Due to the existing travel restrictions and the currently unclear Covid-19 situation, Messe München has decided to postpone the Laser World of Photonics by ten months. One of the main reasons for this is the high proportion of international exhibitors and visitors, which is more than half of the total number of participants and has a high proportion of participants from other continents.

Under the current conditions, the trade fair in June could not live up to its claim to be the world's leading trade fair and offer the on-site platform for innovations and products with intensive technical discussions that is valued by the industry.

While the trade fair has a new date, the scientific congress will take place on the planned date from June 20 to 24, 2021 as an online event. At the virtual World of Photonics Congress there will be five conferences with more than 40 sub-topics. The range of topics ranges from basic research to applied sciences, from laser science, photonics and quantum optics, optical metrology, digital optical technologies and optics in biomedicine to the use of lasers in manufacturing.