The World Mobile Congress will open its doors in Barcelona this Monday with the challenge of recovering normality after the coronavirus catastrophe, and once again being an international benchmark for technology and business. After suspending the 2020 edition at the dawn of the outbreak of the pandemic, and experiencing a decaffeinated and almost on-line Last year, the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2022) aspires to rescue its past splendor, with the physical presence of thousands of executives and visitors who fill the stands of Gran Vía de la Fira and the hotels and restaurants of the Catalan capital.
Neither 5G, nor artificial intelligence nor even the metaverse will be the protagonists of this Mobile since, despite the fact that its official motto is “Connectivity unleashed”, the organizers, companies and administrations involved do nothing more than repeat a word: “normal”.
To begin with, the MWC 2022 recovers its usual dates (from February 28 to March 3), since last year it had to be held in the summer. However, the main obsession is that attendance returns. 60,000 visitors are expected, according to the GSMA, the association of operators that organizes the event, that is, twice as many as the last edition, but far from the 110,000 that gathered in 2019. With an economic impact of 240 million, the half of the 500 million that were generated before the pandemic. Prices are also recovered. The passes range from 769 to 4,614 euros.
For the sake of this presence, the Gran Vía venue of the Fira de Barcelona in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat that hosts the MWC 2022 will fill its seven pavilions, with 1,500 exhibitors, and will have more than 1,000 speakers, of which 95% will intervene from face-to-face, according to the GSMA. A presence that will be marked by strict health regulations, being mandatory to show a covid passport, a certificate of having passed the disease or a negative test. The use of FFP2 masks is also mandatory.
“At the 2022 edition of the MWC we will provide a platform for the debates that define the relationship of society with technology and, ultimately, we will be the place where business is done”, summarized John Hoffman, CEO of the GSMA.
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The administrations involved (Barcelona City Council, Generalitat de Catalunya, Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Fira de Barcelona) also want to do their bit to create a favorable environment around the MWC. The mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, has put aside the hostility shown in the past towards the visitors that Mobile attracts and mass tourism in general, and has promised greater vigilance in the streets and around Gran Vía, since insecurity is one of the main concerns of the GSMA.
We must not forget that Barcelona is playing for the renewal of the Congress for the coming years. In July 2015, the last major contract was signed to hold the MWC in this city between 2018 and 2023. An agreement that is now intended to be reissued, although it does not seem very feasible that the negotiations that are going to take place during the Congress allow an imminent agreement to be announced as the culmination of this year’s edition, as the City Council intends.
Undoubtedly, in these negotiations the executive president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, who has just been elected as the new president of the GSMA council, will have a special role until at least 2022. The Spanish operator has been one of the main supporters of the MWC and in this edition it recovers space in the Fira, with great deployment of managers and meetings with investors. Its stand will have almost 1,000 square meters and will have a digital replica in the metaverse, where it will present its value propositions and digital transformation. Vodafone will also have a strong presence in Congress.
On a technological level, the buzzword at MWC 22 will be the metaverse, that parallel and virtual universe in which we will inhabit in the future, and in which it will be possible to interact with real sensations as in the physical world, both to be the protagonist of a video game to go to the office. In fact, the metaverse market is projected to reach $814 billion by 2028, according to Accenture. According to their data, in 2021, companies doubled their commitment to virtual and augmented reality, with 88% of global organizations investing in technologies to create virtual environments. However, for the metaverse to land in our daily lives, we will have to wait a few years, especially in a country like Spain where citizens —their physical presence at the counters is cut off under the excuse of covid-19— sometimes have a difficult time relating with companies, banks and the Administration because the channels on-line they don’t always work properly.
Also, in this call traditional spaces are recovered such as the Spanish pavilion, with 35 exhibiting companies, the role of women and their inclusion in technology (Diversity4Tech), in verticals (IndustryCity), and the startup forum (4YFN ). The one that will not be will be Russia whose flag has been canceled by the GSMA in condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the efforts of the organizers, there will be less glamor than in the pre-pandemic editions. No one is expected to arrive tech star who used to go to Barcelona, like the heads of Google, Facebook or Microsoft.
In the institutional part, King Felipe VI will attend this Sunday’s gala dinner as usual, a presence that will be used by the independence parties, now in the Government of the Generalitat, to make their demands known. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will accompany the Monarch at the dinner and will participate in the official opening of the MWC on Monday.
Nor will there be great presentations of smartphones or other devices. The big firms like Samsung, which has just shown its star of the year (Galaxy S22), long ago stopped having a reference for their technological premieres at the MWC. The one that most encouraged the Congress was Huawei. The Chinese brand has always boasted of having the largest stand at the fair, but the American veto of its 5G networks and that of Google to install the Android operating system on its mobiles, has left the Chinese manufacturer in the background. All in all, thriving brands such as Xiaomi and Oppo, and second flagships such as Realme, Honor or Poco, will show devices during this weekend, prior to the official start of the event. Physical absences are much less significant than last year. Only Sony, Lenovo and Asus have declined the face-to-face visit.
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