BARCELONA (Reuters) - The great and good of the mobile communications world have flocked to their annual jamboree in Barcelona, all armed with this year's must-have tech: a negative COVID-19 test, an FFP2 face mask and a digital badge for contact-tracing. Over 30,000 visitors from 143 countries are set to stream into the Catalan city for the three-day Mobile World Congress, or MWC, which starts on Monday - and each will have to pass through a mammoth testing area complete with 80 booths. While that attendance is a far cry from the crowds of 100,000-plus in years gone by, it is nonetheless encouraging for the organisers, global mobile industry body GSMA. The industry hopes that this year's event, split between physical, virtual and hybrid activities, will provide a blueprint for future business gatherings. "This (MWC) marks a before and an after," Carme Artigas, the Spanish government's digitalisation and AI chief, said at the lunch.

Source: The Star June 27, 2021 22:52 UTC