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Hey guys,
MWC18 is fast approaching and in just one months time, it's all gonna kick off. Starting 26th Feb and lasting 4 days, it's one of the biggest tech events of the year, rivalled only by CES. I've been very fortunate to attend MWC in person the last two years so I wanted to give you a bit of a preview of what it's like, as MWC isn't something most people will get to experience... Sadly.
Venue Size
The sheer scale of MWC is very daunting. To give you a sense, I was doing an average of 10 to 12k steps per day, and that was just inside the venue, not counting my commutes and evening activities etc. The whole event is spread over 8 halls - some of them absolutely huge. In my experience of the last 2 years, Hall 2 & 3 are the 'main event' halls - that's where all the big names go and are the ones likely to be most relevant to consumers. Samsung, HTC, Ford, Sony, Jaguar - and of course the Telefonica stand, to name a few.
Getting around and taking breaks
As you'd expect for such a massive event that'll requires loads of walking, there's seating and break-out areas jotted around everywhere. The food places are mostly pretty basic (sandwiches, pretty much) and quite expensive - around €10 for a standard sandwich, drink & crisps, and from what I recall go up to around €20-30 for the better lunches featuring Spanish ham or the more exciting options.
If you're just after some light refreshment though, Google are absolute superheroes at MWC. In 'Congress Square' (a huge outdoors section between halls) Google have for the past few years had a big stand in the shape of an 'Android' head where they made up amazing tasting smoothies and hot chocolate - absolutely gratis. It was fantastic! And in one of the other halls where Google had a 'chill out zone', they put out boxes of chilled Estrella Damm lager (Spains national lager) which, since I was there for work, I assure you I did not drink 3 of.
The exhibitors
Generally speaking, MWC is par less of a consumer oriented event than CES - a lot of exhibits are there to showcase new technology that they're looking for funders or partners for, or to try and find new trade opportunities via B2B. But there *ARE* cool and fantastic exhbitis jotted all over the venue - and that's why so much walking is involved, because some will be in Hall 1, and others will be all the way in Hall 8 which feels like a million miles away.
See below few photos from some of the stands I loved last year last year which I found pretty interesting from a Consumer perspective - the sort of stands the average tech fan would be excited about!
The days before MWC! 😉
Historically, the day or two leading up to MWC is always exciting for new device announcements. Last year we had exhibitions from Huawei, Nokia, Samsung and others. Who knows what'll happen this year?! 
And here's some random photos I snapped when I wasn't working
Photos captured on a Samsung Galaxy S7. No filters/modifications.
So what do you think guys? Is MWC an event you'd go to if you ever got the chance? Do you have any predictions for what you think might happen or get announced this year? Is there any particular tech (robots, tablets, accessories etc) you'd love to see more about from MWC?
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@Chris_K I would love to go MWC as I love seeing and hearing about new tech. I'm Samsung mad but still enjoy learning what the other main companies latest innovations are, even Apple. Sadly, even if I got the opportunity, the amount of walking involved would make it non viable. However, I'd love hearing about ALL the new tech both from established companies and those looking for funding for new tech. Always interested in new tech even if it's well out of my price range 😊
