Should you exhibit at Mobile World Congress?

by | Oct 25, 2011 | Barcelona Guide | 1 comment

Advice from experts on exhibiting at the next major mobile world conference event

For independent apps developers and start-ups, now is the time to finalize any decisions about exhibiting at Mobile World Congress in February 2012.

Here are five web articles with advice that can help you weigh up the pros and cons of participating in the leading mobile world conference industry event for next year – click on the titles to read the articles!

1. MWC App Planet webpages

The official website of MWC is essential reading for anyone considering exhibiting, of course. We recommend signing up to all the email alerts available. The organizers have recently started accepting email addresses for their Apps Planet pages and will begin sharing regular bulletins on this aspect of the mobile world conference event. It is also worth downloading the reports from earlier this year to get a feel for who has exhibited in the past and who has attended. There are some excellent summaries available that share data on the professional roles of participants, and details of who exhibited and what events they hosted this year.

2. Mobile World Congress Insider

This independent website has guest pieces from leading industry experts. We loved the article by Richard White on how to get noticed at mobile world conference events. In summary, he suggests would-be exhibitors consider ‘relationship, resonance and relevance’ when planning their participation.

Relationships: The article recommends participants start contacting journalists and media targets now and build relationships ahead of the event.
Resonance: Would-be exhibitors are encouraged to develop a cheat-sheet to list key talking points including their product’s customer benefits, notes on how your business impacts on the mobile market, and your elevator pitch (in Richard’s words: “who you are, what you do, how you do it and why you do it”).
Relevance: The article’s final recommendation is to make sure that any launch you host should align with the day’s proceedings of the mobile world conference. Identify event themes you can piggyback off more broadly. This is an ideal way to get mentioned in media that highlights other activities at Mobile World Congress and increases your chances of being mentioned in broader media pieces about the conference.

3. Our Enjoy-Barcelona Apps Planet 2012 pages

We have a number of pages on our Enjoy-Barcelona website that can help you plan and decide on your level of involvement at this mobile world conference. Our Apps Planet events page walks you through some deciding factors, and our Enjoy Guide on attending business events in Barcelona is packed full of tips and checklists that can help you make your event run smoothly. Don’t forget to follow our twitter hashtag #welovemwc to keep up to date on our new content or subscribe to our email service to hear about our discount Barcelona apartment offers for Mobile World Congress.

4. Joel on Software’s launch advice blog post

The founder of industry apps developer site stackoverflow wrote a blog post about his experiences launching app products at Techcrunch Disrupt that is equally as valid for Mobile World Congress. Joel shares that launching at a conference is “an incredible team building exercise” – all the more reason why Barcelona apartments make the best accommodation for your business group. You can strengthen bonds over late-night, last-minute planning and debriefing, foster an atmosphere where you all work effortlessly in the same rhythm, and feed off each other’s energies to position your business in the best possible light throughout the mobile world conference major industry event.

5. Marketing Sherpa’s case study advice from DreamForce ‘11

Just as we went online to look for advice from exhibitors at the recent Web Summit 2.0, we got sidetracked by this article from Marketing Sherpa sharing a case study about HubSpot exhibiting at another industry conference. Again, this is advice that you can take to Mobile World Congress. While you may not want to fit your team out in bright orange tracksuits like HubSpot did, the reflections and recommendations throughout this article have been published at the perfect time for you to use when planning your exhibition participation.

Let us know what you think of these articles in the comments below, or on the sites themselves as we are sure the authors of the above articles would all love to hear your feedback. Is there anything else you need to consider when planning whether or not to exhibit at this mobile world conference leading industry event, Mobile World Congress? Email us and we will answer your questions in a future blog post.

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