FIRA DE BARCELONA
        
        
          | 2013 REPORT
        
        
          Mobile World Congress
        
        
          25-28/February
        
        
          Gran Via. 8th event in Barcelona
        
        
          The 8th event of the world’s leading show
        
        
          for mobile technologies was a turning point for
        
        
          the sector. For the first time, smartphones
        
        
          became the undisputed leaders of the market,
        
        
          surpassing traditional mobile phones, which
        
        
          confirmed a great change in habits: data traffic
        
        
          definitely replaces voice as the main use
        
        
          with these devices.
        
        
          Mobile technology certified its role as an
        
        
          indispensable everyday item by registering for
        
        
          the first time ever as many mobile connections
        
        
          (phones, tablets, computers, car devices…)
        
        
          as people: 7,200 million.
        
        
          The Mobile World Congress (MWC) changed
        
        
          its premises by moving from the Montjuïc
        
        
          venue to the Gran Via venue, which allowed
        
        
          the show to continue growing and to reach
        
        
          an unprecedented success: 1,700 exhibiting
        
        
          companies and more than 72,000 professional
        
        
          visitors from 200 countries. Signs of the
        
        
          interest raised by the congress were the 3,400
        
        
          accredited journalists or the more than
        
        
          100,000 daily tweets that made the event world
        
        
          trending topic. MWC had an estimated economic
        
        
          impact for the city and its surroundings of
        
        
          320 millions euros.
        
        
          Over four days, chief executives from
        
        
          companies such as AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China
        
        
          Mobile, CNN Digital, Deezer, Deutsche Telekom,
        
        
          Dropbox, Ericsson, General Motors, Foursquare,
        
        
          Juniper Networks, Mozilla Foundation, Nielsen,
        
        
          Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Ooredoo, Qualcomm,
        
        
          Telefónica, Viber and Vodafone talked at
        
        
          conferences and took part in debates addressing
        
        
          the main issues related to the development of
        
        
          mobile technology in the near future.
        
        
          Conferences covered a wide range of subjects,
        
        
          such as applications, cloud computing, big data,
        
        
          Wallets, NFC, small cells and smart cities, as well
        
        
          as the role of mobile phones in related industries
        
        
          like advertising, automotive, finance and retail,
        
        
          among others.
        
        
          AREA
        
        
          94,000 m² (net)
        
        
          EXHIBITORS
        
        
          + de 1,700
        
        
          TYPE
        
        
          Professional
        
        
          ACTIVITIES
        
        
          Directors’ summit,
        
        
          conferences, technical
        
        
          seminars, App Planet,
        
        
          Connected City,
        
        
          NFC Experience
        
        
          ORGANISED BY
        
        
          GSMA in collaboration
        
        
          with Fira de Barcelonaa