With More Than 93,000 Visitors, Attendance Up By 9 Per Cent

BARCELONA, Spain - Friday, March 6th 2015 [ME NewsWire]

Over Mobile World Congress 2014

Mobile World Congress 2015

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The GSMA today reported that more than 93,000* visitors from 200 countries attended the 2015 Mobile World Congress at the Fira Gran Via and Fira Montjuïc venues in Barcelona, setting another new record for the mobile industry’s premier event. The 2015 Mobile World Congress featured more than 2,000 exhibiting companies showcasing cutting-edge products and services across 100,000 net square metres of exhibition and hospitality space. More than 3,800 international media and industry analysts attended the event to report on the many significant industry announcements made at the Congress. Preliminary independent economic analysis indicates that the 2015 Mobile World Congress will have contributed more than €436 million and nearly 12,675 part-time jobs to the local economy.

“As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we are gratified by the record-breaking success we’ve seen this year,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “It’s been a tremendously exciting show, with many major device launches, discussion and debate on the future of our industry and demonstrations of the cutting-edge products and services that customers are enjoying now and will experience in the future. The industry has advanced significantly over the past decade and we look forward to the many new developments that the next ten years will surely hold.”

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 companies from industry sectors such as automotive, finance and healthcare, as well as government delegations from across the globe. Over 52 per cent of this year’s Mobile World Congress attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 5,000 CEOs and 18 per cent of attendees for the 2015 show were women.

Leading CEOs Take the Stage at Mobile World Congress

The Mobile World Congress conference programme featured two Mobile World Live keynotes. On Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was joined onstage by Christian De Faria, CEO of Airtel Africa, Mario Zanotti, Senior Vice President of Operations at Millicom and Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor Group to discuss efforts to extend connectivity to more people around the world. The Tuesday evening Mobile World Live keynote featured Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in a discussion on the impact of recent telecommunications regulation in the United States.

CEOs and senior executives from companies including ARM, AT&T, Avegant, AVG Technologies, BBVA, BSH Home Appliances, Deutsche Telekom, Dialog Axiata, e-Estonia, Ericsson, Hong Leong Islamic Bank Berhad, Huawei, Intel, Klarna, KT Corporation, LINE, MasterCard, Micromax Informatics, Mozilla Foundation, Nokia, Orange, Peel, Qualcomm, Renault-Nissan Alliance, SAP, TAPTAP Networks, Telefónica, Telenor, Thinfilm, Visa, VMWare, Vodafone, Wicab and Wikipedia also participated in the keynote programme.

Record Attendance to GSMA Ministerial Programme

The GSMA’s Ministerial Programme again saw record attendance, with 161 delegations representing 136 countries and 25 international organisations, including 69 Ministers and 76 heads of National Regulatory Authorities. The Ministerial Programme brings together governments, regulators and industry leaders to discuss the specific regulatory issues shaping the development of mobile around the world. Tata Consultancy Services was the Official Sponsor for the 2015 GSMA Ministerial Programme.

Experiencing the Internet of Things

A major highlight of the Mobile World Congress was the GSMA Innovation City. This unique space enabled attendees to experience technology in context and see how mobile-connected products and services can improve the daily lives of citizens and businesses across automotive, health, home, retail and other applications, in both urban and rural settings.

The Innovation City offered a real-world city environment that includes a café, a theatre, shops, trains, connected cars and a dental spa. Attendees had the opportunity to experience immersive demonstrations and interactive exhibits catering to a wide range of interests. The Innovation City featured exhibits from the GSMA and AT&T, Jasper, KT Corporation, Oral-B, Sierra Wireless and Vodafone, demonstrating the very latest in mobile connected products and services.

4 Years From Now at Fira Montjuïc

Now in its second year, 4 Years From Now (4YFN) is an international programme presented by Mobile World Capital Barcelona and GSMA bringing together the best mobile start-ups and entrepreneurs with investors, accelerators, incubators and corporations from the mobile ecosystem. Over four days, the 4YFN programme hosted inspiring talks, interactive workshops, cutting-edge exhibition, startup competitions and unique networking opportunities for more than 8,000 attendees, including 4,000 dedicated 4YFN attendees as well as an additional 4,000 visitors from Mobile World Congress at Fira Gran Via.

Mobile World Congress: A Carbon Neutral Event

Mobile World Congress was certified carbon neutral in July 2014, under the PAS 2060 standard, becoming the world’s largest conference and exhibition to achieve this status. In 2015, the GSMA focused on further reducing the environmental impact of the event, reducing electricity consumption and waste in printed materials, encouraging the re-use and recycling of materials at the venue, utilising digital signage and electronic tools and working with Fira Barcelona, exhibitors and local partners to minimise the carbon footprint. Following Mobile World Congress, the GSMA will pursue re-certification, calculating the event’s total carbon footprint and offsetting any outstanding emissions.

Mobile World Congress 2016

The 2016 Mobile World Congress will be held 22-25 February 2016 at Fira Gran Via.

“On behalf of the GSMA, I’d like to thank the city of Barcelona, the city of Hospitalet, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Fira de Barcelona and all of our Barcelona partners, for their continued strong support over the past ten years. We look forward to returning next year and building on our success together,” concluded Hoffman.

The Mobile World Congress is the cornerstone of the Mobile World Capital, which will be hosted in Barcelona from 2013 to 2018. The Mobile World Capital encompasses programmes and activities that span the entire year and will benefit not only the citizens of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, but also the worldwide mobile industry. For more information on the Mobile World Capital, visit www.mobileworldcapital.com.

For more information on the 2015 Mobile World Congress, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com.

Note to editor: *This figure represents the number individual attendees at the event, including delegates, exhibitors, contractors and media; it does not represent the total number of entries to the event.

-ENDS-

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 250 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai and the Mobile 360 Series conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

Contacts

Media:

For the GSMA

Charlie Meredith-Hardy

+44 7917 298428

CMeredith-Hardy@webershandwick.com

or

Núria Picas

+34 93 236 09 00

NPicas@webershandwick.com

or

GSMA Press Office

pressoffice@gsma.com

Permalink: http://www.me-newswire.net/news/13913/en