Over 107,000 attend Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress

The world’s largest exhibition of mobile technology, Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress (MWC), came to an end on Thursday having welcomed some 107,000 attendees over the four days it was held, according to organizer GSMA. While the figure is only a slight fall of 0.9% compared with last year’s attendance figures, it is the first drop in visitor numbers since the MWC’s first edition in 2006.

Around 55% of attendees to the fair were higher-ranking company members, including 7,700 CEOs, more than the 6,100 who came last year. Some 24% of those attending were women (just under the 25% target set by GSMA last year), while 28% of speakers at the event were female, compared with 21% in 2017. The total number of 107,000 attendees includes all individuals who visited the event, and not the number of entrance tickets sold.

One area in which there was also a drop was in the number of private flights handled by Barcelona Airport. While the 328 private flights during this MWC represent a 220% increase over any normal week in February, the figure reveals a 4.3% fall in such flights compared with 2017. Almost half of the flights (48%) came from Europe, mainly Germany and the UK.

Yet, there is no suggestion that this year’s MWC was anything but a success. In fact, the head of the ACCIÓ business agency, Joan Romero, said that the Catalan authorities are “very happy” with the results obtained by the 102 Catalan companies that took part. While the exact number of deals and volume of business will be made public at a later date, Catalan firms carried out more than 1,700 business meetings.

Attendees to the 2018 congress came from more than 200 different countries, with some 2,400 participating companies from the mobile sector and associated industries, such as automotion, health and robotics. The impact of the fair on the local economy is estimated at 471 million euros, and the MWC provided temporary work for 13,000 people, according to GSMA. Over 3,500 media professionals and analysts also attended the fair.

ACCIÓ’s Romero expressed his confidence that the MWC would continue to be held in the Catalan capital beyond 2023, when the current contract with GSMA runs out. “An industrial legacy is being built… In 2023, the position of Catalonia and Barcelona in the sector will be so important that people will be very keen to continue here,” he said. The next edition of the Mobile World Congress will take place in Barcelona from February 25 to 28 in 2019.