akenza at the Mobile World Congress 2021

The Mobile World Congress (a.k.a MWC Barcelona) is a renowned conference aimed at the mobile technology industry. The attendees are the most innovative and newest 2,400 leading companies from the mobile industry that help shape the event into a unique and almost futuristic experience.

The Mobile World Congress 2021 in Barcelona was a success, although a little different to what we are usually used to. Arriving on Sunday night allowed us to set up our booth 1H26 in the Swiss pavilion on Monday morning, 28th of June peacefully. The great organisation of the event made it easy to get started. While Jonas Schmid (Co-CEO), Fabian Gerschwiler (Product Manager), Marcon Mantoan (Technical Solution Architect), and Can Ipek (Sales Representative) attended the physical live event, Alexis Leibbrandt managed the virtual akenza booth.

The preparation of the event was organised by Switzerland Global Enterprise, specifically Beat Kustler and Corinne Bachman, who accompanied the Swiss start-up group to the conference too. Talks introducing the booths and each business individually helped build companionship and a thoroughly connected network of great innovative Swiss companies and individuals.

Marco Mantoan, Jonas Schmid, and Can Ipek

On the third day of the conference, the Swiss Ambassador to Spain, Hanspeter Mock, and the Deputy Consul General Roger Kull visited our booth. Although the congress wasn’t its usual self, it offered an excellent opportunity to talk to other attendees and exchange contact details.

(Left to right) Marco Mantoan, Deputy General Consul Roger Kull, Can Ipek, Beat Kaser the Consul General of Switzerland, Swiss Ambassador to Spain Hanspeter Mock Bosques and Jonas Schmid

Later that week, we managed to have a chat with attendees from our business partners Loriot (Charles and Emanuele) and Tektelic (Maria and Christian). Additionally, we are happy to have connected with Antonio Terlizzi from Everynet. Events such as the MWC are an excellent opportunity to re-connect with our friends and partners of the IoT ecosystem.

Maria and Christian from Tektelik with Marco, Jonas, and Fabian

Charles and Emanuele from Loriot, with Marco and Jonas

A couple of curiosities we came across in the conference included an AI toaster, a smart connected bartender and the impressive future of work solution from Aurea Software as the next way to collaborate with colleagues in virtual office spaces.

Learnings we took from the WMC during COVID-19 times:

The risk we took to go with uncertainty regarding the number of attendees became a liability. Although there were excellent networking opportunities between the participating companies, the crowd was scarce. Additionally, the COVID regulations were respected, but as a result, part of the hall was a COVID test center and partially empty (no-show participating companies).

Regardless of the above mentioned, the experience was a positive one and we felt a great amount of support from both Global Enterprise Switzerland and the World Mobile Congress.

The keynote speeches and interviews were incredibly interesting and insightful, special highlights such as the virtual interview with Elon Musk and the 5G talk from Huawei were absolute highlights.

Again, special thanks to everyone who helped organize and form this event, and thank you for the team effort within akenza.