Mobile World Congress to run this year's Barcelona event in June with 50,000 attendees. We're speechless
- Reference: 1613638084
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/02/18/mobile_world_congress/
- Source link:
The Spanish Mobile World Congress shindig is planned for the end of June – just four months away – and despite Spain being one of the countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless, GSMA Limited chief exec John Hoffman [1]told the associated Mobile World Live news site that he was estimating anywhere between 40,000 and 50,000 people would attend, noting that it would still be far below the 110,000 that showed up in 2019.
[2]
Where does this ill-placed optimism come from? From a test drive of a physical conference in Shanghai that MWC will run next week. Hoffman argues that the China event will “give people a bit of hope,” adding, “let’s move away from the effects of COVID-19 and return to something normal.”
That may be easier said than done. As we pointed out this week, an effort to create a conference with an "immunity bubble" in Los Angeles last month at the Abundance 360 Summit turned out to be [3]a disaster . Despite that event's organizer having an undergraduate degree in molecular genetics, a graduate degree in aerospace engineering from MIT and an MD from Harvard Medical School, he was incapable of controlling the virus. A dozen of the 30 people who attended, paying a hefty $15,000 or more to do so, contracted the COVID-19 virus, as well as more than half of the conference staff.
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Bad precedent
How is MWC going to avoid a similar fate and prevent spreading the deadly disease to not 12 people but tens of thousands of people? “Attendees in Barcelona will require a negative Covid-19 test result (within 72 hours) and testing will be available at the venue,” the news site reports, adding: “Hoffman also stated that the GSMA will be using technology to create a ‘touchless environment’, from registration through to all events within MWC.”
He also seems to believe that the conference will be able to clear the virus out of the entire city: “Our view is it would be great if the world was vaccinated, but we can’t rely on that in 2021 so instead we’re relying on testing upfront to ensure our bubble isn’t just the Fira Gran Via but the whole of Barcelona.”
Co-founder of coronavirus vaccine biz holds in-person tech event... 20+ attendees later test positive for COVID-19 [5]READ MORE
Our view is pretty simple: MWC Barcelona, if it does go ahead, will be just one more example of how optimism plus delusion equals idiocy. There is simply no way this will work well given how prevalent the virus is in Europe. In fact, an event that size could itself create an explosion of other cases across the world thanks to attendees flying in and out.
The most optimistic date for most people being vaccinated in rich Western nations will come after the event, and even then people are going to wary about attending enclosed conferences for months afterwards.
[6]
It sucks, but not as much as dying alone in a hospital bed. Or causing someone else to. ®
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[1] https://www.mobileworldlive.com/blog/blog-mwc-shanghai-to-provide-china-5g-showcase-barcelona-blueprint/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YC5IyH35p2oYMNLXFeGOVgAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/tech_conference_covid/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YC5IyH35p2oYMNLXFeGOVgAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/17/tech_conference_covid/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YC5IyH35p2oYMNLXFeGOVgAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Already bought a ticket
Can we also send BoJo's Cabinet? Oh, and Bojo as well?
Re: Already bought a ticket
Can we also send BoJo's Cabinet? Oh, and Bojo as well?
No. If you think this lot is bad, imagine what would happen if they were incapacitated - we'd get idiots like May and Grayling back in charge again, and they'd make Dido Harding "Senior Minster For Desperately Trying Not to Totally and Utterly Fuck Everything Up Again"...
Re: Already bought a ticket
I long for mere idiots to be back in charge of the UK instead of the current lot.
And what happens if you test positive on site?
If you take an on site test, and it comes back positive, you'll have to quarantine in your hotel for 10 days. How do you notify people you've been in contact with... it was John and Meg from a large company in umm,, they spoke German, and French, and Italian or was it Spanish - they are a multi national. John's a tall guy. Meg's got brown hair.
"Plan for the worst - hope for the best"
I don't believe that Spain will let that happen. It's very strict regarding COVID prevention rules. For the moment, social gatherings are limited to six people nationwide.
It seems Catalan politicians have grown tired of this pandemic, they've just held elections with the chosen lucky electoral workers wearing full PPE and having deemed that a success before the figures are in, they're keen to move on to even greater things.
Well, at least it will give the Barcelona pickpockets and bag snatchers something to do, they've had a rough time of it since the lockdowns, they don't get furlough either, no union or guild to protect them.
The conference may just coincide with a new round of separatist riots too, the Çatalunya government has just been voted in and it has a huge separatist majority, plus the locals are not happy with the Spanish government's heavy handed approach.
Just one word for this even being proposed - stupid
Getting back to normal
Very nice words, but the only way to do that is vaccination. Until herd immunity has been achieved, there will be no normal.
This event is lunacy. I wonder how many people will actually sign up, I know I wouldn't.
Murderers
If you know that your unnecessary, selfish actions will kill people, does that not count as murder?
Touching, but no.
Since touch is a very minor transmission vector, I doubt a touch free setup will make any measurable difference. And unless all hotel staff, taxi drivers, venue staff, etc. live in the same bubble and are also being tested, I doubt they can prevent the delegates, and everyone else, catching this damned virus. $Deity knows I want to get back some semblance of normality, but this looks like hubris writ large.
A breath free environment would be needed....
... and it will also be a Darwinian way to get rid of people who think is a good idea to attend.
But it's still incredible people in charge of this kind of events refuse to understand how this virus spreads.
Crazy
And was it even useful for most attendees even 10 years ago?
My boss – then – put his laptop between the chair back and his back and it was stolen.
It's greed and stupidly that this even still exists.
50,000 from where?
I'd guess that most of the attendees at this conference are there to represent their companies, and are on expenses, so doesn't this presuppose that those companies would authorize the travel? Even were I minded to go (I'm not), there's no way under COVID rules that my current employer will be authorizing anything but essential business travel this year. This sort of junket wouldn't be on that list.
Already bought a ticket
for my PHB (and will continue working from home)