Eulàlia Ripoll is a key player in the Mobile World Congress. As a event director of one of the most important meetings to be held in Spain in 2013, Eulàlia’s views and opinions about the MICE sector should be listened with attention.
Mobile World Congress will take place from 25th to 28th February 2013 at Fira Gran Via, Barcelona. During last year’s edition, the congress received more than 68,000 attendees from 205 countries: a 50% held at least C-Level positions, including more than 3.000 CEO’s. The congress had a total amount of 1,500 exhibitors and 3,300 media representatives reported about the event.
E&TB Group blog is proud to publish a two-part interview with the woman that oversees all the departments and actors involved in the MWC. On this interview’s first part, Eulàlia Ripoll unveils how challenging is to coordinate such a big event.
- Mobile World Congress is the world’s most important B2B event in the Telecommunication Industry. Can you explain to us what are the most difficult challenges of this congress and how do you solve them?
As you can imagine, the sheer size of the event requires significant planning – we expect more than 70,500 attendees this year. We work very hard across all areas of the business –sales, operations, customer care, marketing, etc.– to ensure that people are well prepared to attend Mobile World Congress and they will have an outstanding experience.
This year new challenges await, as we are moving to Fira Gran Vía. We are very excited about this new space and the opportunities we will have here, but after being in a unique location for so long and being so familiar with the Montjuïc venue, it takes a bit more preparation.
We have been working the whole year in order to help our exhibitors and attendees to familiarise with the new venue, and we expect everything will proceed smoothly.
- Precisely, this year MWC edition will move to a new location, the Fira Gran Via exhibition centre. Why did the congress decide to move to a new location?
Mobile World Congress has grown significantly since we came to Barcelona, and the Montjuïc venue can no longer accommodate such a huge and popular event. The Gran Via is a new, cutting-edge exhibition and conference facility that provides greater space and flexibility, and should accommodate the Mobile World Congress for any longer.
- How would you describe the impact of MWC in the city of Barcelona?
The economic impact of the Mobile World Congress event for Barcelona is remarkable, specially from 2006 through 2012, the Mobile World Congress generated approximately €1.8 billion incomes and creates 39,000 part-time jobs for Barcelona.
Further than this, the Mobile World Congress is the centerpiece of the Mobile World Capital, which will be hosted in Barcelona from 2013 to 2018. The Mobile World Capital initiative also includes the Mobile World Centre, the Mobile World Festival and the Mobile World Hub, programmes and activities that will span the entire year. The worldwide mobile industry, Spain, Catalonia and of course, the citizens will take advantages of this magnificent event.
- What made Barcelona the winning destination to host the WMC until 2018?
The complete range of cities that competed to become Mobile World Capital [Note: the cities were Paris, Munich and Milan] presented extremely innovative and compelling bids, but at the end, Barcelona truly demonstrated that it deserves the title of the Mobile World Capital.
The selection of the Mobile World Capital was based on many criteria and took into consideration all aspects of what a city can offer. Meeting the needs of our members and customers remains our most important priority. The city’s development strategy for all of the elements of the Mobile World Capital is critical, and of course, logistics, weather, crime rates, prices of services or hotels were part of the decision-making process.
Coming soon, the second part…
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