If the cancellation of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in 2020 was the first sign of the global paralysis that the pandemic was going to cause, the return of this fair next week will lay the foundations for economic reactivation. This year's edition of the world's most important mobile telephony congress will have nothing to do with previous ones, with much lower participation from exhibitors and attendees, but it will allow special prominence to be given to local industry.
Aware of international mobility restrictions, the GSMA has taken a series of measures to encourage greater participation from congress attendees from all over Spain, such as, for example, a 21-euro ticket for workers from eleven strategic sectors for the Mobile, such as transport, cloud services, education, e-commerce, finance, or the Internet of Things (IoT). Likewise, the decision to unify the MWC and Four Years From Now (4Y4N) under one roof at the Gran Via venue of Fira de Barcelona can be a good opportunity for the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, which will not have to wait until the last day of the exhibition to see what the larger companies are doing.
The MWC 2021 will finally occupy a total area of about 100,000 square meters, distributed in three pavilions of Gran Via. One thing that will not change in the distribution will be the prominence of the areas that the Government and the Generalitat have in the congress. It is here where the vast majority of local companies participating in the exhibition can be found.
Red.es has selected a total of 25 companies to occupy the Spanish Pavilion, less than half of what there was in the 2019 edition. Seven of this year's are Catalan: Agile Content, AEInnova, Masvoz, Netrivals, NPAW, Sensing & Control Systems, and Vintegris. Another company that will also participate in the Spanish Pavilion will be the London fintech PayXpert, based in Barcelona.
For its part, the Department of Digital Policies will have a total of 56 exhibiting companies, about 20 fewer than two years ago. Among them, Fibracat, Ficufy, Parlem Telecom, Sateliot, or Watchman Door stand out. This area will also include this year Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) and the Cos d'Agents Rurals.
Beyond these two areas, other Spanish companies that will have a considerable space at the MWC will be Telefónica, with a 952 square meter stand, and Cellnex, with a 149.5 square meter one. The Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), located next to Cellnex, will also be one of the essential stops during the four days of the fair, with the presentation of the pilots it develops throughout the year. This year, 5G and holograms will be the main themes of this foundation created to leave a legacy of Mobile in the city.
Despite the fact that cancellations of international exhibitors have occurred again, as already happened in the 2020 edition, the participation of multinationals will be repeated one more year. Among them are Accenture, Amazon, Airbus, Avast Software, Citibank, Google, Ookla, HP, Huawei, Orange, Vodafone, Vestel or ZTE. To these must be added those that will not come in person but will attend the congress virtually.
More than 400 startups at 4Y4N
The meeting for startups during the MWC, 4Y4N, will move from the Montjuïc venue to Gran Via and will host more than 400 startups in pavilion 2. Barcelona Activa, Acció, Tech Barcelona ---formerly Barcelona Tech City---, Barcelona Health Hub, Biocat, the Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (ICEC) or ICEX will be some of the entities that will showcase those startups they have helped grow.
The Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), the Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS), TecnoCampus Mataró or Esade will also do so. On the other hand, corporations and institutions such as CaixaBank, Banco Sabadell, Telefónica, Acciona, Lleida.net and the Port de Barcelona will participate in 4Y4N.