Intel Cancels Intel Developer Forum Conference Including Upcoming IDF17

Over the past two decades, Intel held its Intel Developer Forum technical conference in San Francisco annually. It was initially held in San Jose near their Santa Clara base back in 1997 when it was still small but has moved to the larger Moscone Center in downtown San Francisco with mirror events in China and Taiwan. All of those have now been cancelled, including the upcoming IDF17 scheduled for August which is going to be reformatted, leaving only the following statement on the Intel Developer Forum website:

“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.”

IDF was an opportunity for Intel’s engineers to conduct deep-dive Q and A sessions, interface with other engineers and media to discuss Intel technologies but that is no more. Intel has been moving away from supporting traditional tech media, removing their long time PR representatives and into more “influencer”salesmen focused approached and having larger presence in more gamer events such as PAX and Gamescom. In 2015, Intel has also decided to end their long-term support for the Science Talent Search sponsorship to the dismay of many in the STEM field. Intel did not disclose any reason why, but their continued support of Maker Faire and MakerCon suggests that they are definitely shifting their focus into events that have a more immediate positive PR return, rather than a long term investment or relationship.

Intel as a brand is trying to shape themselves as a lifestyle company, with many attempts at diversifying with wearables, IoT, storage, automotive, etc. coupled with the dwindling developments in the PC segment, so splitting their message across several different areas makes the most sense for them at this point in time.