Mobile World Congress 2015, the biggest mobile industry event of the year, will take place this week from March 2nd to 5th in Barcelona. The event held at the Fira Grand Via and the Fira Montjuïc is expected to draw close to 90,000 attendees. Besides roaming the show floor to witness some of the spectacular and innovative tech that will certainly be on display from the over 1800 exhibitors, here are the top five can’t-miss happenings at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Innovation City
Based on the very successful Connected City exhibit of previous years, Mobile World Congress this year will feature Innovation City to bring a fully immersive mobile experience to visitors. The exhibit will feature experiential demonstrations from AT&T, Jasper, KT Corporation, Oral-B, Sierra Wireless and Vodafone. These demonstrations will include experiences such as virtual reality and connect sports. Innovation City is located in Hall 3, Stands 3A11 & 3A31.
4YFN
The Fira Montjuïc will feature an exhibit entitled 4YFN (4 Years from Now). In its second year, 4YFN brings together the best mobile start-ups and entrepreneurs with investors, accelerators, incubators and corporations from the mobile ecosystem. It will host inspiring talks, interactive workshops, cutting-edge exhibition and unique networking opportunities for attendees from 70 countries. 4YFN will cover a different topic each day and will be led by globally known experts in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. Topics include ‘disrupted by mobile’, the internet of things, and digital media.
App Planet
For the attendee who is focused on the app side of mobile, App Planet is the exhibit for you. Located in Hall 8.1, it brings together innovators, developers, and speakers focused on driving app innovation. With more than 200 exhibitors, App Planet will showcase the intersection of apps, gadgets, devices, and technology in the mobile ecosystem.
Wearables
Mobile World Congress also features pavilions dedicated to emerging technology subjects such as the cloud, green technology, and mobile money. One pavilion, located in Congress Square will be dedicated to the hot topic of wearables. From smart watches and smart glasses to health bands and smart fabrics, wearables are big business to mobile. This pavilion will feature interactive exhibits from a variety of wearable vendors. The congress will also feature a conference session on wearables in Hall 4 on Tuesday 3 March at 14:00 – 15:30.
Keynotes and Sessions
The congress draws many top executives from the premier global brands, this year including talks from AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Intel, SAP, Nokia, Orange, VMWare, Wikipedia, and many more. But hands down, the most anticipated keynote at this year’s MWC is Mark Zuckerberg. If you are not able to attend a keynote you can always watch via the conference broadcast, Mobile World Live.
There are also many sessions focussed on other next gen tech such as Innovation at the Edge of Real and Virtual – Thursday, 5 March at 9:30 – 11:00, Integrating Interactions with the Connected Consumer – Monday, 2 March at 16:00 – 17:30, and Everything is Connected: Enabling IoT – Thursday, 5 March at 11:30 – 13:00.
I hope to see you there!
Benjamin Robbins is a co-founder at Palador, a mobile consultancy located in Seattle, WA. He can be found on Twitter @PaladorBenjamin.
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