Chinese congressmen were the ones who raised Mobile World Congress (MWC) to attendance levels above 100,000 attendees before covid appeared. In turn, the absence of Asian visitors during the hard years of the pandemic best exemplified the difficulties of celebrating global events at that time. Now, the growing pre-registration of Chinese professionals for the next edition is the definitive sign that Barcelona will once again be during the last week of February the meeting point of the sector between Americans, Asians and Europeans.
The problems of the Chinese economy do not seem to be a problem. On the contrary “They must come here precisely in search of opportunities, Mobile is the place to do business”, emphasized Mats Granryd, the general director of the GSMA, during the presentation of the congress, held yesterday at the old Estrella Damm factory . There, the answers to questions from journalists and headlines were usually handled by Mobile’s most visible face, John Hoffman, who was not there for personal reasons for the first time since the congress landed in Barcelona in 2006.
The Asian power will be evident with the space occupied by Huawei, the exhibitor with the most square meters contracted for another year. The company will occupy practically an entire pavilion of the eight that will fill the Mobile in the Gran Via area of ??the Fira de Barcelona in l’Hospitalet. With 2,400 exhibiting companies, the congress hangs the “Complete” poster again this year and faces the challenge of fitting and adapting the new pieces it wants to incorporate in a limited space until the new pavilion planned for 2026 is built .
The return of Asians leads congress officials to anticipate around 95,000 attendees at the twentieth edition of the congress, which will take place from February 26 to 29. The projected number is above last year’s 88,500 but still below the almost 110,000 reached in 2019. The truth is that the organizers have no aspirations to recover the numbers in which it was really uncomfortable to move around crowded corridors that even generated complaints about having to queue to eat a sandwich or go to the toilet.
The organization defends that it prefers to win in quality rather than in quantity. It also focuses on winning in thematic diversity. Around half of registered attendees do not belong to the mobile phone sector. Consultancies, industrial companies, mobility, health, finance, entertainment… “It’s much more than mobiles, it’s the digital transformation of a multitude of sectors”, summed up Granryd. This is why the list of big brands attending the show includes Telefónica and Google as well as the aircraft manufacturer Airbus.
In this sense, the congress organizers made a strategic name change and renamed the Mobile, which is how it is popularly known in Barcelona. They went on to call it MWC dryly, without responding to any specific concept behind the acronym. In this way, the entire ecosystem around technology is accommodated in the broadest possible sense. According to the results, it seems to be giving them the results they were looking for, even if everything looks simpler from the outside.
Artificial intelligence, an omnipresent topic in the sector in recent months, will have a predominant place in the show in a transversal way, as it once had the failed metaverse or the consolidated 5G technology. The futuristic part of science fiction this year will be in charge of a flying car prototype.
The most realistic future trends can be found in 4 Years From Now (4YFN). In this edition, the salon for emerging companies and entrepreneurs will celebrate its tenth anniversary fully integrated into the heart of Mobile, where it moved experimentally in 2021, when there was plenty of space on all sides due to the absence of international congressmen. He took advantage of the opportunity and has established himself there, earning his place after years of constant growth in Montjuïc.
If at the 4YFN the protagonists are the companies eager to grow, in a new space created, the Talent Arena, the ones who take the floor are the digital professionals in their personal capacity. The new space will be located in pavilion 3, one of the privileged places, where the big phone manufacturers and operators are. The germ of Mobile will coexist with this new area, the main novelty of the 2024 edition. Its contents and dynamism are in charge of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, ??the foundation created twelve years ago so that the four-day congress would leave a legacy to the city the rest of the year. It was his 4YFN, which years later, when it had already become a success, was taken over by the GSMA.
The event will not be alien to the context in which it is held. Towards the end of February, it will probably have already entered a state of emergency due to the drought and congressmen will receive prior information on the issue in which they will be urged to consume water responsibly during their stay in Catalonia . These are the same messages that a few years ago reached the phones of all attendees and warned of public transport strikes or political protests that endangered the peaceful celebration of the congress.
Fira de Barcelona will also take measures in this regard. These days they are reviewing all the installations to avoid any minimal loss of water in the toilets. The duration of the water that comes out of the automatic pulsation taps will also be reduced and the fountains that supplied free water to thirsty congressmen will be stored in the warehouse. There will also be no water in the ornamental fountain that is the postcard backdrop posted on social media by many congressmen when they arrive.
Related to water, but also in a completely dry environment, there will be a hydrogen boat of those that will be used to support the America’s Cup and an immersive experience about the competition that will be held at the end of the summer on the Barcelona coast.
