After months of planning, media and analyst interviews have been booked-in, speaker presentations have been perfected and the Global Mobile Award nominees are eagerly awaiting their fate.
Traditionally, effective Mobile World Congress PR has been about focused on how to influence these three channels. All three still have their place in helping vendors to generate awareness of their products and/or services and build their profile, but they shouldn’t be regarded as the ‘be all and end all’.
CCgroup’s latest Mobile & Telecoms Catalyst report “How to Sell to Telcos in the Age of Digital Transformation” revealed that for 44% of operators trade shows will grow in importance over the next two years, as they become an influential source of information about products, services and suppliers.
Mobile World Congress is therefore as much about relationship building to open-up access to potential customers. These relationships can only be built by individuals directly, or through a series of trusted partnerships. And are often best built at industry networking environments, so this channel should not be ignored.
Thankfully, there is ample opportunity for networking while you’re at MWC. And to help you here is the CCgroup Mobile & Telecoms team’s brief roundup of the some of the best events taking place during this year’s show.
Sunday 25th February
13:00 – 18:30 Mobile IoT Summit – The 6th Mobile IoT Summit will focus on the rapid growth and momentum behind both NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies.
18:00 – 22:00 Mobile Sunday – Tech.eu kicks off your first night with talks from global industry experts and startup founders at Antigua Fàbrica Estrella Damm.
19:00 – 20:30 Meet the Editors & Analysts Cocktail Party – Enjoy a drink, some tapas, and the chance to meet the teams from Light Reading, Heavy Reading, Telecoms.com and Ovum at Aba Granados.
Monday 26th February
13:00 – 16:00 13th Annual Ladies Get Together – An opportunity for ladies (and men accompanied by women) in the mobile industry to get together for the annual lunch.
19:00 – 22:00 IoT Stars – IoT startups and companies can all be found pitching and networking on Monday night at Antigua Fàbrica Estrella Damm at this event hosted by Tech.eu.
20:00 – 23:00 MEF Connects – Now in its 16th year, MEF’s annual invite-only event returns to the historic buildings of the University of Barcelona.
Tuesday 27th February
12:15 – 14:00 The Road to 5G: From Fixed, to Mobile, and Beyond – Join FierceWireless for their luncheon series with speakers from AT&T and Verizon at the Fira Congress Hotel.
16:00 – 18:00 IoT Garden Party – Meet the leading lights of the global IoT industry for an afternoon of networking and entertainment at the Networking Garden between Halls 6 & 7.
19:30 – 22:30 Women in Mobile – This year’s Women in Mobile event will look at the theme “Personalisation based on AI”, and will take place at La Bonne, the Women’s Culture Center.
20:00 – 00:00 Mobile Marketing Mixer – Don’t miss Mobile Marketing Magazine’s annual mixer with an open bar and great music at the converted old Moritz beer factory, Cerveceria Moritz.
Wednesday 28th February
19:00 – 11:30 #MWC Networking event – A mix of interactive panels, roundtables and workshops and a live concert, hosted by Tech Tribe at Barceló Raval.
19:00 – 01:00 Swedish Beers – A regular on the MWC calendar, the mobile networking event welcomes you for a relaxed evening where you can leave your formalities at the door.
This is the final blog in our Congress Crunch series and brings us near to the end of the 2018 Mobile World Congress journey. We hope you have found our insights useful.
The CCgroup Mobile & Telecoms team will be at the show, supporting 11 clients and staffing almost 100 briefings with key media and analysts. If you would like to hear about how we could support you at Mobile World Congress 2019 we’d be happy to meet in Barcelona – please just drop us a line. After all, it’s never too early to start planning…
