Berlin, Apr 22 (IANS): Global consumer electronics show IFA Berlin will take an innovative new form this year as it cannot go ahead as usual due to the COVID-19 crisis, organisers of the show have said.

The Berlin government earlier decided to ban all events with more than 5,000 participants until October 24. IFA Berlin usually takes place in September.

The organisers of IFA, gfu and Messe Berlin, on Tuesday said they anticipated this development and for several weeks now have been discussing a range of alternative concepts.

Details of the updated concept for IFA 2020 will be revealed in the near future, the organisers said.

"We expected this development given the constantly evolving pandemic and appreciate that we have now a clear regulatory framework that enables us, our partner Messe Berlin, and our exhibitors to make detailed plans for IFA 2020," Hans-Joachim Kamp, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of gfu Consumer und Home Electronics, said in a statement.

Earlier in the year, another major consumer electronics show the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Following the cancellation of MWC Barcelona, most major tech events also got cancelled for the year due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the world.