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ira de Barcelona and GSMA, the company organizing the Mobile World Congress, had reached the agreement on April 14, in the midst of lockdown, and it was the Council of Ministers on June 23 when the Government of Pedro Sánchez reconfirmed it: Fira de Barcelona secures the Mobile until 2024, at least. One year more than expected, according to the current contract. If, on the one hand, the suspension of the February 2020 edition was a very hard blow for Barcelona, the industry, exhibitors, and all economic agents of the city, the reality is that Fira de Barcelona has strengthened its position as host of the main event of the global mobile industry.
Suspending the celebration of the MWC in February was a difficult decision, but also a success for the event itself and for Barcelona. The celebration of the Mobile at the end of February would have been a reputational disaster for the city. For this reason, the city council, GSMA, and Fira opted to suspend it, but the president of Fira de Barcelona, Pau Relat, wanted to retain the continuity of the MWC and leave the matter well closed in April, in the midst of the pandemic lockdown, and when it was time to negotiate advantages with exhibitors to repeat in Barcelona. The current contract expired in 2023.
On Tuesday, June 23, the Council of Ministers approved the royal decree by which the Government extends its contract with the organizer of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the global telecommunications employers' association, GSMA, so that Barcelona continues to be the venue for what is considered the world's largest technology fair until 2024. The one-year extension has been possible thanks to the renewal to compensate for losses due to the 2020 cancellation. The authorization, in the form of a Royal Decree, allows for a transactional resolution of the effects of the suspension of the MWC, which was to be held from February 24 to 27 and was suspended due to fear of the coronavirus.
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On the one hand, GSMA will offer Fira de Barcelona –participated by the General State Administration– a very reduced rate and advantageous conditions for the installation of the official pavilions for the 2021 MWC edition in compensation for the expenses that had to be faced in 2020. In the last edition, the participation of 52 companies was planned in the 800 square meter space rented by the Spanish pavilion.
On the other hand, the Barcelona Mobile World Capital Foundation, which includes public administrations and institutions, will meet its financial commitments with GSMA in 2020, which amount to an annual subsidy of 15 million euros, paid in equal parts by the Ministry of Industry, the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Barcelona City Council. This contribution will be returned if the next edition cannot finally be held in Barcelona in 2021.
5G technology will save in-person fairs and congresses
Let no one be mistaken. The technology that today is assimilated with a virtual world is accelerating its evolution to make social life possible as it has always been understood: beyond screens, clicks, and digital environments. Barcelona is a main destination for business through fairs and congresses. The Mediterranean city that everyone wants to go to for its climate, its gastronomy, its leisure and its culture. For this reason, the Mobile Foundation and 5GBarcelona are exploring the options offered by 5G technology for the development of in-person fairs and congresses, as they have been developed until now.
The crisis unleashed by COVID 19 forces us to rethink the way many things are done, but the objective is to ensure the success of Barcelona as a destination city for its offer of spaces, hotels, gastronomy... and now also technology. Technology at the service of the most human social relationship ever, distributing the nuclei of maximum visitor influx.