The slogan of the recently held “Mobile World Congress” fair in Barcelona was: “Leading the transformation”. For some of you these terms mean nothing, for those who live in Barcelona it has a whole different meaning. I am not referring to the fact that the Barcelonese have been the first ones to find out about the election of the iPhone 4 as best mobile device nor about the introduction of the latest HTC Flyer Android tablet. I am referring to the more than obvious interest of Barcelona in achieving excellence in organisation of the fair.
The city of Barcelona has been mobile for the past week. Thousands of policemen were put in action to make this event the best one ever. Reading stories about it, this objective has been well-achieved. Over 60.000 visitors have visited the immense popular Mobile fair. One hundred percent of hotels and all the short stay apartments in Barcelona were booked up these days. Over 150 private jet landings took place on one day at Barcelona airport, several times the normal. More than 800 limousines decorated the city driving the more than 3000 CEO’s of the big mobile corporations from about 200 countries. Taxis from all over Barcelona entered from all parts early in the morning in order to enter the city of Gaudi, Guardiola and the “Mobile World Congress”…
At least, Barcelona still is the city of the “Mobile World Congress” but this is what made this year’s edition so especially interesting. The congress’ organisation announced some time ago that there are new cities in play for the coming editions. The best candidates, apart from Barcelona, seem to be Munich, Paris and Milan.
This caused quite some immediate intervention of the “Ajuntament de Barcelona” also known as the city hall. Not in any of the previous editions the planning and execution of the fair was taken so seriously. Everyone collaborated: restaurant holders, hoteliers, professional providers of the many tourist apartments Barcelona holds adjusted their price levels, the police and even the inhabitants did their utmost to be as friendly as possible helping out and showing the way to lost businessmen.
All hands were on deck in order to maintain this cash cow in Barcelona. This is logical considering that we are talking about an event that brings multimillion earnings to the city. The general impression the city of Barcelona gave was very good and I am sure the organisation sees that if it wasn’t for the effort of all parts involved it would not be possible to lead the transformation so successfully.
See you next year on MWC Barcelona!