Virus cans huge technology show David Court

Ihad planned to write my MWC 2020 story next weekend. However, over the past 10 days Amazon, Sony, LG Electronics, ZTE, Ericsson, Facebook, Intel, Nvidia, and many more, all pulled out of the show. Then, almost inevitably, came the big statement. The event organiser, the GSM Association (GSMA), had finally admitted defeat and cancelled the whole thing.

How big a deal is this? Pretty big. And not just in technology circles. Until now, the world had been waiting to see if, and when, coronavirus would affect global trade. Experts told us it would, but stopped short of offering clear and definable examples.

MWC 2020 – a show hosted in a city that, at the time of writing, hasn’t reported a single case of coronavirus and is thousands of miles, and multiple border checks, and thermal body scans, from the outbreak – is that example.

The question I keep asking myself is ‘‘what is it about MWC that is so different from other major events taking place around the world?’’

For those of you who aren’t familiar with MWC, it’s an annual technology trade show takes place in a huge convention centre called Fira Gran Via, located on the edge of Barcelona city centre.

Fira Gran Via is like a mini-city inside a city. Think the Vatican in relation to Rome, and you’ll get an idea of the venue’s size.

There’s no Michelangelo masterpiece inside this place though. Instead, every inch of the 15-plus conference halls is an advertising opportunity available to the highest bidder.

Big tech companies, with big marketing budgets, buy up large sections of the venue. Brands like Huawei, Sony, Samsung, LG and Intel will have all bought between one and ten football fields’ worth of MWC floor space. Each.

And over the past two weeks. Each of these brands has, one after the other, put out carefully-worded press releases. Explaining that in the interest of employee safety, they have been forced to withdraw from MWC 2020.

GSMA was facing problems that were out of its control. The coronavirus itself, it seemed oddly okay with. However, the loss of the show’s biggest brands and presumably the dollars these brands bring, reached tipping point.

GSMA CEO John Hoffman sprung into action. Releasing a statement on behalf of the show, he said: ‘‘With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event.’’

I’m not sure how much of that I buy, though. As just a few days ago, GSMA was only expressing ‘‘sympathy’’ to all those affected. Its only other initiative was banning anyone who had been in China 14 days prior to the event.

This stance was taken despite the World Health Organisation declaring the coronavirus outbreak a Global Public Health Emergency on January 30. Even then, the message from GSMA hadn’t changed. The show must go on.

And as recently as Monday, with a death toll of more than 1000 people, GSMA released a statement on saying ‘‘is moving ahead as planned’’, confidently adding the show remain ‘‘more than 2800 exhibitors strong’’.

How did it plan on combating the risks of the virus? It put in place a recommended ‘‘no handshake’’ policy and released a press statement detailing how it was upping its game when it came to wiping surfaces down (I’m not making this stuff up).

I’m not here to bag GSMA and MWC, thought. I think they’ve come to a sensible decision and they’re victims in this too. And they have just lost tens of millions of dollars, I’d expect.

But, it was a safe move. As I said above, MWC is like a mini-city inside a city. Last year, it had 100,000 visitors walking through its doors. Putting that many people at risk is unacceptable.

What I am struggling with is why more places haven’t followed GSMA and the other tech brand’s no-travel policy. Yes, 100,000 people sounds like a lot of people to process in one room. But to put that into context, Barcelona Airport will process roughly the same number of people on a daily basis.

And just down the road, the city’s famous football team has a 99,354 capacity stadium. Yet there’s no talk of the city closing its airport, or Lionel Messi playing in an empty stadium.

Have technology brands been guilty of being too PR conscious, or is the rest of the world too willing to risk spreading the virus further in return for profit?

How did the GSM Association respond to the virus? It put in place a recommended ‘‘no handshake’’ policy and announced it was upping its game when it came to wiping surfaces down (I’m not making this stuff up).