The convention and trade show business came to a dead stop last year when lockdowns and stay-at-home orders began to spread. Now, it appears, there are signs of life.
Mobile World Congress (MWC)—the biggest show of the wireless industry—is planning to welcome 50,000 people to Barcelona in late June. The GSM Association (GSMA), which organizes the show, says all attendees will need to provide a negative COVID-19 test and repeat that test every 72 hours.
The show would be held from June 28 through July 1.
MWC was one of the first major summer trade shows to pull the plug last year, canceling MWC Barcelona 2020 in February. The move underscored just how serious the situation was and offered some visibility into how long business leaders expected it to continue.
While 50,000 is a significant number, especially after a year of being warned against large crowds, it’s still just a fraction of the show’s usual attendance. MWC Barcelona 2019 welcomed over 109,000 attendees and 2,400 exhibitors.
GSMA has done a smaller test run of this sort of show already. In February, 17,000 people attended MWC Shanghai. Officials tell Bloomberg there have been no confirmed cases of COVID that resulted from that gathering, which encouraged them to host a larger show this summer.
Trade shows are more than just an excuse to pad expense accounts and see new products. For organizations like GSMA, they’re a critical income stream, making up as much as 80% of a trade group’s annual revenues, as exhibitors spend millions of dollars for premier space.
Other significant trade shows and conventions are still embracing virtual get-togethers this year. E3, the video game industry’s annual trade show, will reportedly be an online-only event this year. (The Entertainment Software Association, which hosts the show, has not yet made a formal announcement.) And San Diego Comic-Con said it won’t do an in-person gathering until 2022.
