Reportedly chafing at inconveniences at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Apple has moved its popular World Wide Developers Conference to San Jose for this year's event.
According to the invitation sent to participants and media Thursday morning (which you can see above), the June 5-9 conference will be held at San Jose's McEnery Convention Center, which Wired notes is "within walking distance of the tech giant's new spaceship headquarters."
The conference, which the San Francisco Business Times says attracts around 5000 participants, "boosting hotel rates," was moved because "Moscone Center isn't convenient enough" and "San Jose will provide a more convenient location for the approximately 1,000 Apple employees who usually take part," they report.
No mention was made of the massive Moscone Center expansion effort set to begin in April that will shutter Moscone North and South through the end of August, but it's hard to imagine that holding a conference in the middle of a construction zone is anyone's first choice. An estimated 290,000 visitors to Moscone Center are expected to be lost during this year's renovation work, and hotels foresee the loss of 490,000 room nights over the entire $500 million project, which is set to wrap up in 2018.
Though the event is ostensibly intended for developers (it's even in the name!), the opening press conference is known for its hardware and software announcements. For example, CNet notes, at last years opener "Apple showed off iOS 10 for the iPhone and iPad and debuted a Home app, better Siri integration and better Maps." Of course, one needn't travel for that, as in addition to the exhaustive coverage every Apple move generates online and in print, the opening announcement is always streamed via the Apple Developer website.
Related: Tourism Dip Expected As Moscone Center Set To Close For Expansion