catalonia, the international meeting point for the mobile industry during mwc

barcelona, february 19, 2016. - over 95,000 professionals and 2,000 exhibitors will meet up in catalonia during the mobile world congress (mwc) organised by the gsma and celebrated in barcelona for the eleventh year running. an event that will bring together the entire mobile industry to present the latest sector innovations. 

this year, the mwc will count on the presence of companies such as google, huawei, microsoft, lenovo, intel, nokia, samsung, at&t, ericsson, telefonica and vodafone. the conference agenda of this year’s event includes major figures from leading international companies such as the president of qualcomm incorporated, derek aberle, the president and ceo of the ford motor company, mark fields, the ceo of getty images, dawn airey, and the ceo of the intel corporation, brian krzanich. furthermore, the congress will feature a conference given by facebook’s founder, mark zuckerberg, and the participation of the formula 1 pilot, lewis hamilton, who will explain how wireless technology is changing the face of the automotive world. 

the government of catalonia, via the public agency catalonia trade & investment, organises a 1,000 m2 stand available to 60 catalan companies and entities within the mobile world congress, and where over 4,600 business meetings are expected to be held over the four days of the congress. it also facilitates the presence of 18 start-ups in the third year of the 4yfm event — the international meeting held coinciding with the mwc — set up by entrepreneurs and investors from the mobile sector. 

within the framework of the mwc, catalonia trade & investment will receive over 20 trade delegations from all over the world, interested in discovering the opportunities to be found in the catalan ict sector. visits by organisations, companies and official delegations from countries such as japan, south korea, chile, argentina, belgium, sweden, the usa, china and peru, to name just a few. the 15 directors of the 36 catalan government trade and investment offices around the world will also be attending the event. furthermore, this year the catalonia stand will dedicate part of its facilities to a group of north american ict companies, thanks to an agreement between the governments of catalonia and california. 

meetings between companies from all over the world 

the catalonia stand will once again be the setting for the brokerage event held by the government of catalonia, as a member of the enterprise europe network (een) from the european commission. this is a series of international meetings between companies working in mobile communication technology. they are pre-arranged meetings lasting 30 minutes with the goal of finding partners to develop innovative projects via international cooperation agreements, in areas such as trade, licence distribution, joint ventures, subcontracting, technology transfer and collaborative r+d agreements. 

this year over 450 companies have registered from over 30 countries. of particular note are the companies from catalonia (151), france (62), united kingdom (26), belgium (20), south korea (17), sweden (14), poland (13), finland (13) and austria (13). this is the eleventh year this key event has been celebrated with over 10,000 meetings held since it was first held in 2006. 

catalonia, firmly on the global mobile map 

top ict companies are already successfully located in barcelona. with 12,800 ict companies at present, the number has been constantly growing since 2008. with an ict workforce of some 84,600 and a vigorous mix of consolidated companies and new business ventures, catalonia has generated a large pool of highly skilled workers. accompanying this talent is an outstanding academic support system with more than 15,000 students in mobile-related studies at internationally renowned universities such as the upc barcelonatech, esade or upf. 

catalonia has received one-third of the fdi into spanish mobile sector during the 2009-2015 period and is the 3rd continental western european region in terms of job creation in the ict sector in 2015. with 56% of the r&d projects received in spain since 2009, catalonia has proven itself as one of the most interesting locations to establish these type of projects. 

barcelona will be the mobile world capital from 2012 to 2023. this means that not only the international flagship mobile event will be held yearly here — the gsma mobile world congress — but a whole range of activities and programmes all year around will create a dynamic, professional ecosystem for the mobile world and its satellite industries. this initiative has transformed barcelona into the permanent global centre for mobile technologies, has involved the development of a business environment focused on this type of industry on an international level and has made barcelona a global benchmark for mobile transformation. 

proof of this can be seen in the fact that barcelona was named in 2014 as first european capital of innovation by the eu and is today considered to be the 4th smart city in europe and the 10th worldwide.