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Whither Mobile World Congress...
Jan. 26th, 2011 12:36 pm We've been going to Barcelona since 2006 and the "lease" is about to expire. The GSMA, who run this annual beano for the mobile chattering class, have short listed 4 cities to take the 2013-2017 stint.
They are: Barcelona, Milan, Paris and Munich...
Firstly, why change? Barcelona is a fairly ideal venue. There's a good sized convention facility close to the city center. There's ample hotel and apartment space and a great tourist vibe in a city with awesome art, buildings, bars and food. OTOH - one of the things I'll be doing as I fly down there will be to split all my ID and credit cards into separate parts of luggage and I will only leave the hotel with an ATM card, a piece of ID and a Credit Card. There is no force on Earth that would have me carry my passport outside the apartment. Then there's the prostitution, the gangs of muggers (often pretending to be prostitutes) and the general crime. All of which have got slightly better over the last 5 years but it's still pretty damn scary and I suspect that Barcelona have been warned that they need to get their act together if they want to have the 50-60,000 of us for another year.
I still say that Barcelona is odds on to keep the event, but they'll need to get more aggressive about cleaning up La Rambla at night and providing more police.
Milan: It's currently 11C and sunny in Barcelona versus 6C and raining in Milan. Night time temperatures in Milan are still below freezing. So that's a definite strike against them. On the upside, Milan can deal with big shows and I've not spent much time in Italy, so that could be good. I'd say it's definitely second on my list.
Paris: I love Paris. I've worked in Paris. I understand the Metro, I speak a smattering of the language, I know where to find all the great little backstreet restaurants in the Pres a St Germain... but it's a lousy conference city.
Munich: First off, too damn cold in Feb. I've been there in March and there was snow on the ground and it was unpleasant. That counts against an event with lots of wandering around and trying to meet up with people. The town does handle huge tourist numbers, but that's in the Autumn when it's a metric shitload warmer and they do a lot of stuff outside in tents etc... Not convinced this is the right place for an event that's used to warmish evenings.
So... I suspect it'll be Barcelona again.
They are: Barcelona, Milan, Paris and Munich...
Firstly, why change? Barcelona is a fairly ideal venue. There's a good sized convention facility close to the city center. There's ample hotel and apartment space and a great tourist vibe in a city with awesome art, buildings, bars and food. OTOH - one of the things I'll be doing as I fly down there will be to split all my ID and credit cards into separate parts of luggage and I will only leave the hotel with an ATM card, a piece of ID and a Credit Card. There is no force on Earth that would have me carry my passport outside the apartment. Then there's the prostitution, the gangs of muggers (often pretending to be prostitutes) and the general crime. All of which have got slightly better over the last 5 years but it's still pretty damn scary and I suspect that Barcelona have been warned that they need to get their act together if they want to have the 50-60,000 of us for another year.
I still say that Barcelona is odds on to keep the event, but they'll need to get more aggressive about cleaning up La Rambla at night and providing more police.
Milan: It's currently 11C and sunny in Barcelona versus 6C and raining in Milan. Night time temperatures in Milan are still below freezing. So that's a definite strike against them. On the upside, Milan can deal with big shows and I've not spent much time in Italy, so that could be good. I'd say it's definitely second on my list.
Paris: I love Paris. I've worked in Paris. I understand the Metro, I speak a smattering of the language, I know where to find all the great little backstreet restaurants in the Pres a St Germain... but it's a lousy conference city.
Munich: First off, too damn cold in Feb. I've been there in March and there was snow on the ground and it was unpleasant. That counts against an event with lots of wandering around and trying to meet up with people. The town does handle huge tourist numbers, but that's in the Autumn when it's a metric shitload warmer and they do a lot of stuff outside in tents etc... Not convinced this is the right place for an event that's used to warmish evenings.
So... I suspect it'll be Barcelona again.
