Coronavirus sees Yorkshire Property Awards and Leeds Digital Festival postponed

The property awards, organised by Variety; the Children’s Charity, are a huge fixture in the region’s business calendar and raises tens of thousands of pounds for the work the charity does around Yorkshire.

The awards, at Harrogate’s Rudding Park Hotel, will now take place on October 1 at the same venue. All tickets purchased for the sold out event will now transfer to the new date.

In a short update, Variety said: "Your safety and importance is of utmost importance and as such this is a preventative measure in line with the recommendations currently provided.

"In these challenging times we have a vital role to play in supporting vulnerable children across the region."

Meanwhile the organisers of the Leeds Digital Festival have taken the decision to split this year’s event between the spring and autumn in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

All physical events would be delayed until autumn 2020, with virtual events able to go ahead as planned. A date for the physical events will be announced at a later date.

Stuart Clarke, the Festival Director said: “We were overwhelmed as ever by the desire of the Leeds tech community to come together to celebrate and collaborate and with over 240 events already submitted it promised to be the most interesting and varied Festival to date.

“In light of the rapidly changing information and with safety very much at the forefront of our thinking the decision has been taken to delay the physical events for now. However, we’re a digital festival and we still need to support each other, still need to learn, still need to show off the amazing people, companies and innovation we have in the city and the wider region. We’re still planning to go ahead with the spring Festival, but will only host online events on the Festival website.”

A significant number of the submitted events for this year’s festival were already virtual and organisers are contacting those hosting proposed physical gatherings to see if many more could be streamed.