The return of Mobile, which predicts high visitor and business figures
Around 80,000 visitors, 2,000 exhibitors and an economic impact of around 350 million euros. These are the main figures for the 2023 edition of the Mobile World Congress in BarcelonaThe Mobile World Congress, which is expected to be the total revival of a technological event that will remain in Barcelona until 2030. The largest cell phone industry trade fair on the planet. opens its doors this Monday at 09.30 am at Fira Gran Via in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. And it does so without a cab strike, with VTCs from all over Spain authorized to work in Barcelona these days, and with an estimated 25% increase in turnover for cab drivers, according to the Élite union.
Restaurateurs put the impact of these days on their profits at 40%. and, despite the fact that from the Gremi de Restauració they assert that “there is no longer the flood of reservations of other times or the euphoria of the first years”, the illusion of the sector remains intact. The Barcelona nightlife employers’ association Fecasarm estimates that the turnover will be 18% lower than in 2019.
7,400 temporary jobs will be created in four days. and the event organizers have reserved 18,500 hotel rooms. Hotel occupancy will be between 90% and 95% with prices between 5% and 10% lower than in previous editions.
They will inaugurate the event this Monday and tour some of the main exhibitors. the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and King Felipe VI. The eight pavilions of the exhibition complex will be occupied with the latest in mobile technology. “We will fill the fairgrounds again,” said John Hoffman, CEO of the GSMA, the industry association, a few days ago.
80,000 people are the forecast for congress attendees, down from 109,000 in 2019
Between this Monday and next March 2, Mobile will regain the presence of major global phone brands, such as China’s Huawei.which will have the largest exhibitor of the entire show, and South Korea’s Samsung, which will also gain 50% of space to present its latest innovations and technological products.
However, there will not only be the presence of telephone brands at this edition of the fair. Year after year, the fair opens up to a growing number of industries from the new technologies ecosystem and this time companies such as the aeronautics company Airbus, JP Morgan (the largest bank in the United States and one of the most important financial companies on the planet) or the Dow Jones stock market company will be present at Fira Gran Via. Those who will not attend, the GSMA employers’ association has assured, are “neither the Russian government nor its companies”.
For its part, Barcelona Airport has scheduled 7,643 operations from Friday, February 24 to Sunday, March 5.19.1% more than in 2022 and 93% of those in 2019.
Global Internet connection
Just as in the 2022 edition, the show revolved around the metaverse concept, in these four days of the congress the core themes of the presentations and conferences will be. the acceleration of global Internet connectivity and the speed of connections.
Nearly a thousand speakers will develop these and other concepts related to the industries that orbit around mobile telephony, such as transportation, finance, health or logistics. In fact, 40% of the speakers are from these adjacent sectors, although the inventor of the cell phone himself, Martin Cooper, will be in attendance. Of the 2,000 companies present at this recovery show, a total of 333 are Catalan. Of these, 104 are accompanied by the Govern and will have a space at the fair where they can exhibit their projects.
Since 2006, the year in which Mobile landed in Barcelona for the first time, the Generalitat has facilitated the presence of 339 Catalan companies. which, thanks to their participation, have managed to double their turnover and have increased their workforce by an average of 38%, according to figures provided by Empresa i Treball. In 16 editions in Barcelona, Mobile has generated 5,700 million euros for the city and 148,000 temporary jobs.
The 4YFN event expands
Local firms will also have a place at the event of. startups 4 Years From Now (4YFN), which has been gaining notoriety at Mobile year after year.After its successful move from Fira Montjuïc to Fira Gran Via, it will occupy the entire pavilion six of the latter venue.
After the hard blow of the pandemic, this edition has to be the one of recovery and to look to the future” (Roger Torrent, Minister of Enterprise and Employment).
Since 2015, when the first edition of the 4YFNhave been presented at the Mobile side-event a total of 157 Catalan companies that have tripled turnover and doubled occupancy. For the conseller de Empresa i Treball, Roger Torrent, Catalonia is “at its best moment in terms of the creation of startups“, with more than 2,000 local companies.
Virtual reality bath
In turn, the Mobile World Capital Foundation (MWCapital) will present in the spaces it has reserved at Mobile 2023 a series of experiences that will merge the physical and virtual worlds. Highlights include an immersive tasting of chocolates created by the Roca brothers; the chance to experience the smell of the grass at Camp Nou; the chance to recreate the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at Barcelona’92 as if you were Antonio Rebollo or attend the last concert of the Spanish independent band Izal at the Palau Sant Jordi (before disbanding) thanks to 360-degree virtual reality glasses.
In addition, users will be able to program some fireworks to their liking and watch them likewise with virtual reality glasses. And they will be able to create an avatar of their own with which to to travel, among others, through six emblematic areas of Barcelona: Park Güell, the church of Santa Maria del Mar, La Rambla, Petritxol street, Barceloneta and Camp Nou. All these virtual proposals come from Catalan companies.
“Until now we have been very focused on technological infrastructure: 5G, fiber…but now we want to explain that infrastructures and technologies enable certain business models and servicesfor citizens and companies. And we want to do it from Barcelona,” says MWCapital CEO Francesc Fajula.
Welcome dinner to the show with the presence of Aragonès.
The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) hosted this Sunday night the Mobile 2023 welcome dinner, attended by King Felipe VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. They were accompanied in the evening of authorities by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau.
Public transport to the Fira Gran Via venue: Metro, Ferrocarrils and shuttle buses.
Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) reminds that access to the fairgrounds of L’Hospitalet can be made with the L9 Sud at the Fira and Europa / Fira stations and with the L10 Sud at the Foc Metro station.. Line 9 Sud links Fira Gran Via with terminals T1 and T2 of Barcelona Airport. and connects with Metro lines L1 (Torrassa), L5 (Collblanc) and L3 (Zona Universitària), L8 and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) Europa / Fira.
L9 Sud will be reinforced with more trains Collblanc and Fira stations. for two-minute passing frequencies in the morning and afternoon rush hours. And there will be informative signage to access the congress at L9 and L10 Sud stations, at the connections with L1, L3 and L5 and at Espanya station on lines L1 and L3.
The hall can also be accessed by bus using. line H12 (Gornal – Besòs Verneda) getting off at the Plaça d’Europa stop. Regular bus lines V1 (Districte Gran Via l’Hospitalet – Av. Esplugues), 46 (Pl. Espanya – Aeroport BCN) and 65 (Pl. Espanya – El Prat) also approach the venue.
There will again be a direct shuttle bus between Plaça d’Espanya and Fira Gran Via which will be operational on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 February and Wednesday 1 March from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a frequency of between 5 and 7 minutes. On Thursday 2 March it will run from 8 am to 4 pm with a frequency of approximately 11 to 12 minutes.
