back to article No writing on the wall is bad news for the GSMA

I've been trying to work out what GSMA does – apart from Mobile World Congress, that is. The list is rather impressive: it does a lot of very wonderful things. The trouble is, all of those splendid projects seem to depend on MWC being a financial success. I can't see much else that makes money for the GSMA. I can see a lot, …

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  1. S
    Thumb Down

    I agree

    Yep, this year's event was very poor. I think many companies will be choosing to cancel before the 30 day period for next year.

  2. Pete James

    the show must go on!

    I've noticed several UK trade shows have been either merged together or cancelled outright. and to be honest it's not before time. The exhibitors are often badly prepared with ill-conceived stands, the staff don't take them seriously with poorly trained promotional bodies or hungover Gareth Cheeseman wannabes, and a good proporation of the audience are there to network their own services. The remaining audience - who might actually be interested in something - wonder why half the time they bother.

    While my hatred of Accountants extends to not relieving myself on one if they were suffering from a conflagration, in the case of exhibitions they're right to ask awkward questions about spending money on an exhibition. But the entire board should be asking similarly hard questions at the sales function just as much as their marketing neighbours. For too long companies have allocated silly sums to exhibitions without nailing people to the wall over objectives or making proper value assessments, ending yet another poor show with the classic 'it's really helped our brand exposure' line. What a load of cock.

    I'll be very interested to see how InfoSec goes this year. You'd think security would be fairly bullet-proof, but my sources say it could well tank this year.

    I hope they're wrong.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    And their prices are going up!

    GSMA is trying to hike it's prices for booth space by 20% for next year! At least thats what we've been quoted for our hall 2 spot. I think we'll be going off-campus.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Price Hike

    Yep - they want almost £1000 p/ sq metre in Hall 2 for a shell scheme next year. Staggering.

  5. Robert Hill
    Stop

    Not just the show itself...

    But BARCELONA needs to clean itself up, and quickly. It's a great venue, but the street crime there has reached epidemic proportions (and has for some time). My co-worker had his laptop stolen from a bag tucked between his legs at lunch, and was then mugged by 6 guys in the street walking home from after dinner drinks - all in a space of 12 hours. There were two full mobile police stations in the venue itself - and my friend spent 2 hours filling in a simple theft report at one after the laptop was gone (no crime number = no laptop replacement by company). My friend, incidentally, is a 17 stone rugby player, and not someone you would go against lightly. But they were so pro, he didn't even get a swing in.

    The cops CAN run lots of sting operations, they can have a lot more police presence in popular tourist areas at night - but they don't. But the overall crime in Barcelona really left me wondering if I would ever bother to go back, either for the show, or to visit as a tourist...no matter how great the food was, or how many contacts I made...

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