Mobile World Congress 2018

Rating:

Exceptional

Price:

Moderate


By PABLO BOSCH

Last Updated Feb 17, 2018 1:05 p.m.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is back again this year in Barcelona. The seminars, conferences and keynotes continue to be a big focus for the MWC, established to not only to both educated and challenge attendees but to inspire them. With 250 speakers in the program a diverse range of mobile related sectors are represented over these four days, including the leading mobile manufacturers, operators and IT companies in the world, as well as finance, health, automotive and many more.

The 2018 list of MWC keynote speakers is an impressive list, including Brigitte Baumann, Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Go Beyond Early Stage Investing, Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, from Hyperledger, Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares, Governor, Puerto Rico Marie Ehrling, Chair of the Board, Telia Company and Chairwoman at Securitas, Alastair MacLeod, CEO at Teralytics, Kathy Calvin, President and CEO of United Nations Foundation, Ajit Pai, Chairman of United States Federal Communications Commission, or Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, among many others.

In the Mobile World Live Keynote taking place on Monday, 26th of February from 9:00 to 10:30, to discuss efforts to extend connectivity to more people around the world at the digital economy, catalysed by the rapid proliferation of mobile technologies, that will continue to transform how we do business and how we interact with our partners, customers and consumers, and the speakers will be Sunil Bharti Mittal Bharti Enterprises Chairman at GSMA and Founder, Mats Granryd, GSMA Director General, Jose Maria Alvarez Pallete, Chariman and CEO at Telefonica, or Marie Ehrling, Chairwoman of Telia.

On Tuesday, 27th of February from 9:00 to 10:30, the speakers about the digital economy, catalysed by the rapid proliferation of mobile technologies in the hands of over 5.1 billion connected people, will continue to transform how we do business and how we interact with our partners, customers and consumers. Still in its infancy however, incredible growth remains ahead, moderated by Karen Tso, after more than 15 years reporting and commentating for television based in London CNBC, with Christopher Young, McAfee CEO, Börje Ekholm, President & CEO at Ericsson, Hiroshi Mikitani Founder and CEO at Rakuten or Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat President and CEO.

On Thursday, 1st of March Emma McGuigan, who is the Group Technology Officer for Accenture’s Communications, Media and Technology operating group will be the moderator of Live Keynote Mobile. The issue of gender diversity in all industries has never been more relevant. Few industries, however, have been as closely associated with this issue than the tech industry. from 9:15 to 10:30 at Hall 4.

New for the 2018 programme, the Women4Tech keynote will be held on Thursday, 1 March, featuring speakers including Emma McGuigan, Group Technology Officer at Accenture, Berit Svendsen, CEO of Telenor Norway and Susana Balbo, Congresswoman and Chair, W20 Group Argentina. The session will put a spotlight on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the communications industry and more broadly in society. Other Mobile World Congress keynote sessions will explore topics including content and media, the digital economy, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, mobile operator strategies, smart services, and sustainability, among others.

The GSMA, organizer of the MWC and the world’s leading association for the mobile industry, expects this year’s MWC to generate more than 356 million euros spending in Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain. This is an 11% increase on last years event. The chairman of the GSMA, John Hoffman, is “proud” of this figure and highlights the increased use of taxis, hotels, transport, catering and event services as the reason for this large figure and it is important to note that this comes at a time of the year during when normally Barcelona has very little demand on these services. As a result there are 7,200 temporary jobs created during the extended period of event.

Hoffman also stated that the accumulating figure of income generated by the MWC for Spain since it started in 2006 has risen to more than 2,000 million euros, and the number of job created up to 46,700. As for visitor numbers, 3000 more than last year are expected. Some 94,000 attendees from 200 countries will make up the crowds at MWC this year.

Exhibitor numbers are at a high capacity as again this year, as has become usual. Some 1,800 companies, up 100 from last year, will be exhibiting this year. 149 of them from Spain of which 79 of them from Catalonia. "The first year there was no Catalan company represented in the Congress and now we have seven times more Spanish companies than in 2006" Hoffman pointed out.

This year the MWC will also receive a record number of ministerial delegations, as 145 countries send official representatives to Barcelona "including about 80 ministers and some heads of state." In total more then 200 countries will be represented at the congress, including the United States, China, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France and South Korea.

To list a few of the more influential companies with a planned presence this year we have Telefónica, Acer, Huawei, Sharp, Vodaphone, Samsung, Ford, Motorola, HTC, Mastercard, IBM and Microsoft. As has become the expected, Apple will not be exhibiting at the trade show but Hoffman assures that "there sure will be people from the company here" and went on to indicate that Google officially participate in the show through their Motorola mobile division.

98,000 square meters of exhibition space at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona will be used again for the second year running by the MWC, but this year some events will be hosted in Montjuïc where the MWC started in 2006. This Maria Cristina avenue facilities will also host various meeting between companies and clients to analyize mobility issues throughout areas like as health and tourism.

Hoffman has recognized one of the most important challenges where there is room for improvement in the MWC as being the transportation but this year there is a direct connection by subway from the airport to the Fira: “One of the great challenges of the congress is to take visitors to L'Hospitalet from Barcelona and we are working to improve mobility, mainly in the evenings" said Hoffman, who has assured that "we will improve the connection between the hotels and the Fira de Barcelona this year."

GSMA announced more than 250 senior business leaders and industry experts will participate in a range of keynotes and focused track sessions in the Mobile World Congress conference over four days, including executives such as John Donovan, Senior EVP, AT&T Architecture, Technology, Operations, Kevin Petersen, President, AT&T Digital Life, AT&T, Joerg Tewes, CEO, Avegant, Olaf Swantee, CEO, EE, will.i.am, Global Music Artist, Entrepreneur and Founder and Chairman of i.am+, Francois Rancy, Director, Radiocommunications Bureau, ITU, Eric Migicovsky, CEO and Founder, Pebble Evan Sharp, Co-Founder and Head of Creative, Pinterest, David Hose, CEO, Rhapsody, Karim Khoja, CEO, Roshan, Karim Michel Sabbagh, President and CEO, SES, Rich Riley, CEO, Shazam, Mats Granryd, President and CEO, Tele2 Group, Bob Bakish, President and CEO, Viacom International Media or Philipp Humm, CEO Europe, Vodafone.

Event category: Congress

http://www.mobileworldcongress.com

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