Arriana McLymore, Danielle Kaye

NEW YORK, NY (Reuters) – Target Major companies including Corp (NYSES:) and SAS, the computer software business, are leaving the event that is being billed as retail’s largest annual trade fair. The show will take place in New York City’s Javits Center.

Target had five or more executives scheduled to attend. Target announced that it reduced the number of team trips and Amanda Nusz, President of Target Foundation, would host virtual sessions. SAS sponsored eight sessions and announced via Twitter (NYSE 🙂 that they were also taking part virtually.

Omicron COVID-19, a variant of COVID-19, has been making its way through New York. The National Retail Federation’s Big Show (NRF) is the latest convention that pushes forward plans for a potentially super spreader event.

Last week, nearly 70 guests at the Consumer Electronics Show in New York (CES) were positive for the virus. The virus was not confirmed in any of the attendees.

A Twitter user claimed that he cancelled his NRF plans following the COVID-19 contract at the consumer electronics show.

NRF requires conference participants to present proof of vaccinations and wear masks. Along with COVID-19 rapid testing, N95 and KN95 will be given out as masks.

“As we move from pandemic to endemic — a new environment in which we say life can and should go on — there’s going to be friction as we adjust. This year’s show is a step forward, and we believe it’s a necessary and meaningful one,” NRF chief executive Matthew Shay said in a LinkedIn post.

Walmart, Chewy, Best Buy and NewStore (NYSE:) executives are pursuing plans to continue with their participation in the retail tradeshow that will host 15,000 attendees.

Phil Granof, NewStore’s chief marketing officer, said that NewStore would be holding a booth at the event but will cut back on other activities. From 40 employees in the previous year’s conference, NewStore is cancelling networking dinners and having only 20 employees.

Granof stated that larger corporations are less likely to be noticed if they leave. But, not all big companies are cancelling plans. Unity, a gaming platform, said that it had decided to stop operating “after considering the present case numbers as well as vendor and employee comfort levels.”

I cancelled my plans last Wednesday. After 15 years, I missed it twice in succession. [This year]Would have been my seventeenth,” ShiShshridhar (NASDAQ:) global retail chief at Microsoft (NASDAQ:), for Startups stated on Twitter.

NRF released updated COVID protocol protocols in December. This ensured that the conference was allowed to continue with the 25,000 attendees and the 900 exhibitors. NRF stated that there had been 15,000 confirmed participants and 750 vendor attendees as of Jan. 12.

Granof explained that “the irony of it all is that conference attendance decreases, and the conference becomes more safe.”