The Mobile World Congress (MWC) has always been one of Barcelona's thermometers. From political conflict to paralysis due to the pandemic, the mobile fair has concentrated the insecurities and fears of a city that has never quite believed it was its headquarters, fearing losing it year after year until they had to promise it would stay forever. And, after a period of comings and goings, now it seems that what's in order is, simply, not to worry about anything. It seems that the congress has just overcome a complicated adolescence and, therefore, it is not surprising that this edition marks 18 years since its arrival in the Catalan capital.
That feeling that the storm has passed was noticeable on Sunday at the Mobile Lunch, the gathering of the local technological ecosystem prior to the inauguration of the fair. The only clouds present were those threatening from the sky, although they ended up deciding to give a truce and even offer a little sun. Institutions and companies celebrated the new edition of the fair with a lunch in Palo Alto by chef Tomás Abellán. The institutional speeches showed the placidity of the moment, without any cross-reproach, despite the proximity of the municipal elections.
And no one worried that the main guest, the CEO of GSMA, John Hoffman, arrived for dessert. Affable as always, Hoffman greeted the guests, even taking selfies with them, and did not have to bother repeating that Mobile is staying. Attendees at the Mobile Lunch finished the feast by eating an ice cream in the shape of a mobile phone, called Icephone and designed by the youngest of the Roca brothers, so as not to forget the origins of a fair that now no longer only talks about phones.
With the taste in their mouths of the novel latest version of the iPhone, the city wakes up this Monday to see how the fair's coming of age suits it, which runs until Thursday at Fira Gran Via. More than 80,000 attendees from 200 countries are expected, with half holding executive positions. In addition, this year there will be a timid return of Chinese attendees, with an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 congress participants. Their low participation is one of the reasons why pre-pandemic figures are still far off, with a record of 109,000 attendees in 2019, but, after all that has happened, it seems the least of evils.
One more sign of this return to normality will be the disappearance of mandatory masks, an element that was still present in the 2022 edition. Despite a rapid widespread forgetting of where we come from, Asian attendees who have come to Fira Gran Via these days to review the latest preparations at the stands were still wearing them. And, after losing the classic MWC accreditations with the pandemic, it will once again be possible to print the so-called networking accreditations, not necessary to access the venue but useful for reading the names of others when greeting them.
With an estimated economic impact of 350 million euros, the Mobile will create some 7,400 temporary jobs. This year, we regret the death last week of a young employee who was participating in the setup preparations for the fair. Sectors such as hotels, restaurants, leisure, and taxi drivers will experience one of the key weeks of the year, especially Monday and Tuesday, the busiest days of the fair. Through the official GSMA agency alone, a total of 18,500 rooms have been reserved. These will be high season days, both in hotels and tourist apartments, which will reach 90% occupancy. The Gremi de Restauració, with 40% of reservations made, expects to approach 2019 figures.
Through the official GSMA agency alone, a total of 18,500 rooms have been reservedIn the 2023 edition of Mobile, more than 2,000 exhibiting companies will participate, spread across eight pavilions of Fira Gran Via, with Ericsson, Deutsche Telekom,Huawei, Intel, Lenovo, Nokia,Qualcomm, Samsung,TelefónicaandZTEwith the main stands. China's Huawei will occupy the most space, increasing its contracted area by 50% compared to last year. Also participating will beAirbus,Agile Content, Atos,Amazon, BT,Cellnex, China Telecom,Dell,Fujitsu, Google, Hewlett Packard
El presidente de la República, Gabriel Boric, se refirió este lunes a la conmemoración de los 50 años del golpe de Estado, que se cumplirá el próximo 11 de septiembre, y a la polémica que se ha generado en torno a la fecha.
En ese contexto, el Mandatario hizo un llamado a “no empatar las responsabilidades” entre quienes “quebrantaron la democracia” y quienes “defendieron la Constitución”.
“No es aceptable, y lo digo con mucha claridad, que se relativice o se justifique el golpe de Estado. No es aceptable que se relativice o se justifique la violación a los derechos humanos”, dijo Boric en un punto de prensa.
Y agregó: “No es aceptable que se relativice o se justifique la dictadura. No es aceptable que se relativice o se justifique la tortura, la desaparición forzada, el exilio, la muerte”.
“Aquí hay una verdad histórica que es innegable, que es que en Chile hubo un golpe de Estado, que en Chile hubo una dictadura, que en Chile hubo violaciones a los derechos humanos”, enfatizó.
El jefe de Estado también se refirió a la propuesta de la oposición de firmar una declaración conjunta en la que se condene el golpe de Estado y se defienda la democracia.
Al respecto, Boric dijo que “estamos disponibles a conversar con todos los sectores políticos para buscar un acuerdo que nos permita mirar el futuro con esperanza, pero sin olvidar el pasado”.
“Pero ese acuerdo tiene que tener como base el respeto irrestricto a los derechos humanos, la condena al golpe de Estado y la defensa de la democracia”, sentenció.
El Mandatario también se refirió a la situación de los derechos humanos en el país, y dijo que “como Estado tenemos el deber de garantizar que nunca más se violen los derechos humanos en Chile”.
“Y eso implica que tenemos que seguir trabajando para que la justicia, la verdad y la reparación lleguen a todas las víctimas”, añadió.
Finalmente, Boric hizo un llamado a la unidad y a la reflexión en torno a la conmemoración de los 50 años del golpe de Estado.
“Invito a todos los chilenos y chilenas a que en este 11 de septiembre, más allá de las legítimas diferencias que podamos tener, nos unamos en torno a la defensa de la democracia, el respeto a los derechos humanos y la condena a la violencia”, concluyó.
Hyperloop TT,Intel, JP Morgan,LG,Maersk, Meta,Microsoft, Orange,Oppo, Qualcomm,Rakuten, Samsung, Segway,Stc, Telefónica,Viettel, VodafoneorXiaomi. The Four Years From Now (4YFN) will bring together more than 550startups and 1,000 investors in hall 8, consolidating its presence in the hall of the industry's big players after leaving Fira Montjuïc.A varied list of exhibitors that shows that for a long time now, mobile phones are not the only, nor the main, protagonists at the show, although they continue to be the symbol with which everyone identifies it. In fact, one of the main speakers will be Martin Cooper, Motorola engineer and inventor of the mobile phone, taking advantage of the fact that this 2023 will mark 50 years since the first call was made from a device that at the time looked like a shoe and weighed a kilo. With 1,000 speakers, also noteworthy are Lauren Kunze, co-founder and CEO of Pandarobots; Oxford University professor, the Spanish Carissa Véliz, and Maersk CEO, Vincent Clerc.
China's Huawei will be the one occupying the most space, increasing its contracted area by 50% compared to last yearThe main novelties that will be seen these days at the L'Hospitalet de Llobregat fairgrounds will be advances in 5G, improved cameras, foldable phones, fast charging solutions, and the popularity of refurbished phones, as well as the irruption of artificial intelligence (AI) with ChatGPT and Kuki AI, and the increasingly established prominence offintech with NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and la tecnologíablockchain, and of mobile commerce within e-commerce.
Not everything will be work and the MWC will consolidate the Beat Barcelona space with an outdoor terrace of almost 3,000 square meters where one can have a drink while listening to the musical offerings programmed by local festivals such as Sónar, Cruïlla, and Mira. It will complement the already traditional offering that the L'Hospitalet de Llobregat City Council organizes in Plaza Europa, with tapas and drinks to the rhythm of popular music that has already warmed up this weekend.
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