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The GSMA is the organization that organizes World's largest mobile trade show 'Mobile World Congress' every year. The MWC is usually helds in Barcelona and attracts more than 100,000 attendees from around the globe. This year's Mobile World Congress was scheduled to begin on February 24 and run till February 27, but now, GSMA has officially announced that it is cancelling the show due to Coronavirus concerns.
The GSM Association said that it became almost impossible to conduct the event as planned because a number of high profile exhibitors including BT, Facebook, LG, Nokia, Sony and Vodafone backed out from the show amid Coronavirus concerns. Every year Barcelona hosts the Mobile World Congress and thousands of companies exhibit their latest innovations, giving a huge lift to the country's economy.
Amazon, Sony, LG Electronics, Ericsson, Facebook, and chipmakers Intel and Nvidia already said they would not attend the conference earlier this week. The main reason for the companies to skip the event was concerns for the safety of their employees from the ongoing threat of Coronavirus. The coronavirus has brutally hit China and as of this week, the number of confirmed cases increased to over 49,000, while more than 1,100 people diagnosed with the virus have died.
French telecoms group Orange also pulled out of the conference a few days ago, despite the fact its chief executive, Stephane Richard, chairs the GSMA. In an official statement, GSMA chief executive John Hoffman said:
"With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020."He further stated that,
"global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances had made it impossible to hold the event".The decision for GSMA to officially cancel the Mobile World Congress 2020 isn't surprising at all considering how many exhibitors were already dropping out, it is likely a right call in the current scenario.
