The sky´s the limit for MWC

L´Hospitalet de LlobregatFor John Hoffman, CEO of the GSMA, the dismay has passed. After avoiding the media and authorities in the official inauguration of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which started off with a public transport strike, Hoffman yesterday announced with satisfaction that the eleventh edition of the worldwide congress of mobile telephony "has been a success". Two of the organizing entities of this annual event, the association of telecommunications companies GSMA and Fira Barcelona, calculated that from Monday to Thursday almost 101,000 visitors passed through the Gran Via exhibition center in l´Hospitalet de Llobregat. This figure represents 6% more attendants that the prior edition, and far exceeded the forecasts that the organization made public weeks before the event, which anticipated that it would surpass the threshold of 95,000 visitors. For this reason, the next MWC already has a date set --from February 27 to March 2, 2017--, and Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona, was able to say goodbye with a "see you next time" to the CEO of the GSMA, and also to everything that having a trade fair like this means for the city of Barcelona.

But the mobility conflicts, a recurring topic at breakfasts, coffee breaks, and lunches for many attendees and exhibitors, have been a thorn in the side for the organizers of the event, and, as stated by Constantí Serrallonga, General Director of the Fira, it was something that needs to be addressed "before the next edition". Meanwhile, Hoffman did not make any reference yesterday to the strikes by metro and bus workers that affected transport during the congress. Serrallonga stressed the idea that "it has been a record-breaking edition in quantitative and qualitative terms". With respect to the controversy over a possible flight of the event next year (even to Madrid, as Cristina Cifuentes, President of the Community of Madrid, said), Serrallonga confirmed, firmly, that "the controversy ended when the GSMA said "See you in 2017”".

After four days of queues in the metro, meetings, treks up and down the 110,000 square meters occupied by eight fair pavilions, and a number of post-congress parties, yesterday most exhibitors breathed a sigh of satisfaction. "The internet of things is coming together, and we have seen much more interest than in previous editions", said Josep Cerón, CEO of Intesis, a company dedicated to the interconnection of objects, while packing up yesterday.

In the end, the ultimate objective of the MWC is to do business, and in the majority of cases people made the most of the opportunity. Indeed, for the electric motorbike-sharing startup Cooltra, which will roll out its service in the city of Barcelona this March, the public transport strike served to promote their business even more. "The problems in getting to the fair means that we added many users during these few days, and that some even came with our electric motorbikes", explained Timo Buetefisch, promoter of this new project.

Albert Isern, CEO of Bismart, a company dedicated to artificial intelligence, said that he was satisfied that he had clinched several deals: "A telecommunications company that came from China, a South American Bank, and many automotive firms are interested in our project". It is the third year that Bismart has been at the MWC in the Generalitat´s stand, and Isern confirmed that this year´s edition has been the best to date. Indeed, artificial intelligence and augmented reality have been the two big hits of the congress.

In total, this edition of the MWC has brought together more than 2,100 companies from around the world, and 3,600 media organizations and analysts. In addition, there were delegations from 137 countries and 31 international organizations. It´s worth noting that 55% of the attendees were high-ranking executives, and only 21% of the visitors were women.

From the lab to companies

There is another sector that is chalking this MWC up as their small personal success: this has been the first year that the world congress of mobile telephony has included a pavilion dedicated to graphene, the first material in two dimensions and with only one atom of thickness, which is forecast to revolutionize the technology industry.

On the final day of the congress, Nobel Prizewinner for physics Konstantin Novoselov presented it as one of the few materials that "is shaping our world". At the graphene pavilion, organizations such as the Institute of Photonic Sciences of Catalonia (ICFO), and that of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology presented, to companies such as Samsung and Intel, prototypes of transparent and flexible sensors that detect a pulse, and batteries that recharge in five minutes. "This is what we were missing: to transition from the laboratory to businesses, and the MWC has been a great opportunity to do so", said Achim Woessner, ICFO researcher.