anyone who had already bought tickets and offering to have tickets automatically transferred to Collision 2021.

“We have been liaising closely with our host city, Toronto, for many months, and have also followed advice from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC),” Collision said of its decision. “Last night, we made the decision in an abundance of caution given the international nature of the tech industry, and the size and scope of the Collision conference. While disappointed, we determined the time to make this decision was now, rather than closer to our June in-person event.”

“While it is regrettable to share that Collision will be unable to physically take place this year, in parallel to making this tough decision, we were prompted to think about ways we can adapt, while still providing a valuable attendee experience,” Collision wrote in its public statement sent to attendees.

The tech conference, which brings in tens of thousands of attendees from across the globe, plans to host the event online, calling it Collision from Home. Ticket holders will be able to attend Collision at Home for free.

“Attendees have networked, connected and chatted using our apps, as well as watched all our talks live online,” Collision stated. “Though the software was originally built to enhance attendees’ offline experience, we believe we are in a good position to develop it to a point where we can host Collision from Home.”

The cancellation of Collision follows a string of other event cancellations in the tech world, including Google and Microsoft.