Mobile World Congress 2017

From 27 February to 2 March 2017 Barcelona hosted the Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest mobile phone trade fair. The event brought together more than 100,000 attendees and had a strong impact on hotels and restaurants. During those days the city saw a concentration of professional visitors that filled accommodation, restaurants and transport, and that was felt across much of the local economy. For many businesses, handling that influx was a challenge of organisation and staffing.

For Barcelona, events of this kind are an important part of its appeal as a business and technology city. Organisers choose a venue for its capacity to host, its connectivity and its surroundings, and the repetition year after year of such a congress consolidates the city’s reputation. That is why it matters not only to hotels but to any company that wants to make use of the international visibility it generates.

More than a trade fair

A congress of this size is at once a technology showcase, a place to do business and an economic engine for the host city. For a few days, demand for accommodation, transport, restaurants and services is concentrated in one place. That concentration has visible effects on prices, on occupancy and on the everyday organisation of streets, shops and companies in the area.

At the same time, around the congress parallel meetings, presentations and informal encounters between companies multiply. Many commercial agreements or future contacts begin in those corridors rather than in an office. That network dimension, less visible than hotel occupancy, is one of the reasons cities compete to attract and keep events of this kind. When a city can host such an event well, it gains the confidence to aim for others of a similar scale.

Who benefits

Hotels and restaurants are the most visible, but suppliers, event companies, taxis, shops and local businesses that use the occasion to make contacts also gain. For many small and medium-sized companies, these days are a chance to meet partners and customers they would hardly gather otherwise, and to show what they can do to an international audience without having to travel.

Not everyone benefits equally, and some activities may lose out: businesses that depend on a regular customer who avoids the centre on those dates, or services whose journeys become harder because of the influx of visitors. Each company should therefore assess in advance how the event will affect it, and not assume it will always be favourable. A conversation with regular customers before the dates is usually enough to avoid misunderstandings.

Making the most of it

Anyone with a business in the city can prepare in advance what to offer: extra capacity, longer opening hours, additional staff or agreements with companies in the sector. Good planning makes it possible to meet demand without quality suffering, and avoids improvised hiring or last-minute purchases that end up costly and inefficient. The sooner needs are pinned down, the more room there is to negotiate reasonable terms with suppliers and collaborators.

And anyone renting out a property or space should know the legal conditions that apply on these dates, as well as the obligations on licensing, information for visitors and coexistence with neighbours. A badly set up short-term let can cause problems with the authorities or with the community. An adviser can help check that everything is in order before the dates arrive. Relations with neighbours deserve special attention: noise and the use of shared space are a common source of conflict.

Fixed dates in the calendar reward those who prepare in time.

This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.