MWC Barcelona Conference Planning for 50,000 In-Person Attendees in June

[ElectricPotato]

...what this will do to places like Las Vegas, Singapore, and other large convention destinations.

2020 provided the hard data. I think you are correct many companies will realize participation was not as important as they thought. I'm all for there being fewer, better focused trade shows. I've seen too many booths where I was left thinking "WTF is that doing at this show?"

 

[nikaru]

I can't speak to Europe, but in the US I'd fine with this. Pretty much at this point if you are above 60 or at risk you can get the vaccine and if your not in those categories who gives a crap because this statistically isn't dangerous for you. Life should be getting back to normal soon...but it won't because people are stupid and overreact. You are probably more likely to die in a car accident on the way to getting a vaccine than from COVID if you are a healthy person under

The European Commission has promised that 70% of the EU population would receive the vaccine by the beginning of the summer. We are 3-4 months away from the summer and most EU countries haven't reached 10%.

 

[jerryk]

2020 provided the hard data. I think you are correct many companies will realize participation was not as important as they thought. I'm all for there being fewer, better focused trade shows. I've seen too many booths where I was left thinking "WTF is that doing at this show?"

"WTF...". Ha, ha. Me too. I would much rather look at products in the comfort of my office and bounce the relative merits off colleagues than have to wander from booth to booth talking to salespeople. I hope I never have to go to a product conference again.

 

[jerryk]

The European Commission has promised that 70% of the EU population would receive the vaccine by the beginning of the summer. We are 3-4 months away from the summer and most EU countries haven't reached 10%.

A year ago, our former President promised: "like magic, it (Covid-19) will disappear". That worked out like most of his promises and other lies.

 

[theluggage]

With more vaccinations in place by June

If this were done in the US (with only US residents attending) that's right on the cusp of when everyone attending could be vaccinated by,

The vaccination is important, but it is not magic. It doesn't give 100% immunity, it may only offer partial protection against the known variants, and there's always the risk of a new variant showing up that evades the vaccine. Masks and testing aren't magic, either - they just improve the odds. It is always a numbers game, and the higher the numbers the bigger the risks. Come the summer, the #1 risk is likely to be a new variant emerging and spreading half way round the world (or even half way round a large country like the US) before it is picked up.

If the vaccine means that, come June, people can (e.g.) go to restaurants with small groups and shops can open normally, that will be a major win... but those are modest risks compared to these huge national/international conferences where thousands of people from scores of countries (read: scores of wonderfully diverse petri dishes for breeding new variants) rub shoulders.

Sorry, but huge exhibitions/conferences like this need to go the way of the dodo. They're already partly obsolete when anybody and their dog can launch an Internet "event" which anybody in the world can attend at their leisure.

 

[Mc0]

I’m interested on my type of COVID test they require you to undergo. Swab test is really uncomfortable and I don’t want to do it every 72 hours. It is also good if participants can present a vaccine cert or passport.

 

[citysnaps]

"WTF...". Ha, ha. Me too. I would much rather look at products in the comfort of my office and bounce the relative merits off colleagues than have to wander from booth to booth talking to salespeople. I hope I never have to go to a product conference again.

Same here.

But... way back when I would regularly exhibit in shows like this as a small ten person start-up that developed custom high-speed signal processing and digital radio ASICs for wireless infrastructure companies, if you weren't at the conferences, you weren't considered a viable company for consideration by those potentially using your tech. And that was deadly.

Same was true when we were acquired by a large US semiconductor company - even then with 40,000 employees, if you weren't at the shows you weren't considered a serious player by wireless infrastructure companies using your devices.

Maybe it's different now.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Hope they are offering free vaccination for the attendees.

This is simply a monetary decision. Nothing based on the science or infection rates. This is dangerous move especially with 3 new strands - 1 of which can RE-Infect someone who's been innoculated or recovered.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

Outstanding. People are just itching to get back into normal, social, mode after a year of draconian and mostly unnecessary henpecking from bloated government bureaucracies and armies of nattering Karens. I would attend but not going to be in the Barcelona area. 🇪🇸

 

[jerryk]

Same here.

But... way back when I would regularly exhibit in shows like this as a small ten person start-up that developed custom high-speed signal processing and digital radio ASICs for wireless infrastructure companies, if you weren't at the conferences, you weren't considered a viable company for consideration by those potentially using your tech. And that was deadly.

Same was true when we were acquired by a large US semiconductor company - even then with 40,000 employees, if you weren't at the shows you weren't considered a serious player by wireless infrastructure companies using your devices.

Maybe it's different now.

It is not like the old days. Most of the small companies now create a video and put it up on youtube, and send engineering samples and engineering kits to YouTube influencers that will build a showy prototype. A 10-minute how-to on your technology from one of those people can get 10,000 views in a day and cost nothing but a few support calls and product samples.

 

[jerryk]

Outstanding. People are just itching to get back into normal, social, mode after a year of draconian and mostly unnecessary henpecking from bloated government bureaucracies and armies of nattering Karens. I would attend but not going to be in the Barcelona area. 🇪🇸

Hey, don't forget the nattering Kens. They are just almost as bad.

 

[jerryk]

I’m interested on my type of COVID test they require you to undergo. Swab test is really uncomfortable and I don’t want to do it every 72 hours. It is also good if participants can present a vaccine cert or passport.

They have spit tests. I tried those. Just makes sure you have a lot of spit!

A vaccine cert would have to be digital and have solid encryption at least as good as a digital wallet.

 

[Captain Trips]

Back in the early-mid 1990s I went to some of the COMDEX shoes in Atlanta. They were fun, a group from my IT department went, and we usually once went for a half day (I worked in Spartanburg, SC, is only about a 2.5 hour drive one-way).

I wouldn't have wanted to attend every year, but going a couple of times was interesting and there some products of interest.

I got more out of going to specific conferences (PowerBuilder, Lotus Notes), though then I got out of the general trade shows.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

 

[Apple Freak]

That would be setting a very bad precedence

Why? This is actually a great idea. Easy way to get 50,000 people vaccinated.

 

[Analog Kid]

This is kind of a big money gamble that everything will go according to plan... June/July is the current estimate of when the US might hit herd immunity if vaccine distribution ramps up according to plan and no new variants set us back. Not sure what the EU estimates are...

 

[jz0309]

Why? This is actually a great idea. Easy way to get 50,000 people vaccinated.

For one, 2 weeks required after 2nd shot for vaccine to be effective.
Second, as long as there are people waiting for their turn (think eg immune compromised but under say 50), why would biz people be “rewarded” for a non-essential event???
So should people who go to Vegas to gamble get the vaccine before it is their “turn”??
That’s why it would be a bad precedence...

 

[Analog Kid]

The vaccination is important, but it is not magic. It doesn't give 100% immunity, it may only offer partial protection against the known variants, and there's always the risk of a new variant showing up that evades the vaccine. Masks and testing aren't magic, either - they just improve the odds. It is always a numbers game, and the higher the numbers the bigger the risks. Come the summer, the #1 risk is likely to be a new variant emerging and spreading half way round the world (or even half way round a large country like the US) before it is picked up.

If the vaccine means that, come June, people can (e.g.) go to restaurants with small groups and shops can open normally, that will be a major win... but those are modest risks compared to these huge national/international conferences where thousands of people from scores of countries (read: scores of wonderfully diverse petri dishes for breeding new variants) rub shoulders.

Sorry, but huge exhibitions/conferences like this need to go the way of the dodo. They're already partly obsolete when anybody and their dog can launch an Internet "event" which anybody in the world can attend at their leisure.

The vaccination doesn’t need to protect you individually 100%. It needs to protect the community well enough that the virus can’t continue propagating. Without sufficient immunity throughout the community, the number of infections grows exponentially. With sufficient immunity the number of infections declines exponentially toward zero. That’s what we’re after— enough immunity that the virus dies off because of a lack of viable hosts and a little bit of time to get that process underway.

When we hit sufficient vaccination levels, that’s as good as it’s going to get. We need to continue the good hygiene habits of washing our hands and coughing into our elbows, and wearing masks when we don’t feel well or when there’s a known outbreak of whatever comes next, but then we’ll just need to live with whatever residual risk there might be from the 2019 pandemic. There aren’t any further breakthroughs to hold out for.

Until we hit that level of vaccination in the population we should do everything we can to reduce the spread so we keep people healthy and minimize the number of mutations while the vaccines are distributed, but once we’re sufficiently vaccinated we need make a list of lessons learned and move on just a little smarter so the next bug isn’t as devastating.

 

[jz0309]

Th

This is kind of a big money gamble that everything will go according to plan... June/July is the current estimate of when the US might hit herd immunity if vaccine distribution ramps up according to plan and no new variants set us back. Not sure what the EU estimates are...

They mostly say summer, but what about the rest of the world?

 

[bluecoast]

Way too early for such an event. I’m in Europe and Spain has suffered a huge amount of deaths. Sad that they can’t show moderation here. I’m sure the economics are driving this decision but better slowly and surely. Who on earth is going to go to this?

 

[iGeneo]

This is kind of a big money gamble that everything will go according to plan... June/July is the current estimate of when the US might hit herd immunity if vaccine distribution ramps up according to plan and no new variants set us back. Not sure what the EU estimates are...

Agreed... the only concern would be if we have a setback and a fourth wave. Quite possible as infection rates have plateaued. Fingers crossed for the next 60 days

 

[tdar]

Completely ignorant.

 

[guzhogi]

Almost every summer beginning in 2010, I've attended the annual business meeting for my national union. Last year and this year will be virtual. Often had 8,000+ delegates. I can't believe what 50,000 attendees would be like.

 

[BornAgainMac]

65 and older in the US. Anyone younger gets thrown to the back of the vaccination bus after obese teenagers and Millenials.

And a lot of people under 65 have died. About 15 percent (78,000+) of the 525,000 Americans that have died are this age. The disease has in 1 year killed more Americans than all previous wars combined.

Cancer has a higher annual death toll. That war statistic is pretty good. I will use that one.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

The vaccination is important, but it is not magic. It doesn't give 100% immunity, it may only offer partial protection against the known variants, and there's always the risk of a new variant showing up that evades the vaccine. Masks and testing aren't magic, either - they just improve the odds. It is always a numbers game, and the higher the numbers the bigger the risks. Come the summer, the #1 risk is likely to be a new variant emerging and spreading half way round the world (or even half way round a large country like the US) before it is picked up.

This is ridiculous. The vaccines (at least the three approved in the US) offer 100%, complete protection against hospitalization and death due to covid-19. The JNJ vaccine was tested in South Africa (currently the worst variant) and there were zero hospitalizations and death due to covid in the vaccinated group. Zero. The vaccines work and, if you even get symptoms at all, it is no worse than the common cold. We are not stopping or significantly altering human activity because of possible cold symptoms.

Could new variants pop up in the future that better evade the vaccines? Yes, but then we will deal with those. To put human activity on hold indefinitely POST-VACCINE because of the chance that a new variant comes out is absolute lunacy.