MWC: Record attendance for 2012 Congress in Barcelona
Yesterday, the GSMA reported that more than 67,000 visitors from 205
countries attended the 2012 Mobile World Congress, a new record for the mobile
industry's premier event. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted
executives from the world's largest and most influential mobile operators,
software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and
entertainment organisations, as well as government delegations from across the
globe. More than 50 per cent of this year's Mobile World Congress attendees
hold C-level positions, including more than 3,500 CEOs.
"The 2012
Mobile World Congress was a phenomenal success, by any measure. The record
numbers that attended this year's event underscore how central mobile is to the
lives of people around the world," said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA.
"This is also illustrated by the breadth of companies that participated at
Mobile World Congress, with representation from not only the traditional mobile
industry players, but companies from vertical sectors such as automotive,
health and finance, among others. It's exciting to see the powerful role mobile
has in driving innovation in new markets."
The 2012
Congress hosted more than 1,500 exhibiting companies and occupied 70,500 net
square metres of exhibition and business meeting space. More than 3,300
international print, online and broadcast media attended the event to analyse
and report on the many significant industry announcements made at the
Congress.
According to a
preliminary economic analysis just completed, the 2012 Mobile World Congress
contributed more than 300 million Euros to the local economy. This represents
an increase of more than 25 million Euros over the economic impact of the 2011
Mobile World Congress and is driven by the growth in attendance and in
exhibiting companies, as well as the increased footprint of exhibition and
hospitality spaces. "The Mobile World Congress is an important contributor
to the Barcelona economy, and as a key pillar of the Mobile World Capital
Barcelona, it is a positive factor in driving new opportunities for companies
and individuals in the city and region," said Hoffman.
Leading CEOs
Headline Mobile World Congress
During the
event, CEOs and senior executives from companies including Alcatel-Lucent, ARM,
AT&T, Best Buy, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, Cisco Systems, Citigroup,
Deutsche Telekom, eBay, Ericsson, Facebook, Ford Motor Company, Foursquare,
Google, HTC, Interpublic Group, ISIS, Juniper Networks, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO,
Sprint Nextel, Telefónica, Telenor Group, VimpelCom, Visa, Vodafone and ZTE
discussed and debated the trends and issues which are shaping the mobile
industry today and into the future.
In addition to
the keynote programme, the 2012 conference also featured dedicated tracks on
applications, cloud computing, embedded mobile, mobile advertising, mobile
health, mobile money, next-generation technologies and OSS/BSS, as well as
sessions exploring business strategy, developing markets, devices, network
capacity, regional issues and social media, among other subjects.
Unprecedented
Attendance by the World's Government Delegations
The GSMA's
Ministerial Programme also boasted record attendance, with government
delegations from 140 countries and international organisations meeting in
Barcelona. The Ministerial Programme is designed to bring together governments,
regulators and industry leaders to discuss the specific regulatory issues
shaping the development of mobile around the world. This year, the programme
was expanded to include greater emphasis on regional issues and hands-on
workshops to provide the opportunity for in-depth policy discussions between
nations. Sponsors for the GSMA Ministerial Programme at Mobile World Congress
included STC, Ericsson, Huawei and the Generalitat de Catalunya.
App Planet:
Focus on the Global App Developer Ecosystem
There were more
than 50,000 visits to App Planet, a focused event designed to bring together
the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together
in one location. Companies including developerprogram.com,
IBM, IMGA, Nokia, Research in Motion, Samsung and Wireless Industry Partnership
each held application developer conferences (ADCs).
The Mobile
World Congress again hosted the Forum Series, a sponsored programme which brings
together industry players to discuss and debate a range of topics in focused
sessions. 2012 Forums included the Augmented Reality Forum, the LTE Forum, the
Mobile Cloud Forum and the Mobile Security Forum, as well as the GTI LTE
TDD/FDD International Summit. Overall, more than 12,500 attendees from the
developer community visited Mobile World Congress this year.
New for the
2012 event was the mPowered Brands Programme, which focuses on building
marketers' knowledge and accelerating their use of mobile as a marketing
medium. The mPowered Brands programme provides an indispensible opportunity for
professionals across the mobile marketing ecosystem to gain important and
timely insights, practical knowledge and innovative solutions from the
companies at the forefront of mobile marketing today, such as McCann Worldgroup
and Nielsen.
Mobile World
Capital - Vision Becoming Reality
The organisers
of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona provided new details on key pillars of
the Mobile World Capital, including the Mobile World Centre, the Mobile World
Festival and the Mobile World Hub. They also announced the formation of the
Mobile World Capital Foundation, which will operate the initiatives and which
is comprised of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the
Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona City Council, the Fira de Barcelona and
the GSMA. Additionally, the Mobile World Capital Barcelona and the Fútbol Club
Barcelona have signed a collaborative agreement to promote the initiatives of
ICT entrepreneurs and companies that develop innovative mobile services in
sports.
Mobile World
Congress Moves to Fira de Barcelona Gran Via in 2013
Starting in 2013, the Mobile
World Congress will be held at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, a move which
will provide approximately 50 per cent more space and will accommodate
continued strong growth and demand for the event. The 2013 Mobile World
Congress will be held 25-28 February, 2013.
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