Fairs in Barcelona

Mobile World Conference Apps Planet 2012
Website:	www.mobileworldcongress.com
Date:	2012-02-27
Timing:	08:00 h.   -   22:00 h.
Rating:
Address:	Fira de Barcelona, Av. Reina M. Cristina, 08004, Barcelona

Apps Planet 2012 is one of the several trade fairs that are held as part of the Mobile World Congress. This trade fair in particular lets apps developers connect with telecommunications carriers and technology manufacturers to learn more about the potential to deliver services across the wireless spectrum. We welcome all apps developers and SaaS startups who are considering participating in Apps Planet: let us know your current plans and we will start preparing some options for your Barcelona accommodation.

The opportunity to interact with representatives and key influencers in your industry, is a strong argument for considering attendance at Mobile World Congress. 2012 will no doubt reach new records for attendance. This year, the mobile industry has continued to grow exponentially at every stage of the supply chain: software developers, data providers, software-as-a-service startups, mobile technology companies, network carriers, and retail are all experiencing unprecedented levels of demand.

If your business is considering attending Apps Planet 2012 or the Mobile World Congress in general, there are a few levels of participation worth considering at this time:

• As a participant
• As a Congress partner
• As a Congress exhibitor.

You have the strategic time now to think about whether Mobile World Congress 2012 is the sort of industry event that you can gain from. Regardless of the size of your operation, there are opportunities at MWC to build stronger connections and draw greater attention to your business, products and services. But it is also a high energy, major industry event that you can get lost in or silenced, if you don't have a gameplan to guide your participation.

What To Think About: Six Months Before The Event

Consider how to develop up a business case for assessing your participation in Mobile World Congress. Even as a small operator, it is a quality procedure to document a business case that can help you organise your thoughts and plan strategically around your participation.

Start to brainstorm an estimation of the potential resources you will expend in time and energy, the financial costs of attendance travel, registration and accommodation, and the opportunity cost of what else you could achieve with the same time and money that you might spend on Mobile World Congress.

Use some of the Mobile World Congress 2011 materials such as the attendance report to make calculated estimates for 2012. For example, data on attendance from previous years looks like amongst the industry, businesses send Technical Engineers to Mobile World Congress one year and Managers the next as for the last few years their numbers have been alternating in size. If 2012's Congress follows the pattern and has a large technical engineer representation, how does that affect your participation and communication plans?

Look at the changing demographics of attendance and make some guesses about where you think the Congress is heading. While only making up 8% of 2011 participants, as a sector of the industry attending, application developers actually doubled in size. They had the biggest jump in attendance while all other sectors pretty much stayed at the same proportion of attendance as in previous years. Whether you think this trend will continue or not, may shape your ideas about what you can achieve and who you can connect with at Apps Planet 2012.

Brainstorm with your team some strategies for different levels of participation in Mobile World Congress. Some major manufacturers are already signalling that they will be making next-leap technology announcements at MWC 2012. Other companies are planning to repeat the successes of their 2011 involvement by hosting another Application Developer Conference event. While still other businesses begin discussions with designers to prepare for a trade show stand. You could have separate strategic outlines for a role as a participant, exhibitor, or partner and assess each plan for the likelihood of you capitalizing on the opportunities an industry congress like this offers.

Make use of an ideas generation software or cloud-based app. Web app tools are available to help record and encourage your business and customers to contribute ideas for consideration about MWC representation. Mind mapping software, CRM clients, wiki platforms and project management collaboration apps all have tools that harness ideas across a business structure: find an apps tool that integrates with your business and encourage staff to be involved in the ideas discussions... and, of course, has a mobile version. 

What To Do: Six Months Before The Event

Have a look at the mobile world congress website and subscribe to the regular updates in whatever format suits your internet engagement: via email subscription, twitter following, linkedin group or via one of the other social media platforms that MWC offers.

If Apps Planet 2012 is of particular interest, download the ADC materials which include details about exhibiting or partnering for this trade show element of the congress.

Subscribe to Enjoy Barcelona's email newsletter or twitter feed so we can send you regular updates on the best accommodation deals for MWC 2012, and for our on-the-ground Barcelona coverage leading up to the event.

Start asking your peers and networks whether they are will be attending MWC 2012 and how they have made the most of their previous attendance.

Set up social media monitoring systems using sprout social, social oomph or samepoint to measure chatter about MWC 2012, especially if there are competitors you want to keep an eye on to see if they are attending. Use omigli to monitor discussion in forums and groups.

Follow our #welovemwc twitter feed to receive updates on more materials to help you make the most of MWC 2012.

The mobile industry in many ways is the great leveler, as any business has an opportunity to capitalize on this industry event. It also means that from the telecommunications monolith to the apps startup, the most successful will all be doing their planning now and acknowledging the need to be strategic about their involvement at Mobile World Congress. Start planning so you can make the most of Apps Planet 2012. Sign up to our Enjoy Barcelona e-mail newsletter to get news of the best deals on Barcelona apartment rentals, and to keep up with our take on World Mobile Congress 2012.