Out of nowhere, news came yesterday from the Chicago Tribune that Microsoft cancelled the Microsoft Ignite event at Chicago for 2016. Originally, the Ignite event, replacing former events like MEC, LyncCon, MMC and SPC, was said to be held for 4 consecutive years in Chicago, starting in 2015. Even at Ignite 2015, it was confirmed Ignite 2016 was going to take place in Chicago from May 9th to May 13th, 2016.

Without any reason given for this change of plans, although rumors are that either bad feedback on this year’s event or product release schedules could be the reason for changing plans, today Microsoft announced that Ignite 2016 will take place in the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, from September 26th to 30rd, 2016.

This date is perhaps a bit too close for comfort to that other well-known event, the independent IT/DEV Connections which is scheduled for September 19th to 22nd, 2016 in Las Vegas. It remains to be seen if Penton – organizer of the IT/DEV Connections – moves their event or not.

Apart from potential schedule issues, though there are worse things than potentially staying half the month September in the US, it could pressure budgets for organization who want to have people attend both events, without the option to spread those investments.This is of course also true for those that are self-employed.

Other Microsoft events lined-up for 2016 are:

• Build: Spring 2016 in San Francisco
• Convergence: April 4-7, 2016 in New Orleans
• WPC: July 10-14, 2016 in Toronto

You can pre-register for Ignite 2016 here. More information on Ignite is available here.