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After being canceled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona was held again this year with strict health protocols. Photo / IST
JAKARTA – The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecommunications industry’s largest annual exhibition, is rumored to go ahead as planned after Spanish authorities approve its health and safety plan. This was revealed by the GSMA, the industry association that hosts the MWC.
MWC will be one of the first major technology conferences to be held in Europe since the start of the pandemic. MWC 2021 is scheduled to take place from 28 June to 1 July in Barcelona.
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“When we talked to the exhibitors, some were still hesitant, some said they didn’t come because they had travel policies, and some said they usually send 250 people, but now they will only send five people,” said Mats Granryd, director general. GSMA, said in an interview, quoted by Reuters, Friday (21/5/2021).
“After all the five people are the right people, it is the CEO, or CTO or CFO,” he added.
Some conferences have canceled face-to-face events and gone completely online. MWC 2021 itself will take place in a hybrid or physical or virtual way.
MWC 2021 will only be canceled if Spain closes its borders for health and safety reasons or prohibits the GSMA from hosting the event.
About 70% of the roughly 600 speakers at the conference will be physically present, the GSMA said.
It is known that several companies such as Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and Cisco chose to resign and did not attend the MWC 202021 face-to-face. Some of them chose to join virtually.
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MWC 2021 will be attended by 30,000-50,000 people. Though usually the exhibition attracts more than 100,000 participants.
The GSMA itself depends on the revenue generated by exhibitions such as MWC. They have already lost money due to last year’s exhibition cancellations and it will take several years to recover.
“The (pandemic) effect for the GSMA was severe, (we) had to lose nearly 40% of our employees,” Granryd said.
(wsb)
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