BARCELONA- A record-breaking 72,000
visitors are expected at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona according
to the GSMA. So many visitors, in fact, that the show will be spread out over
both the original Fira expo area AND the new Fira site (also known as Fira2) in
the Hospitalet neighbourhood.
This won’t be the only change for this year
under the theme of “Creating What’s Next”-in fact, the GSMA has announced a
series of new events, themes and activities. One of them is mPowered Industries
programme designed to gauge the interest in mobile of different industries.
Several key figures (including John Matonis and Rich Riley) will be attending the
show and giving talks on current trending topics, from bitcoins, to mobile
media, mHealth and mobile advertising.
Even though the usual raft of product
announcements will still dominate the news and are set to capture the attention
of the public, the 2014 promises to broaden the appeal of the show way beyond
hardware. The play by the GSMA is to bring into play key industries and key
content owners that are expected to drive demand for mobility services in the
next decade.
More coverage on the MWC14 in subsequent blog
posts and on my Twitter stream (handle:ricferr_mobile).
