A Mobile like the old ones exceeds expectations and attracts 88,500 attendees

If last year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) meant the recovery of the fair, this year the absolute normality in the corridors of Fira Gran Via has been confirmed, what in the pandemic was defined as the old normality. Good or bad, one of the indicators of the 2023 edition has been the queues at the congress, whether in front of the main technological attractions or in the cloakroom and restaurants. The frantic pace typical of trade shows has allowed a leap in time, as if the last three years had not existed and no one remembers the preventive and traumatic cancellation of the 2020 edition.

"MWC Barcelona is back in full form," says GSMA CEO John Hoffman, "it has exceeded our hopes and expectations." The figures prove it, with an attendance of 88,500 attendees from more than 200 countries, compared to the 80,000 expected before the congress began. There have even been exhibitors, Hoffman continues, who have surpassed the 2019 figures. With this final result, the GSMA will update upwards the economic impact it had announced for this edition, which had been set at 350 million euros and the creation of 7,400 jobs. "We are starting the year very strong. We are on the right track," adds the general director of Fira de Barcelona, Constantí Serrallonga, who pointed out that the final number of participants was "really unexpected" a few months ago.

The improvement in results compared to 2022, when more than 60,000 congress attendees came, is mainly based on the return of Asian congress attendees. According to initial calculations, 25% of the audience was expected to be Asian, with between 4,000 and 5,000 coming from China, the most important market and the one that has been most difficult to recover.

Although still far from the record of 109,000 attendees in 2019, the organization is working to promote quality over quantity, by attracting an increasing proportion of congress attendees with decision-making capacity. This year, more than half of the congress attendees who visited the Mobile held executive positions and 21% were the top representatives of the participating companies. A record attendance was even registered in the ministerial program, with the arrival of 196 delegations from 150 countries. One of the pending issues continues to be female participation in the congress, with only 26% of attendees in this edition.

A Mobile like the old ones, where mobiles, their original protagonists, have less and less weight, as highlighted by the GSMA, pointing out that 56% of attendees have been from industries adjacent to telecommunications. Mobility and health are some of the sectors that are gaining space in a congress where robots, virtual reality glasses, and various gadgets become the main attractions. As a sign of this change of direction, Nokia, one of the ten main exhibitors at MWC, has taken advantage of the fair to present a new brand with which it wants to disassociate its image as a phone manufacturer.

The fair's hustle and bustle was noticeable in every corner of the MWC, with floods of congress attendees in all pavilions, validating the expansion of the L'Hospitalet de Llobregat venue. Few congress attendees will have realized that the works have already begun, with the old Porcelanosa store showing an increasingly meager skeleton as its demolition progresses. "It's no longer a plan, the works are underway," remarked the general director of Fira de Barcelona. The works are expected to finish in 2026, so Serrallonga points out that the available space will have to be optimized until the new annex building is ready: "We will have to adapt."

Where the lack of space was most noticeable was in the 4 Years From Now (4YFN), the event dedicated to entrepreneurs. With fewer square meters compared to the previous edition, there were times when there was no room to move and it was even impossible to advance through the corridors of pavilion 8. Given the success that 4YFN has been achieving since its arrival at Fira Gran Via three editions ago, the organizers plan to expand its surface area next year, with a new pavilion dedicated to health startups.