When the congressman leaves the subway he is aware that he is in Plaza Europa de l'Hospitalet, but upon entering pavilion 1 of the Mobile it could very well be that he had fallen into a space hole that would have taken him to the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Here the posters combine the ubiquitous English of the rest of the room with Chinese characters, and the professionals from that country are the vast majority.
Huawei, the company that occupies the most square meters in the congress, has set up a temporary company headquarters here with thousands of workers coming directly from China and other branches from the rest of the world. In a part open to all visitors, with a pristine white floor constantly cleaned, all kinds of solutions are exhibited that go far beyond mobile telephony. In another more private area, once a security check has been passed, there are offices where there are meeting rooms with all kinds of luxuries and offices where twenty people packed together work in front of a computer.
There are managers who go from the hotel to the congress aboard one of the flashy black vans, chaining one meeting after another and returning from the congress to the hotel, stopping at most at a restaurant or an event organized by the company itself. It is part of the Mobile, but those who are tired or do not feel like it, have food always at their disposal, both at the stand and in the hotel. Around these men – women are a minority – who wear jackets, there are also many workers in charge of food, logistics... arrived directly from China, as well as those in charge of setting up and dismantling this ephemeral city for four days.
The end of travel restrictions by the Chinese Government has allowed, five years later, congressmen from that country to return en masse to Barcelona. They do it despite the economic situation that the country is going through. “Precisely for this reason they have dedicated themselves to coming to do business,” say sources from the Mobile organization.
In addition to the large classic companies (Xiaomi, ZTE, Oppo...), others such as China Telecom have launched and smaller technology companies have landed – although with hundreds of workers – that gather in the corridors around Huawei. This is the case of Minew, a company that is dedicated to manufacturing systems for wireless connectivity. The four workers that the company has sent to Barcelona came a few days before the congress started and took the opportunity to go sightseeing. Archy An, the company's marketing manager, shows on his phone photos of the most iconic places in the city: the Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, Barceloneta beach... “I have fallen in love with Barcelona,” he sighs. after a few days in which leisure has given way to intense congressional activity. Previously scheduled meetings with potential clients, suppliers and representatives from other countries are combined with spontaneous meetings with congressmen who show interest in your product. Both he and his partner, Juliet Zhu, an account executive, speak English, and that opens many doors for them compared to other Chinese companies.
On Monday and Tuesday, after spending the whole day at the conference, they had a quick dinner and went straight to bed. “The pace of the congress is exhausting,” Zhu acknowledges. On Wednesday, when the activity was more relaxed, they left the Fira de Barcelona venue and went to visit the offices of a company located in Barcelona to talk about a joint project. In the afternoon they took the opportunity to go buy some gifts that they will take as souvenirs of their first stay in Europe back to Longhua.
Those responsible for the municipal administration of that district of Shenzhen where An and Zhu work – and 2.5 million people from 116 other countries – have also visited Mobile to promote themselves among the companies attending Mobile. They have been helped in this by Liling and Lidan Qi, two sisters who, through PuenteChina, help boost economic activity between Barcelona and Shenzhen from their offices on Passeig de Gràcia. “Mobile is the perfect place for companies that want to export,” they highlight, especially convinced of the future of companies in the digital field related to areas such as healthcare and mobility. This year's edition has been the confirmation that a presence that the pandemic stopped has returned with force and that in the coming years is destined to continue growing.
