GSMA Reveals Vision for MWC25 Barcelona
In a press conference 29th January, the GSMA unveiled its highlights and vision for MWC25 Barcelona. Scheduled for March 3-6, 2025, this event promises to be the world’s largest and most influential connectivity gathering. With a unique blend of exhibitions, thought leaders, startups, and policymakers, MWC25 will attract a diverse audience, ranging from industry CEOs and visionary founders to presidents.
GSMA Director General Mats Granryd expressed the excitement surrounding MWC25, stating: “The disruptive energy we witnessed with the growth of mobile is back in the AI era. From AI and 5G Advance to the vast potential of digital services unleashed by GSMA Open Gateway, MWC25 will be the platform to showcase the products and ideas poised to reshape our digital future.”
The summit will host some of the world’s most influential minds, who will share insights on how AI will transform our lives, the delicate balance between innovation and regulation, and the evolution of mobile networks. This year’s keynote and conference agenda will focus on key connectivity trends, from 5G inside to AI+, featuring approximately 1,200 speakers across MWC25 Barcelona’s 19 stages.
This year’s keynote and conference agenda will centre around the key trends shaping connectivity, from 5G inside to AI+. As well as an inspiring line up of around 1,200 speakers across MWC25 Barcelona’s 19 stages, recently confirmed keynote speakers include:
- AI Visionary, Ray Kurzweil
- Databricks’ Chief AI Officer, Naveen Rao
- European Commission’s Executive Vice President, Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera
- US Federal Communication Commission’s Chairman, Brendan Carr
- e&’s Group CEO, Hatem Dowidar
- Maven’s Founder & CEO, Kate Ryder Maven
- Mistral AI‘s CEO and Co-founder, Arthur Mensch
- Multiverse‘s CEO and Founder, Euan Blair
- Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas
- Pivot podcast’s co-host and NYU Professor of Marketing, Scott Galloway
- Shutterstock‘s Senior Director of AI and Data Science, Dr. Alessandra Sala
GSMA’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lara Dewar, emphasized the significance of the event: “MWC25 Barcelona is poised to be one of the most insightful editions, maintaining our legacy of featuring the most influential leaders. Discussions at MWC extend far beyond its walls, with iconic thinkers gracing the keynote stage to spark debate, share insights, and inspire us about technology’s evolving role in our societies and the world.”
New Speakers and Exhibitors
The list of speakers for MWC25 Barcelona is continuously expanding, with updates available on the event’s website. New exhibitors making their debut include Alibaba Cloud, China Unicom, Databricks, Indra, KDDI Spherience, KYOCERA, Liberty Global, Siemens, SquareTrade, Tencent Cloud, TransUnion, and Ubiquiti. These newcomers join returning sponsors and exhibitors such as Accenture, AWS, China Mobile, Dell, e&, Ericsson, Google, HPE, Huawei, Lenovo, Meta, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, SK Telecom, Vodafone, Xiaomi, and ZTE.
4YFN and the GSMA Pavilion
The 4YFN (4 Years From Now) program, known for nurturing big ideas, will convene startups, investors, and corporates to fuel the next generation of unicorns. The Banco Sabadell stage at 4YFN will host prominent figures from the global startup and investor community, including the renowned AI scientist Juergen Schmidhuber. On Day 3, one of the 4YFN Awards finalists—Bankuish, Horus ML, Qflow, Ramon.Space, or Rockfish Data—will be announced as the winner.
At the GSMA Pavilion in Hall 4, the European Space Agency (ESA) will showcase the outcomes of its partnership with the GSMA, aimed at developing new terrestrial and satellite communication services. Additionally, the GSMA will unveil a new Kazakh large language model (LLM) for AI, supporting under-resourced languages globally. This LLM was created in collaboration with VEON, Beeline Kazakhstan, and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
GSMA Open Gateway Showcase
The GSMA Open Gateway showcase next to the Pavilion will highlight how network APIs assist developers in deploying new services across vertical sectors. Six demo pods will feature 17 organizations, including Nokia and Elmo Cars, demonstrating remote car driving in Finland using APIs.
GSMA Ministerial Programme
The GSMA Ministerial Programme will gather industry leaders, government ministers, and regulatory authorities, making it the largest assembly of policymakers in the digital economy. Key topics on the agenda include AI governance, energy efficiency of networks, future mobile spectrum, and network investment.
Co-Located Events
MWC25 Barcelona will co-locate with FC Barcelona’s Sports Tomorrow Congress, organized by the Barca Innovation Hub in Hall 6. This year, it will also share exhibition space with 4YFN. After a successful pilot last year, Mobile World Capital’s Talent Arena will be held at Fira Montjuïc. Over 200 speakers, including Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak, will attend Talent Arena this year.
GSMA Open Gateway DevCon
The GSMA Open Gateway DevCon will take place at Talent Arena, featuring an Open Gateway hackathon. Developers will test their projects on live networks with access to the latest network APIs. Mobile World Capital will transport 180 developers from Paris on a charter flight with Vueling and 70 developers from Madrid on a dedicated high-speed train with Iryo.
Source: GSMA News