The Mobile World Congress that is held every year in Barcelona is one of the essential events on the technological calendar. This fair is considered one of the most important in the world by the manufacturers themselves.

Despite being a conference dedicated to mobile communications — well, in general — the smartphone is the absolute king. The main mobile manufacturers take advantage of the days before the congress — or in the first hours of its celebration — to present their new models, so the event in Barcelona always arouses much media interest.

Far from the brilliance of large events, thousands of companies make significant economic efforts to gain visibility before the 110,000 visitors who visit the fair, paying exorbitant prices for a stand at the MWC. Do you want to know how much it costs to have your stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona?

Who can have a stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona?

Technology covers everything, but GSMA, the consortium that is responsible for organizing everything related to the Mobile World Congress at its various events (it also organizes the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai and Los Angeles), establishes a series of requirements to justify your presence at the fair.

One of the most obvious is to be established as a company in its country of origin, and that one of the main business nuclei of the company is oriented towards technological innovation in mobility.

 

This means that, for example, a fashion design company could not be present at the Mobile World Congress, unless an important part of its resources is destined to the creation of mobile technology, such as wearable devices or smartwatches.

This same reason has been the reason that more and more car manufacturers or banks have been able to present their novelties at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, although always from mobile communication, through banking apps, services of connectivity and inflight entertainment, etc.

Different service packages for different needs

Having a stand at one of the most important technology fairs is not cheap, but in return, companies get great visibility and millionaire contracts that make the investment worthwhile in many cases.

To facilitate this space reservation, there are a series of packages in which the organization offers different associated services, ranging from solely the reservation of the exhibition space, to the design and assembly of the stands, as well as the supply of everything necessary to exhibit at the fair including access passes for staff and a certain number of guest passes (valued at more than 900 euros each) depending on the surface contracted.

These service packages offer both spaces in the exhibition area, where all visitors can have direct contact with the products, as well as a more discreet place in the form of private meeting rooms where contacts with clients, suppliers, and partners are established.

These packages are classified into three main categories:

Enhanced Packages:

  • Exhibition Stand Plus: In which the organization is in charge of the design and assembly of the stand, basic services (security, cleaning, and electrical supply), as well as the exhibition furniture and storage space. It also includes vinyl for labeling the stand with the brand's logo and a screen for displaying promotional videos.
  • Outdoor Stand: Stands that are located in the outdoor area between the halls. The stands are not included.
  • Upper Walkway Pods: Small spaces located in the upper corridor connecting all the exhibition halls, consisting of a pair of seats, a table, a display screen, and company signage. Perfect to give visibility to startups and small companies.

Space Only Packages :

  • Space Only: The company contracts only space and has the basic services (security, cleaning, and electrical supply), but is in charge of designing and setting up its stand. It is the modality chosen by most major brands.
  • Space Only Hall 4: Hall 4 offers limited space options because the press and conference rooms are located on it, so this modality is a limited Space Only variant for that specific hall.
  • Upper Walkway Space Only: Free variant of Upper Walkway Pods, in which the company only contracts the space in the connecting corridor of the pavilions, but must design and set up its exhibition stand.
  • Hospitality Suite: Meeting rooms reserved in Hall 2 with all services included. It is a compliment that many of the large companies hire to hold their meetings with suppliers and customers there.
  • Hybrid Stand Hall 2: Some service companies or suppliers do not exhibit their products to visitors, so they set up their private stands where they receive their customers discreetly and show them their products in these stands that are a mixture of conventional stands. and a meeting room. The design and assembly of the stand are not included.
  • Hybrid Stand Hall 3: Something similar to the Hybrid Stand Hall 2 modality, but in Hall 3 the exhibition area is public, and a reserved area for meetings is built. This stand is the most crowded since the main exhibitors are there.

Shell Scheme Packages :

  • Shell Scheme: It is the simplest modality of the typical exhibition stand, based on a metal frame and white walls. It provides all the services, furniture necessary to display and labeling the space with the company logo.
  • Co-Exhibitor: Modality that allows sharing a stand with another related company.

All exhibitors are required to pass a series of security inspections at their stands before opening and must adhere to strict rules on the use of robots on stands, organization of events, use of lights, or decibel level.

Exorbitant prices for the largest technological showcase in the world

The organization takes with special secrecy the official prices of these contracting packages, so the price that companies must pay to have their stand at the Mobile World Congress in 2020 is not known exactly.

According to information published by the Vozpópuli media in 2017, the average of the square meter of exhibition floor in that year was around 1,100 euros, so it is not crazy to think that currently, the price of the land of the Mobile World Congress exceeds the 1,200 euros / m 2.

To this figure must be added the design and assembly of the stand, which, based on the average prices offered by some companies specialized in this task, could easily double that figure.

The main manufacturers and brands that exhibit in Hall 3 do so in personalized stands that occupy a complete block of the exhibition, with an average surface area of ​​1,744 m 2. This is the case of companies like Samsung, Sony, Qualcomm, or ZTE.

In these cases, a simple mathematical operation serves to know that the stand of these brands at the Mobile World Congress costs an average of 3.5 million euros. Other companies share space within these exhibition blocks, so the cost of their stand is divided in half.

We are talking about companies such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, Microsoft, or Vodafone, which estimate the presence of their stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at 1.7 million euros on average.

It is worth noting the presence of authentic mega-spaces, such as the one that Ericsson reserves every year, with 7,000 m 2  of exposure ( already canceled for this edition ) or the no less impressive 3,110 m 2 reserved by Nokia, whose invoices could rise above the 14 and 6.22 million, respectively.

To these millionaire figures, we must add the strategy of some brands such as Huawei, which divide their business areas into different stands and hospitals distributed in different halls of the fair.

In this specific case, the Chinese giant Huawei has a 792 m 2 stand dedicated to displaying its smartphones, smartwatches, and laptops, as well as those of Honor, its second brand.

To this space are added the 6,393 m 2 of its stand dedicated to business solutions, the 1,996 m 2 of its garden area with its restaurant service, as well as 1,356 m 2 distributed in different meetings and exhibition spaces throughout the fair. This makes a total of 10,537 m 2 of space, which represents an approximate cost of more than 21 million euros.

Far from such astronomical figures, we find a large number of companies that opt ​​for perhaps less attractive spaces, but considerably cheaper.

Most of the companies present at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona opt for a stand of between 9 and 18 m 2 provided by the organization. Having this space involves a cost of between 10,000 and 20,000 euros for four days of fair.

To this sum must be added services such as Internet connection or WiFi access, catering services, etc., which must be contracted separately and can raise the final bill. For example, the WiFi connection for the four days of the congress can exceed 2,500 euros.

Say that, as a space reservation, the companies advance 20% of the estimated invoice during the MWC celebration of the previous year, but a few days after its celebration, all the expenses derived from the rental of the space and the construction of the stand are have covered.

This gives us an idea of ​​the million-dollar losses that companies such as Sony, LG, NVIDIA, Ericsson, Amazon, Umidigi, Ulefone, Commscope, NTT DoCoMo, Amdocs, Accedian, Rakuten, Gigaset, Intel, Vivo, MediaTek, Telnet have had to bear. , Facebook, Cisco, and Sprint in their decision not to attend their appointment at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

State grants for small businesses

In addition to the modalities that we have seen before, each country or region groups together a representation of small startups and groups them together in a joint stand, subsidizing part of their presence at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This option is much cheaper, but some additional requirements imposed by each country must be met.

In the case of the Spain stand, the state agency Red.es is in charge of selecting and managing this space. If a company passes the selection process, it will be able to choose a small cubicle of 8 m 2 for which it must pay between 6,000 and 8,000 euros, depending on the number of passes requested.

In short, it is a much cheaper solution for a small company that seeks to gain visibility and new international contacts with a showcase in front of which more than 110,000 people will pass during the four days of the Mobile World Congress.