MWC19 is coming soon

The mobile industrys biggest event kicks off in a couple of weeks time. So what, and who, is in store?

MWC19 Barcelona (formerly Mobile World Congress), takes in just over two weeks’ time from 25-28 February, with events being staged at Fira Gran Via, Fira Montjuïc and La Farga L’Hospitalet, MWC19 Barcelona is set to attract more than 107,000 professionals from over 200 countries and territories.

“With the anticipated arrival of 5G, this year’s event is set to be one of the most exciting as the industry convenes to showcase Intelligent Connectivity across new technologies on the brink of reaching millions of people across the world,” said John Hoffman, CEO of the GSMA. “Over the four days of MWC19, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from leaders who are driving innovation and we look forward once again to welcoming the mobile world to Barcelona.”

Global leaders to keynote
The event features a host of keynote speakers, including executives from leading mobile operators and organisations shaping the future of mobile. New keynote speakers include:

• Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO, Cisco
• Dieter Zetsche, chairman, Daimler AG and Mercedes Benz
• Mariya Gabriel, commissioner, Digital Economy and Society, European Union
• Thomas Bach, president, IOC
• Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
• John Hanke, founder and CEO, Niantic Inc.
• Hiroshi Mikitani, founder, CEO and chairman, Rakuten
• H.E. Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, director general, Smart Dubai
• Amina  Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General, United Nations
• Sir Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group

There’s more information on the conference, including the agenda and keynote speakers, here.

4YFN
4 Years from Now (4YFN), one of the world’s most influential start-up event platforms, will welcome over 21,000 attendees in its sixth edition in Barcelona, with sponsors including Banco Sabadell, Airbus, Telefonica and Vueling.

This year, 4YFN will be the first conference ever to reach the stratosphere, releasing the resolutions of start-ups for a better future into the atmosphere and taking the 4YFN Awards trophy to new heights. 4YFN attendees will have the opportunity to meet the growing global tech start-up community, including over 600 tech start-ups exhibiting in the Innovation Market.

The 4YFN programme will feature notable speakers including Claudia Nemat, Board Member, Deutsche Telekom; Adeo Ressi, Founder, Founder Institute and Jared Ficklin, Strategic Design Partner with Magic Leap and Chief Creative Technologist, argodesign.

This year’s 4YFN themes will be Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics, Tech4Good and Blockchain. There’s more information here.

Innovation City 
The popular GSMA Innovation City will return to MWC19, placing a particular emphasis on the theme of ‘Intelligent Connectivity’ – the mix of 5G, IoT, AI and big data and how it will positively impact the lives of citizens and businesses around the world.

Visitors will have the opportunity to experience a number of hands-on demonstrations across a range of diverse sectors including entertainment, transportation, environment and robotics from our partners Google, Huawei, KT Corporation, Sierra Wireless and Turkcell, as well as from GSMA industry and advocacy programmes.  Theres more  information here .

MWC Tours
MWC Barcelona will again offer attendees focused Topic Tours of the exhibition at Fira Gran Via, led by industry experts. The GSMA also offers bespoke Custom Experience Tours to address attendees’ specific business objectives and requirements.

Newly-announced Topic Tour Partners include:

• 5G and NFV Tour: Award Solutions, Nishith Tripathi and Mark Harms (Internet of Things)
• Mobile Advertising and Apps Tour: Geometry, Olivia Pasquinelli and Doug Chavez (Retail and Digital Commerce)
• What’s Hot at MWC Tour: Stratacache, Manolo Almargro and Ben Gauthier (Artificial Intelligence)
• Cybersecurity Tour: BLUE Software – Stephen Kaufman

There’s more information, including how to participate in a tour, here

Women4Tech Summit 
Back for its third year and continuing the GSMA’s commitment to reducing the gender gap in the mobile ecosystem, the GSMA Women4Tech Summit will gather senior leaders to discuss hot topics ranging from finding AI talent to working in a post #MeToo world, among others.

Newly-confirmed speakers include:

• Dr. Athina Kanioura, chief data scientist, Applied Intelligence, Accenture
• Miriam Vogel, executive director, EqualAI
• Helena Norrman SVP, chief marketing and communications officer, Ericsson
• Ursula Soritsch-Renier, group CIO and digital leader, Nokia
• Lauren Brown, director of special projects, Quartz
• Catherine Michel, CTO, Sigma Systems
• Kjersti Jamne, CMO and VP consumer, Telia
• Alex Badenoch, group executive transformation and people, Telstra
• Elisabetta Romano, CTO, TIM

The GSMA announced several new events within the Women4Tech Summit. Inside Track offers attendees seeking to be more competitive in the industry, the opportunity to gain critical insights on their own professional skills from a Fortune 500 expert.

Additionally, the GSMA has introduced two invitation-only activities: the Women4Tech Roundtable and Women4Tech Dinner, both of which explore ways women can progress to leadership positions and have more participation in Executive Boards.

Accenture is the Official Sponsor for the Women4Tech Summit and also Women4Tech Dinner. Supporting Summit Sponsors are HP Inc., Pinsent Masons and Synchronoss. Other sponsors across the programme include; Cisco, Mastercard, Red Hat, and Visa. Women4Tech Partners includes CBS Interactive, mBolden and the Wall Street Journal. 

The full agenda and speaker line-up can be found here. 

YoMo Barcelona 
New for 2019, YoMo (The Youth Mobile Festival) will showcase a number of exciting new activities. Among them, the Magma Exporecerca Jove Research Fair, featuring an award presentation for competing students at a gala on Saturday, 2 March; the Ciencia en Accción international competition for students, professors and researchers in the science community; the launch of the “choose your crew” career program; new Tech4Girls activities and a new Teacher Track from the Institute of European Design inclusive of speakers, immersive fashion and wearables. 

Fundación Repsol and Fundación Telefónica are newly announced YoMo partners, while other recently signed sponsors include Elisava, Grupo Edelvives, Grupo SM, Intech3D, Microsoft and Robotix Lego Education. YoMo media partners include Diari De L’Educació and Harvard Duesto Learning and Pedagogics. Theres more information here

For more information on MWC19 Barcelona, including how to attend, exhibit or sponsor, visit www.mwcbarcelona.com. Follow @GSMAEvents on Twitter for event developments and updates and use #MWC19 to be part of the conversation.