The Mobile World Congress (MWC) comes of age in Barcelona, having become much more than the main international exhibition for mobile phones. With the omnipresence of digital technologies in almost every sphere of life, the fair has become a catalyst for many other industries such as mobility, health, commerce, and entertainment. Increasingly, its attendees are not looking for the latest smartphone innovations; instead, robots and virtual reality glasses have become the main attractions.
That said, it's not surprising that last year 56% of congress attendees worked in industries adjacent to telecommunications. Even Nokia, one of the main exhibitors at MWC, took the opportunity to present its new brand, leaving behind its image as a phone manufacturer. This year, HMD, now the manufacturer of Nokia phones, will present its new models.
Before an increasingly varied audience, the MWC opens its doors from this Monday until Thursday, occupying every corner of the L'Hospitalet de Llobregat fairgrounds. The exhibition expects to exceed 95,000 attendees, above the 88,500 of a year ago, but still far from pre-pandemic figures, which were above 100,000 congress attendees since 2016. The gradual return of Asian attendees will boost this year's growth, with the participation for the first time of exhibitors such as China Telecom and Japan's KDDI. Huawei will repeat for another edition with the stand that will occupy the most space in the entire fair. A trend that has also occurred at the other major exhibition that kicks off the fair calendar in Barcelona, the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), which saw Chinese attendees grow the most this year.
This acceleration of trade fair activity with a new edition of the MWC has been detected at the main entry point for congress attendees, Barcelona Airport. The infrastructure has surpassed 2019 activity levels, with 2% more seats offered by airlines, reaching up to 1.5 million, and 3% more scheduled flights, with over 8,400. Days of maximum activity also for hotels and taxis, as well as for bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, the latter with an estimated turnover of 105 million euros according to calculations by the employers' association Fecasarm, still 8% below pre-pandemic levels. On average, each congress attendee is expected to spend 300 euros on food and leisure, especially in establishments in the city center.
More than 1,100 international experts will gather at MWC 2024, with artificial intelligence (AI) as the main protagonist. The presentations will be complemented by more than 2,400 exhibitors. In addition to China's Huawei, some of the main companies participating in Mobile will be Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Dell Technologies, Ericsson, Honor, Intel, Kyndryl, LG, Lenovo, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Telefónica, T-Systems, Vodafone, Xiaomi, and ZTE. Major corporations beyond the world of telcos such as Google, IBM, Netflix, Rakuten, and TikTok will also participate. The economic impact of the event is expected to be greater than that recorded a year ago, when it was 461 million euros, although the organization has not wanted to specify the figure as it had done in previous editions.
A Mobile in drought
As in every edition, MWC acts as a thermometer for Barcelona. After years in which concerns were taken by political conflict and paralysis due to the pandemic, this year's celebration will coincide with the alarming drought the city is experiencing. ISE was the first test, with Fira de Barcelona and the organizers of the audiovisual fair implementing measures to reduce consumption and raise awareness among attendees, although few took notice.
The acid test will come this week, with the arrival of a larger volume of attendees. The GSMA states that it has informed attendees by email about the emergency situation, a message it will repeat throughout the exhibition grounds during the days of the congress. Hotels, one of the main economic agents in the spotlight with this crisis, have also communicated the recurring campaigns they carry out with recommendations to reduce water consumption.
Ten years of 4YFN
Year after year, one of the main assets of the MWC celebration in Barcelona is the Four Years From Now (4YFN), the exhibition dedicated to startups. Previously located at the Montjuïc exhibition center, the Mobile's little brother will celebrate its tenth anniversary having connected more than 9,200 entrepreneurs with 5,400 investors, with the participation of 4,500 exhibitors and 180,000 attendees.
Given the success that 4YFN has been achieving since its arrival at the L'Hospitalet de Llobregat facilities four editions ago, this year the event will grow in space and will occupy two pavilions, 8.0 and 8.1. It will do so after last year there was no room to move and it was even impossible to advance in the corridors of the floor they occupied in pavilion 8.
The Mobile's little brother will celebrate its tenth anniversary having connected more than 9,200 entrepreneurs with 5,400 investorsMore than 800 exhibitors, 350 speakers, and 1,000 investors will participate in this edition of 4YFN, with a special focus on sectors such as green technology, digital health, thefintechand academic innovation. In fact, for the first time, there will be a space dedicated to universities and the technological transfer they promote through companies known asspin-off.
The star guest will be former NBA player Pau Gasol, now immersed in the business world through his investment vehicle Gasol16 Ventures. Also participating will be the CEOs of local unicorns Factorial and TravelPerk, Jordi Romero and Avi Meir, respectively. As every year, the best startup of the year will be chosen, an award for which Bitsensing, Mica AI Medical, Whispp, and Barcelona-based Ocean Econstructures and Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, the latter a spin-off of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), will compete.
Kick-off
During the MWC inaugural dinner held this Sunday at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC), King Felipe VI called for preserving security and individual rights despite technological advances and the impact of artificial intelligence. In a speech that combined Catalan, Castilian, and English and in which he expressed his condolences and support to the victims of the Valencia fire, he pointed to digital transformation "as the challenge that must be faced from all areas of the economy and government." The monarch highlighted Barcelona's capacity to become the "international center for mobile technologies" and noted that this year's edition data supports this leadership: "It is not easy to outdo oneself every year. And you are achieving it," he assessed, reports ACN.
In his turn to speak, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced that his executive will promote the creation of a "large foundational artificial intelligence language model specifically trained in Spanish and co-official languages." Sánchez detailed that the project will be carried out in collaboration with the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE), and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to create an "open and transparent" AI code.
The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, recalled that Catalonia is one of the areas in Europe that attracts the most technological investments, with close to 6,500 million euros of capital invested in the last four years, and that it has become the main hub for startups in Southern Europe. "We are a reference point for digital talent thanks, in large part, to the excellence of our university and research system," he indicated. "If we are here today, it is partly due to the history of achievements that we are building together with the Mobile World Congress since 2006," said the head of the Catalan executive, who affirmed that it is a history that has "a great future ahead."
Finally, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, assured that technological advances are causing a "profound paradigm shift" and warned that "there will be no digital transformation without social progress." Thus, he advocated for technological humanism, which "does not oppose progress, but rather is the best guarantee for this progress to advance for the benefit of people and the planet." The mayor also called for protecting children from the impact of social media and screens: "It is the most urgent thing," he said.
"It is in our hands to turn technology into solutions for needs that all humans have wherever we live," he added, after praising the city's "alliance" with the MWC as an example of collaboration to "imagine a more accessible, more interconnected world with more human technology." "It is a commitment to make Barcelona the capital of technological justice, human, feminist, inclusive, and close technology," he highlighted.