The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024 has started strongly and has shown the first scenes of the multitudes of visitors who have come to the fairgrounds of Barcelona, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. Taxis and VTC vehicles have been working non-stop to provide service to the entire area around the Fair. The aim is to exceed 95,000 attendees during the four days that the technological event will last, a much higher figure than the previous year.
As usual, most of the entrepreneurs who have arrived in the first moments of the inauguration come from Asia, after companies such as Huawei have brought thousands of delegates. Trains, metro and passenger transport vehicles have been operating at full capacity in this area. The Mossos d’Esquadra have been in charge, as always, of the public security device around the Mobile World Congress. Not only have they guarded the perimeter of the entire site and deployed several anti-riot units as a precaution, they have also made last-minute checks near the entrance. Thus, at the access point where there were two parked cars, the canine unit specialized in detecting explosives acted in search of explosives.
Once it was verified that there was no sign of a bomb, the normal security procedure at major events continued and further checks were carried out in the surrounding area.
No restrictions and almost 100,000 congressmen
After a cancellation and two years with health restrictions, masks are scarce in the corridors of the salon, where thousands of people will move, half of them with executive positions. In the last edition, restrictions on travel from China had already been lifted, but many attendees did not arrive in time to come to the fair. Congress maintains veto of Russian companies over war conflict with Ukraine in response to international sanctions.
In the case of Israel, there is no measure for the war in Gaza despite the calls for a boycott that have come from voices such as that of the former mayor of the city Ada Colau. The arrival of 95,000 congressmen coincides with the declaration of the drought emergency. To raise awareness among visitors, the organization has sent messages to make them aware of the situation and not to waste water.
El Mobile occupies all the pavilions of the site, but, according to forecasts, it will be 15,000 people below the attendance record of 2019, when it reached 110,000 visitors. At that time, however, the meeting was split into two, as the start-up fair was held at the Montjuïc fair complex. Despite everything, the appointment maintains its economic strength. The projections will approach those before the pandemic, with the expectation of exceeding the 461 million euros of the previous edition.
Technological proposals
In addition to the 9,100 direct jobs, the congress has significant benefits for the hospitality industry with 20,000 room reservations from the official agency of the MWC. Under the motto of Future First, the fair covers all sectors that depend on mobile technology and focuses on 5G deployment, the digitization of the economy, open networks, artificial intelligence or sustainable mobility. This year, brands such as the Chinese Huawei, which becomes the main exhibitor, are coming back with a bang. The technology company occupies almost all of Hall 1 with 10,000 square meters.
In total, there are more than 2,400 exhibitors with global giants such as Samsung, Amazon, Google, Xiaomi, Telefónica, Orange, Vodafone or Ericsson. The congress claims to be a meeting to discover the technology of the future and more than half of the attendees will not be directly related to mobile phones, but to other sectors such as transport, finance, logistics or video games.
Despite the growing weight of other sectors, the fair is not lacking in presentations of devices such as Motorola’s foldable phone or the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. It is also speculated with the presentation of the device with the most powerful battery in the world. In addition, technological innovations outside mobile phones are expected such as the semi-transparent laptop from Lenovo, the electric and autonomous vehicle SU7, also from Xiaomi or the flying car from Alef Aeronautics. Artificial intelligence is present in all sectors.
Robotics, cloud computing and the commercial uses of devices with virtual, augmented and mixed reality are also important. The congress is once again betting on the space in pavilion 6 called Viatge al Futur where there will be 8 demonstrations that allow visitors to see what transportation or futuristic medicine can be like with advances in artificial intelligence, neurons on chips, digital skin or surgical robotics.