MWC – Hold the Front Page

What the MWC influencers had to say

Babel PR hosted its Mobile World Congress preview event in central London last week. You might think it’s a bit too soon to be thinking about MWC but the message that came out of the evening was clear – if companies want to make the most of MWC, they need to start planning early. This was emphasised by the point that companies expecting to make a splash at MWC by making an announcement on the first day of the show will be left disappointed, because the media’s attention will be firmly focused on tier one operators, OEMs and Internet brands.

The attendees were treated to talks from Telecoms.com and Bloomberg, offering advice on how to best engage with the media covering the show.  Tech Media and Telecoms reporter for Bloomberg, Amy Thomson discussed how incredibly popular she becomes in the run up to MWC with dozens of calls a day from PRs and companies trying to book meetings. Bloomberg’s readership is predominantly an investor audience, so her interest lies in speaking to CEOs of blue-chip companies to get their handle on what direction the industry is taking. But she doesn’t rule out speaking to vendors, particularly if the CEO of a company can provide her with the inside track on an emerging industry trend.

Scott Bicheno, Editorial Director at Telecoms.com relayed his past experience of trade shows. He admitted that MWC can be an endurance test for journalists, faced with hectic schedules and intense time pressure. Journalists at MWC are constantly on deadline, under pressure to write up stories they have been researching that very day. So the quicker the turnaround the better, companies that provide content and information that can be moulded into a relevant article make his life a lot easier.

Windsor Holden, Principal Analyst and Head of Forecasting & Consultancy at Juniper Research provided the audience with a first look at Juniper’s Top 10 Tech Trends for 2015. This year’s trends included everything from Drones to Digital Health, with mobile playing an integral role in the emergence of new sectors and breathing new life into some trends that have stalled over the last couple of years.

To find out more about what trends will have a major impact on the mobile industry in 2015, how your company fits into those trends and how to best prepare for MWC to ensure that your company is ‘one to watch’ at the show, then please download our summary document here. Also you can find the presentation from the evening here.