Mobile World Congress 2020 has Been Cancelled
The GSMA’s annual Mobile World Congress 2020 has been cancelled amid concerns over recent coronavirus outbreak
Mobile World Congress 2020 has been cancelled. Along with it, all accompanying events, including the Pareteum cocktail and networking event previously scheduled for the 26th of February 2020.
Amid a week of uncertainty over the recent Coronavirus outbreak, the mobile world’s premier trade show was thrown into disarray as many high-profile and distinguished exhibitors announced their withdrawal from the event.
While the GSMA, the organization behind MWC, announced earlier this week that they were working with Spanish health authorities to take extraordinary precautions to keep attendees safe, this was not enough to stem the ebb of conference participation. Indeed, as heavy hitters like Amazon, Sony, LG, Intel, and Ericsson sporadically announced their exits, an overwhelming shadow was cast on the event that portended its imminent cancelation.
In a statement, John Hoffman, the CEO of GSMA, announced that the coronavirus outbreak had made it “impossible” to hold the event.
“With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event. The Host City Parties respect and understand this decision. The GSMA and the Host City Parties will continue to be working in unison and supporting each other for MWC Barcelona 2021 and future editions. Our sympathies at this time are with those affected in China, and all around the world.”
While we at Pareteum are, of course, very disappointed at the news of MWC20’s cancellation, we would like to echo Mr. Hoffman’s sympathies. Indeed, the people of Wuhan, Hubei, China, and the multitudes more around the globe suffering from the effects of Coronavirus, remain fixed in our thoughts.
Nevertheless, we lament the lost opportunity to meet with our many connectivity compatriots and evangelize on behalf of our recently launched Pareteum Experience Cloud, the only single-source cloud-communications platform that provides limitless scale and control for the creation and management of mobile communications through APIs and the world’s largest unified global network.
If you had a meeting scheduled with our team, or if you had planned on attending our cocktail event, please accept our humblest apologies. While the matter was not in our hands, it is always disappointing to miss an occasion to meet with members of our community.
If you have any questions, feel free to give your Pareteum contact a shout, or reach out to our sales team via the meetme@paretum.com
The Pareteum Team
