Sunday, March 4, 2018

2018 Mobile World Congress nets 107,000 visitors just below last year's record

Attendance at the 2018 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was 107,000 visitors, down slightly from 108,000 attendees in 2017 and compared with 101,000 attendees in 2016.

Some stats for #MWC2018:

  • attendees came from 205 countries and territories
  • there were 2,400 exhibitors, up from 2,300 last year
  • over 55 percent of attendees held senior-level positions, including more than 7,700 CEOs, up from more than 6,100 CEOs in 2017. 
  • approximately 24 percent of attendees were female, an increase from 23 percent last year.
  • 28 percent of speakers in the conference programme were female, compared with 21 percent in 2017
  • there were over 3,500 journalists and analysts in attendance
  • preliminary independent economic analysis indicates that the 2018 Mobile World Congress will have contributed approximately €471 million and over 13,000 part-time jobs to the local economy.


“We had another highly successful Mobile World Congress, across so many fronts,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Ltd. “We are gratified with the number of senior-level attendees, particularly the number of CEOs, as well as the continued strong attendance of government ministers and regulators. However, we are not focused on necessarily having the biggest event – we continually strive to convene the right audience and deliver a high-quality experience across all aspects of the event, the conference, the exhibition, and the many other programmes and events at Mobile World Congress.”

Mobile World Congress 2019 will be held 25-28 February, 2019 in Barcelona.