The King, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, gave the starting signal this Monday to a MWC that is celebrating its 18th anniversary in Barcelona and which is presented with figures from the pre-pandemic stage and with the artificial intelligence as the main protagonist.
After last night’s welcome dinner, Felipe VI, Sánchez and Aragonés once again led the delegation to the inauguration of the largest mobile technology fair in the world at the Fira de Barcelona on Gran Via de l’Hospitalet, to which This year the president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, has joined.
In its coming of age, the popularly known as Mobile has recovered a good part of the Asian congressmen, lost during the years of the covid-19 crisis, reaching 2,400 exhibitors.
Although the GSMA, the association of mobile telephone operators that organizes the congress, noted in the presentation of the event that some 95,000 attendees were expected, in recent days, its CEO, John Hoffman, has slipped that it could be exceeded again the bar of one hundred thousand visitors from more than 200 countries – the record is 109,000 attendees in 2019.
At the protocol level, the scene of other years has been repeated and Aragonés has shied away from participating in the reception of the king at the fair, as has his vice president, Laura Vilagrà, and the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, from Junts.
It was inside the pavilion when the head of the Government cordially greeted the monarch with the witness cameras and joined the official photo with Sánchez before participating in a meeting to find out news about the congress.
After the conference, the king, Sánchez and Aragonés have separated and each one has developed their own agenda, as they did last year.
With the ministers Jordi Hereu and José Luis Escrivà, the king has started his tour by the expositor of the city of Barcelona accompanied by its mayor, the socialist Jaume Collboni, and has continued by that of Spain and GSMA.
In the employer’s case, he has boarded a prototype of a state-of-the-art electric car that is being designed by a European consortium, formed among other companies by Renault and Orange.
“It’s scary,” the king commented casually when checking the technological features it has and those it intends to install, which is why it is not yet for sale on the market.
However, Don Felipe has not hidden his desire to one day “buy” the vehicle, as the representative of the consortium who gave him the explanations while occupying the pilot’s seat told journalists.
In this same space and together with the former Minister of Science and Innovation and the first Spanish astronaut to travel to space, Pedro Duque, the king has witnessed the 5G technology implemented by the European Space Agency.
The head of state continued his route through the Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone exhibitors to learn about some of the new features that these operators present at the fair, especially focused on artificial intelligence.
At Telefónica, you have seen the model of a production chain for corporate keychains directed by two robots that seeks to automate the manufacturing process and make it more sustainable and quality.
He has also observed a demonstration of two people playing dodgeball equipped with technological glasses and a vest whose objective is to achieve virtual sensations.
As in recent editions, Don Felipe had a lunch with executives from GSMA and technology companies at the Albéniz Palace, the residence of the royal family in Barcelona.
In parallel, Pedro Sánchez has held meetings with managers from Meta, Ericsson and Nokia before traveling to Paris to attend the aid conference for Ukraine.
