Telecommunications Industry Annual Meeting In Barcelona, Participants Can Attend Without Mask

Congress in Barcelona, participants can attend without the need to wear masks again. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's largest annual gathering, hopes to attract around 50.000 attendees in Barcelona, ​​Spain. This year's event runs from February 28 to March 3, making it one of the largest physical events since the start of the pandemic.

Online conferencing has previously become the norm over the past two years, which has also increased the capitalization of conference companies such as Zoom and Hopin. But as the pandemic receded, the appetite for doing business directly recovered.

This year top executives from Nokia, Ericsson, Amazon, and Cisco have confirmed their attendance at the conference after a two-year gap.

While some companies such as Lenovo will be present virtually. However, most of the other big names in the communications technology industry including Samsung and Huawei will be present to showcase their new products at the venue.

"I'm desperate to connect with people in real life again," said Allison Kirkby, CEO of Telia. "Innovation only happens when people come together."

MWC was one of the first events to be canceled in 2020 as COVID-19 began to spread around the world. Usually, this meeting is held in February, in 2021 it is shifted to June and a small size version.

While the expected attendance for this year is less than half of the 109.000 registered at the 2019 meeting, compared to around 20.000 attendees last year. The CES technology fair managed 40.000 attendees in December.

"We have 1.500 confirmed exhibitors, 1.000 speakers, and of the seven halls we will be engaging, we have an occupancy ratio of 85%," said Mats Granryd, director general of the GSMA conference organizers.

While Spain's daily coronavirus cases are still at more than 40.000, the country has lifted restrictions, following high vaccination rates, including lifting the mandate for people to wear masks outdoors starting Thursday, February 10.

Many companies send out invitations for product launches, dinner meetings, and other events spread across Barcelona.

Vaccine certificates were sufficient this year to attend MWC, while last year a participant had to be tested at the venue gate to enter. There will be no one at this year's venue reminding participants to keep their distance when meeting or gathering. Social Distancing, is no longer strict.

The event usually provides a significant boost to Barcelona's economy, with the GSMA estimating it brought $500 million to the city in 2019.

"We are very optimistic and confident that this conference will truly reinvigorate Barcelona's international activities and exhibitions," deputy mayor Jaume Collboni told Reuters. "We're telling the world that we're back."