The 2023 edition of the MWC, the largest congress of mobile technologies in the world with figures higher than those forecast at the beginning of the event. The organizing association of the event claims to have surpassed pre-pandemic figures, managing to gather more than 88,500 people at the event. Besides, generates an impact of more than 350 millionaccording to the GSMA.
These figures are already close to those registered on dates prior to the outbreak of the pandemic and the crisis caused by covid-19, although they are far from the more than 100,000 people gathered in the halls of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. They are therefore located between those of 2014 (86,000 participants) and 2015 (94,000).
The salon is still installed in the collective imagination under the name of Mobile, despite the fact that mobile phones are increasingly taking over space and 56% of attendees in this edition are linked to technologies from other related industries. More than 2,400 have gathered in Barcelona exhibiting companies and the organizers point out that more than half of the congressmen have been executive positions.
Exceeded expectations
The MWC will be held in Barcelona again next year between February 26 and 29. “MWC Barcelona is back in full force. I am continually amazed and humbled by the sense of community, innovation, excitement and business generation,” GSMA CEO John Hoffman said in a statement.
The visible face of the MWC has added: “Anecdotally, exhibitors and partners report that their expectations have been exceeded and, in some cases, have exceeded those of 2019.” According to the balance of the GSMA, among the attendees there have been 202 nationalities, while the papers have exceeded a thousand. Accredited journalists have exceeded 2,400.
The “ministerial program” of this edition has been the largest of all those held, with 196 delegations from more than 150 countries, some 70 ministers and more than a hundred heads of regulatory authorities. The initial forecasts were to reach 350 million economic impact and hire 7,400 temporary workers, but the organization points out that these figures have been exceeded and that they will report the final data soon.
With snow and without masks
The congress kicked off on Monday, with Tibidabo unusually snowed and with lower than usual temperatures. The 2022 edition, in which 61,000 attendees were registered, was still marked by the virus (at that time the advance of the omicron variant was concerned), but in this one the masks have practically not made an appearance and the surroundings of the Gran Via de Fira de Barcelona already foreshadowed that the set expectations would be exceeded (80,000 people were expected).
In addition, the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) held between the end of January and the beginning of February already confirmed that the fair activity in the capital returned with force: this audiovisual fair exceeded 58,000 attendees in its first edition without sanitary restrictions in Barcelona.
Despite the initial threat, the taxi drivers finally decided not to mobilize for the fair, during which the Government has suspended the regulations that restrict the urban activity of rental vehicles with drivers (VTC), which have abounded these days due to the streets of Barcelona.
Likewise, the hotels in Barcelona have once again had some nights of full occupancy during the central days of the event, although the pre-pandemic figures have not yet been reached, since the Asian congressmen have only partially recovered.
tomorrow’s technology
Under the motto “Speed, unleashing tomorrow’s technology today”, this year’s MWC has been organized around five thematic axes: 5G, extended reality, telecommunications, finance and digitization.
The Chinese Huawei is the one that has occupied the largest area, while the first ten positions on this list have been completed by Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Telefónica and ZTE -listed in alphabetical order, not by occupied meters -.
Entrepreneurs have also played a prominent role, as more than 785 exhibiting companies have filled the 4YFN emerging companies hall, which plans to expand the area next year and which for the first time has been located in Hall 8.
