The 2013 Mobile World Congress “will break all records” in its new Barcelona venue

Barcelona (ACN).- The world’s main event showcasing cell phone and mobile technology, the Mobile World Congress, is starting the final countdown to open its doors in one month’s time in Barcelona, as it has been doing each year since 2006. In its 8^th year in the Catalan capital, the MWC, which is organised by GSMA, will move from Montjuic to the Gran Via venue of Fira de Barcelona, in order to increase its space by 30%. This year’s MWC, which will take place in Barcelona until at least 2018 since the city won the Mobile World Capital status a year and a half ago, will have 94,000 square metres of exhibition space. According to the CEO of GSMA, John Hoffman, the 2013 event “will break all records. Between, the 25^th and 28^th of February, this trade fair, expert conference and industry meeting point will host more than 70,000 visitors from 200 different countries, 300 speakers and 1,500 companies, 70 of which are Catalan. As every year, the top executives of the mobile industry will be present and some of them will give conferences and present new products. In addition, the congress will bring in more than €300 million to Barcelona’s economy and will create 6,500 temporary jobs.

The world’s main trade fair of the cell phone and mobile communications industry is returning to Barcelona, as every year since 2006. The Catalan city was named the Mobile World Capital in 2011 meaning that it will organise the event until at least 2018. Besides the GSMA Mobile World Congress, Barcelona organises three other projects related to the sector, having become one of the main bases of this industry at an international level. It hosts the Mobile World Centre, which acts as the permanent headquarters of the event as wells as an exhibition space. In addition, it has also launched the Mobile World Hub, which is becoming a platform for the development of business projects and cross industry services, operating from Barcelona at a global level. Finally, the Catalan city hosts the Mobile World Festival, which organises events throughout the year related to the cell phone and mobile communications industry, as well as to culture.

A government meeting to discuss industry spectrums

The GSMA Mobile World Congess’ next event will be the largest one ever organised; it will occupy the 94,000 square metres of the 8 pavilions of Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue, where it will be held for the first time. Besides the 70,000 attendees – half of which are senior executives from the industry – and 300 speakers, this  year there will be 140 government representatives who will discuss “a basic topic”, according to John Hoffman, the CEO of the organising GSM Association. The 140 government representatives will be discussing the industry’s spectrum problems, which are crucial for the smooth operation of the sector.

In the presentation made by the congress in Barcelona on Wednesday, Hoffman explained that this year they are expecting to overtake last year’s economic impact on Barcelona and its metropolitan area, which was calculated to be €300 million, creating 6,500 temporary jobs.

The organisation is surprised by how fast the event is growing in Barcelona

Hoffman underlined that the people who organised the event are the first to be surprised by its fast expansion. In this sense, he pointed out that the initial forecasts were that the Gran Via venue would be full within three years of moving there. However, this huge venue will be fully occupied this year, the first year there. Previous events took place in Montjuic, the other main venue of Fira de Barcelona, which is smaller than the Gran Via venue. However, Montjuic was becoming too small for such a large event and the organisation decided to move the entire congress to the alternative spot in Barcelona, freeing up Montjuic.

Mobility improvements

Hoffman emphasised some of the advantages of moving the event to the Gran Via venue, besides increasing the exhibition space by 30%. For instance, mobility will be much easier, since attendees will not be in the city centre of Barcelona and it will be more convenient to arrive straight from the airport and easier to leave the congress’ venue. Although the definitive special transport plan has not been approved yet, the City Council and the MWC organisation have decided to increase the number of taxis available, improve the bus shuttles connecting the airport to the city centre and putting in place around 20 pick-up spots spread around in strategic places in the city and the main hotels where MWC attendees can take shuttles to bring them to the conference venue and drop them back again.

Hotel occupancy

Regarding hotel bookings, Hoffman stated that up until today, 25,000 direct bookings have been made by the organisation, 10% more than last year at this time. In addition, he emphasised that he is convinced that the city’s hotels will be able to absorb  the demand generated by the MWC.

High level conferences

One of the Mobile World Congress’ main strong points is the high level of its conferences. In total, there will be more than 300 conferences and debates, given by the senior executives of the mobile communications industry, such as AT&T, Vodafone, Ericsson, Nokia, Telefonia, Mozilla, Dropbox, and so on.

The connected city

One of the news highlights of the next event is ‘The connected city’, a “not-to-be-missed space” where on a single spot the latest technological advances applied to households, public transportation, retail and urban services will be shown. The space deepens the smart city concept and it aims to show the most recent industry development applied to urban spaces.

The MWC also keeps a space for NFA technology, which enables users to pay using their mobile phone, for instance. In fact, this year, this technology will be already be in use in some of the taxis, hotels and restaurants in Barcelona.

Mobile communications figures

The press conference in Barcelona has also been useful for making an analysis of the mobile communications sector. Ben Wood, from CCS Insight, emphasised that this year there will be more than 5.6 billion mobile phones in the world. He also added that the number of mobile phones sold will be twice that of computers. In addition, smart phones will be more numerous than the traditional cell phones for the first time. This means that in 2013, 53 billion applications will be downloaded and their number will increase up to 150 billion in 2016.

Wood also forecasted that in 2016 there will be 9 billion mobile connections in the world; 1.5 billion of which will use a phone and the rest other devices such as tablets, which will grow significantly in 2013. Altogether, the sector will invest a total of €793 billion between 2012 and 2016, which will generate an impact of more than €3 trillion to the rest of the economy.