Barcelona (EFE).- The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the largest event in the mobile technology industry, reaches its 18th edition in an already fully normal environment, after several events marked by the pandemic and with figures increasingly closer to those of 2019, the last fair before the outbreak of the covid.
These are some of the great figures of the most international congress that Spain hosts and that since 2006 has been held in Barcelona.
More than 80,000 expected visitors
The MWC, which this year is held from February 27 to March 2, will once again place Barcelona as the world capital of mobile technology for a few days and will attract more than 80,000 visitors, 20,000 more than in the previous edition, although for still below the record number of 2019, when it added 109,000 attendees.
International visitors have a great weight in this congress and one of the unknowns is how many visitors will arrive from Asia. Yesterday, John Hoffman, CEO of the mobile telephone association that organizes the Congress, GSMA, said that he expected 25% of the attendees to be Asian, and that China would contribute between 4,000 and 5,000 congressmen.
The event brings together CEOs and presidents of the world’s leading technology companies, delegations from more than 100 countries and has even attracted the inventor of the mobile phone, Martin Cooper, to Barcelona this year.
Some 7,400 temporary jobs generated
An event of these characteristics is an economic boost for Barcelona and its metropolitan area, since the MWC will generate some 7,400 temporary jobs in this edition.
In total, the congress has generated more than 150,000 temporary jobs since it landed in the Catalan capital, with job profiles such as hostesses, cleaners, private security personnel, cooks, waiters, carpenters or assemblers, among others.
Economic impact of about 350 million
The organizers estimate that the event will have an economic impact in Barcelona and its area of influence of 350 million euros.
Since 2006, the MWC has generated a cumulative impact of 5,700 million euros and reached its maximum impact precisely in 2019, with 473 million.
More than 2,000 companies
More than 2,000 exhibiting companies will participate in the 2023 edition. The Chinese Huawei will be the one that occupies the largest area, while the first ten positions on this list are completed by Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Telefónica and ZTE -listed in alphabetical order-.
Another attraction of the fair will be the 4 Years From Now (4YFN) emerging companies event, which will feature 556 exhibiting firms, a thousand investors from around the world and 300 speakers.
In the case of the Spanish pavilion, organized by Red.es, which totals 900 m2, will host 38 technology SMEs, 40% of them debutants in this space, and there will be nine communities represented: Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, Navarra, Extremadura , Cantabria, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country and the Valencian Community.
Full occupancy during some of the days of the MWC
On the other hand, the hotels in Barcelona will again have some nights of full occupancy during the main days of the Congress, although the pre-pandemic figures will not yet be reached, since there will only be a partial recovery of the Asian congressmen.
At the beginning of February, the Hotel Guild already ventured that hotel occupancy during the technological congress would fluctuate between 90 and 95% and that the prices of the establishments would be between 5 and 10% below those of 2019.
The official Mobile agency has reserved some 18,500 rooms this year at an agreed price, approximately 50% more than in the previous edition.
An enclosure equivalent to 40 football fields
The Fira de Gran Via venue in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), one of the largest in Europe, totals 240,000 gross square meters of exhibition space, equivalent to around 40 football pitches.
In fact, Fira de Barcelona has started work this year to expand this venue with the demolition of a warehouse that Porcelanosa had in that area. It is a space in which Fira will erect a new building of 60,000 square meters, so that a total of 300,000 square meters will be reached.
A logistics with 3,578 coordinated vehicles
The assembly of the MWC pavilions is also a good example of the gigantic dimensions of this congress, since it involves 3,578 coordinated vehicles from the Sot del Migdia area, 1,200 companies involved in the assembly and disassembly and a total of 7,600 people . In total, 128,000 cubic meters of materials must be unloaded.
This year, during the assembly work of the MWC -which lasts 12 days-, an employee of a company specialized in loading and unloading suffered an accident on Monday, because of which he died hours later in the hospital.
A congress that will serve 260,000 sandwiches in four days
As usual, the MWC will display a wide gastronomic offer to serve thousands of congressmen every day. For this, it has hired 950 people (180 cooks, 690 waiters and 80 people for logistics).
The organization plans to serve some 260,000 sandwiches and 475,000 coffees during the four days of the event: there will be 68 points of varied gastronomy (from Mediterranean, Italian, Japanese, Peruvian, Syrian, Indian or Hawaiian, among others).
Some 70,000 square meters of recycled carpet and 26,000 solar panels
The 70,000 square meters of carpet installed are, for the first time, fully recycled. It is one of the measures that make the MWC the largest world event certified as carbon neutral.
Likewise, the Gran Via venue, designed by the Japanese architect Toyo Ito, has one of the largest rooftop photovoltaic parks in Europe, with 26,000 solar panels installed on the roof of the pavilions.
Electricity consumption comes entirely from sustainable sources and natural light is maximized through skylights and windows, so spending is reduced by 30%.
A Wifi prepared for 130,000 simultaneous connections
Some 90,000 devices are expected to connect for four days and the Wi-Fi network is prepared to withstand 130,000 simultaneous connections.
In the enclosure, 1,600 Wi-Fi access points have been installed throughout the 8 pavilions.
