Although it now seems very distant, only two years have passed since the Mobile World Congress (MWC) canceled its 2020 edition. The cancellation was experienced in Barcelona as a shock and there were even those who called it exaggerated. It ended up being revealed as the most accurate and intelligent decision, considering everything that came after. On the day of the cancellation, the CEO of GSMA, John Hoffman, visibly affected, assured that, despite the difficult times that were to come, the sun would shine again. A more animated Hoffman paraphrased himself two years later, aware that the worst is over. "Tomorrow the sun will shine again," he said in his speech at the Mobile Lunch, the informal gathering of the city's technological ecosystem that is held every year a day before the congress begins. The chosen setting this time was the Convent dels Ángels, in the MACBA, and more than 200 entrepreneurs, businessmen and politicians participated in Sunday's meeting.
Hoffman has reasons to be so sure, with a not inconsiderable forecast of company participation and congress attendance. Still far from pre-pandemic figures, it is expected to comfortably exceed the numbers achieved in the summer edition of 2021, which served to timidly reactivate the fair sector in the city and test the new health protocols that had to allow massive events to be held with the pandemic still present. For this MWC, which runs from this Monday to Thursday, the GSMA expects between 40,000 and 60,000 attendees, leaning more towards 60,000 than 40,000. The exhibition will not occupy all the pavilions of the Gran Via fairgrounds as it did before, but it will keep seven out of eight, guaranteeing enough space to maintain distances and accommodate more than 1,500 exhibitors and about thirty country pavilions. Among the latter, Russia's will not be found, after the GSMA canceled its participation as a condemnation of the attack it has launched against Ukraine.
Further evidence that Mobile is already recovering from the toughest moments of the pandemic is shown by the decision not to dedicate a pavilion to mass antigen testing of all congress attendees as was done last summer. Attendees will only have to prove that they are vaccinated or have recently had covid. Those who are not vaccinated will have to present a negative antigen test.
For this MWC, the attendance of up to 60,000 congress attendees and the participation of 1,500 exhibitors is expected.This time, there has also not been the constant trickle of cancellations from attending companies that led to its annulment in 2020 and weakened last year's edition. The main telecommunications operators and technology companies will participate in this year's edition. Some of them, such asTelefónica,Vodafone, OrangeandHuawei, they already went through the Mobile Lunch to start the contacts that will allow closing deals throughout the week and end the congress with a good balance.Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom,Google,Nokia, Oppo, Qualcomm Technologies, Samsung, SK Telecom, ZTE,Xiaomi, Honor,LGandCiscoalso participate in Mobile 2022, with Lenovo being the most notable absence.
Along with the large multinationals will be the city's emerging companies. The Four Years From Now (4YFN) will be held for the second time at the Gran Via exhibition center, allowing startups to be close to potential investors. GSMA estimates an investment potential of 4,000 million euros for them. More than 600 emerging companies will participate in this year's edition. Unlike last year, when 4YFN occupied one of the three pavilions that the congress had and rubbed shoulders with the largest companies, this time the startups will be in pavilion 6, away from the epicenter of the fair.
The explosion of connectivity in which the entire economy, and society, is immersed will be the motto of MWC 2022. 5G will once again be one of the great protagonists of the fair, which will also feature the first appearances of 6G. Other Mobile regulars such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), fintech or the cloud will also have a prominent presence in the novelties that will be presented and the talks that will be heard. The recently popularized metaverse will be one of the new additions to the fair's agenda. The CEO of the auction company Sotheby's, Charles Stewart; the CEO of the digital effects company Weta Digital, Prem Akkaraju; the head of Metaverse at Futures Intelligence Group, Cathy Hackl, or the CEO of Amazon Web Services, Adam Selipsky, will be some of the most prominent speakers at the fair. Parity is still far from being achieved among MWC speakers, with women representing only 35% of the total.
The MWC, a turning point for the city
The reactivation that Mobile expects, which foresees an economic impact of 240 million euros and the creation of 6,700 temporary jobs, is also envisioned by Fira de Barcelona. After two years completely paralyzed, its general director, Constantí Serrallonga, was optimistic one day before its start. "We turn the page and slam the door on the pandemic once and for all. Mobile opens a new stage," he defended. The MWC will be the first of many more congresses that will return to Barcelona with force, without reduced editions, with the forecast of hosting a total of 150 fairs and professional meetings in the city in the coming years, a figure that may increase with the 90 candidacies in which the city is immersed.
The city's hoteliers are on the same page. The director of the Gremi d'Hotels, Manel Casals, maintains that Mobile will be "an important turning point" for business tourism, without having yet noticed an impact from the war in Ukraine. "We will be far from a normal Mobile but it will be a success coming from where we come from," he remarks. The sector has been waiting for the fair since last summer, when tourists did not quite arrive in the city and the congress emerged as the hope to overcome the slump.
Constantí Serrallonga (Fira de Barcelona): "We turn the page and slam the door on the pandemic once and for all. Mobile opens a new stage"The hoteliers' forecastshave ended up confirming. With 10,000 rooms booked for the congress, Casals indicates that an occupancy of between 60 and 65% is expected.This has also allowed almost 80% of Barcelona's hotels to reopen ---some 360 establishments---.Many of them had been closed since the arrival of covid and some had reopened last year but the omicron variant closed them again. The remaining 20% of hotels are expected to gradually return to activity by summer, in which Casals emphasizes that the figures of 2019, a record year for the sector, are not expected to be reached, but rather to get closer.
Taxi drivers, along with restaurants and leisure, are another sector directly affected by the celebration of the MWC. From Élite Taxi, the most representative association in Barcelona and its metropolitan area, they also eagerly await the return of the MWC. Its spokesperson, Olivier Contel, indicates that they expect activity, still very slow, to grow between 20 and 25% on the main days of the show ---Sunday, Monday and Tuesday--- and 15% on the rest of the days. "We will notice some joy but there will be no shortage of free taxis," he assures.
Barcelona warms up
The Mobile Lunch was not the only preview held this weekend to prepare for the MWC. Companies like Huawei and Vodafone took advantage of Sunday to present some of the novelties they will unveil this week. Likewise, since Friday, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat hosts a gastronomic fair at the gates of the Gran Via exhibition center. Open to everyone, not just congress attendees, those attending Meet & Eat have already been able to enjoy tapas, drinks and live music outdoors in Plaza Europa, as well as learn about the projects the city is developing to reduce the digital divide, such as the L'H 6.0 initiative.
Since Friday, L'Hospitalet hosts a gastronomic fair at the gates of the Gran Via exhibition centerThis formula, which the Hospitalet council has successfully organized for years, and which also serves to bring the fair closer to its citizens, will be replicated by its Barcelona counterpart inside the fair.Beat Barcelona is the new proposal from the Barcelona City Council for the MWC.Specifically, it will consist of 1,500 square meters outdoors, with capacity for 600 people, where conferences will be organized during the day and DJ sessions in the late afternoon. Sónar and Cruïlla will be in charge of the musical programming.
Another place in the city where movement was also noticed this weekend was Barcelona Airport, which foresees 6,145 takeoffs and landings during these days and will see some airlines resume connections lost due to the pandemic. The train is also another way for congress attendees to arrive in the city, with about 20,000 trips planned by Renfe.