How did Barcelona come out on top of all the cities that could have been designated the Mobile World Capital?
GSMA CEO John Hoffman likes to say they flipped a coin five times and it came up Barcelona each time, but he admits, he’s joking.
“It was a pretty intense process,” he said in an interview today. The GSMA started with 45 locations about 18 months ago and planned to whittle it to three by the first of this year but found there was just too much to offer from the final four that they ended up at that number: Barcelona, Milan, Munich and Paris.
On Friday, GSMA announced Barcelona as the winner, meaning it will be the site of Mobile World Congress (MWC) through 2018. It also earned the extra distinction of being the Mobile World Capital, which Barcelona city and Catalonia officials are expected to elaborate on during a Wednesday press conference at Fira de Barcelona Montjuic.
As for which city came in second place, Hoffman’s not saying, but he did give praise to all of the finalist cities, each of which offered more space than what is available for the MWC trade show at the current location near the National Palace. In 2013, it will move to the Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, which offers state-of-the-art facilities and space to grow. The new location will be slightly closer to the airport, but it’s still in the city and may be even easier for getting around because it has good transport links, better taxi queues and generally more space than the cramped area around the current area, according to Hoffman.
Hoffman said a lot of factors went into the decision-making process, including transportation, size of facilities and geo-political, economic and cultural considerations. The GSMA gets a lot of feedback from attendees and exhibitors from surveys and anecdotes and tried to incorporate as much of that as possible, taking out personal biases pro or against a city. A city like Paris has a lot more hotels than the conference requires and the other three cities had about the same amount, he said.
Hotels are a key consideration for a lot of people. Conference organizers negotiate with hoteliers directly and secure prices and discounts where hotels decide to participate, but Hoffman admits “hotels are a touchy subject,” and the conference is not in the hotel business. On the positive side, the MWC show occurs in the first quarter, so it’s not the most peak season for travel.
Hoffman also said he knows the cost of attendance is very important to conference goers, from airfare to hotels and taxis and meals – it’s a big expenditure – and “we want to keep it as reasonable as possible.” That said, the aim of the show is not about attracting the biggest crowds and appealing to an array of people who are just coming to kick the tires and trying to get jobs, but “it’s about having the right attendees.”
An added benefit of having picked Barcelona: The city has been and will be hosting the trade show in 2012, it can get a jump on some of the activities planned as part of being the Mobile World Capital.
The show also will be moving to a little later in the calendar year – Feb. 27 through March 1 in 2012, avoiding past conflicts with the Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day and school holidays.
Before Barcelona, the MWC, then called 3GSM, was held in Cannes, France, until 2006, but the event outgrew the space available there.