Intelligent connectivity at upcoming Mobile World Congress
Event director reveals fair was about to move out of Catalonia last year due to independence issue
The 2019 edition of the world's top fair on mobile phones, the Mobile World Congress, to be held in Barcelona, will feature the intelligent connectivity as one of its hot topics.
This was announced by the fair's director and CEO of GSMA, John Hoffman, during the presentation of the event on Wednesday in the Catalan capital.
The organization aims to gather some 107,000 visitors, a similar figure to last year's.
Some 2,400 exhibitors will meet in the fair, as well as some 2,000 conferences –with one in three speakers being women.
The estimated economic impact of the event to Barcelona is 473 million euros.
During the presentation, Hoffman revealed that the MWC was about to move out of Catalonia last year due to the independence issue.
He said there were two potential locations outside Spain arranged in case the fair had to leave Barcelona.
"Concern" on metro strike
Hoffman expressed "concern" over the strike on the underground called coinciding with the event. "I hope it has a minimum impact," he said.
The Barcelona metro announced Thursday that it will call a partial strike during the Mobile World Congress running from February 25-28.