MWC Barcelona: GSMA satisfied with 109,000 visitors
It was packed again: After years of the pandemic, MWC Barcelona has recovered. The GSMA is satisfied with the trade fair, which has many offshoots.
The MWC closes: Entrance to the exhibition grounds in Barcelona
(Image: heise online/rbr)
With around 109,000 visitors from 205 countries, the MWC Barcelona 2025 mobile trade fair came to an end on Thursday afternoon. This means that the number of visitors to the MWC has returned to the level of recent years before the measures to slow down the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the trade fair attracted 109,000 visitors for the last time, compared to 101,000 last year.
Visitor numbers as before the pandemic
The industry association GSMA as organizer is satisfied with the more than 2,900 exhibitors and an extensive conference program. "The entire industry comes together at MWC, and this year's event proved how quickly technology is changing the world around us," said trade fair boss John Hoffman.
More than 1,000 young companies met 900 investors at the Startup Fair, which took place at the same time. With the support of the MWC, the "Talent Arena" also took place for the first time after a test run last year, bringing together over 20,000 young professionals and company representatives.
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Change at the top of the GSMA
This was GSMA Director Mats Granryd's last MWC as head of the association. His contract expires and after the trade fair he will hand over the position to Vivek Badrinath, who was most recently CEO of radio tower operator Vantage Towers. "I have been involved in MWC since the early days and am very proud of how the show has developed," said Granryd.
The roots of the MWC lie in a conference on European mobile communications that took place in Brussels in 1987. The first GSM World Congress took place in Rome in 1990 and, after stops in various European cities, landed in Cannes in 1996, where the show remained until it moved to Barcelona in 2006. The GSMA recently extended the contract with Barcelona until 2030. The next MWC Barcelona will take place from March 2 to 5, 2026.
The trade fair now has offshoots in Shanghai (China), Las Vegas (USA) and Kigali (Rwanda). At the beginning of the week, the GSMA also signed a five-year contract with the government of Qatar. MWC Doha will take place for the first time on November 25 and 26, 2025 at the Doha Exhibition & Convention Center.
(vbr)
