Postponed: Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Computer Show

Wakefield RISC OS Computer Club regrets to announce that, in the light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the 25th Wakefield Acorn & RISC OS Computer Show will not go ahead on the 18th April 2020, and will have to be postponed. We will endeavour to contact all exhibitors directly in the coming days, and further announcements regarding the event will be made in due course, once the situation becomes clearer.

Unfortunate, but the right decision given the circumstances. I hope the Club doesn’t end up significantly out of pocket because of this, and that it can be rearranged once life returns to “normal” (for differing values of “normal”!).

I think this is a wise decision — and unfortunately an inevitable one. The only problem with rearranging is that it might well need to be in the autumn when there is another RISC OS show. I’ve really no idea how many visitors go to multiple shows.

I hope that the club doesn’t suffer any significant losses as a result, and that everybody keeps as safe as they can.

Do we know what the hotel’s policy is with regard to rooms already booked? The Giles at Feltham has said pre-booked rooms can be deferred to a later date, for example. What would be helpful is a knowledge of the new date so that such rooms can be postponed to a specific date.

I suspect that the new date won’t be known until the virus has made its intentions more clear, as it were.

Do we know what the hotel’s policy is with regard to rooms already booked? The Giles at Feltham has said pre-booked rooms can be deferred to a later date, for example.

Not yet, but we hope to be talking to the hotel today and will pass on whatever information we can get.

Unfortunately we’re all a bit busy; quite apart from the day job, this was only one of two large events that I was involved with the postponement of yesterday evening, and three smaller ones went completely on Monday evening. The priority at present is to let people know; the fine details could take some time to clear up.

What would be helpful is a knowledge of the new date so that such rooms can be postponed to a specific date.

Unfortunately, I very much doubt that we will know that for some time; as soon as WROCC know, we’ll let other RISC OS users know.

Quite aside from the problems of rescheduling the event into another part of the RISC OS year and around other groups’ events, not to mention around festive bookings at the venue, we have no idea how the current situation with COVID-19 is likely to unfold. With my other postponed event’s hat on, all we know is that the situation going forward will be reviewed at the end of April, and that events/gatherings might be allowed to resume in the venue after that point – or they might not, if things are still problematic.

Whilst Cedar Court probably don’t have that kind of policy in place, there’s no point arranging another date this week only to have to postpone that one too.

all we know is that the situation going forward will be reviewed at the end of April,

The current plan for my place of work¹ is to review the working from home arrangements regularly but plan for three months.

¹ Guidance is coming from Whitehall

Many thanks for the information. I have rung the hotel and they have refunded my room.