Sara’s reflections from the Super bowl of the telco industry, MWC 2024
This was the first time I attended MWC in Barcelona. I did go to MWC in Vegas i 2023 since Martina Klingvall held the main stage delivering a great keynote - and I took the opportunity to meet some US partners and leads. But just like so many people had told me before, these two events cannot be compared.
The scale of the Barcelona edition is just something else. If you’re not a fast walker and know how to avoid the densest crowds it can easily take you 30 min to go from Hall 2 to Hall 8. That said I must admit that I was impressed by the organisation and logistics of the event given that there was always over 100 000 people in movement who either wanted to grab a cab, get some lunch, or just move from A to B. Me and my colleagues on site quickly learned some tricks though. The most important one was probably that telco people clearly don’t know how to fully leverage Uber and Bolt. So, by ordering a ride through one of these services you could easily cut your cab hailing time by up to 80% and watch the people in the taxi queue disappear on the horizon while you made it on time to the next meeting.
So, what are my reflections from the Super bowl of telco? Unfortunately, I did not have much time to walk around to see the exhibitions nor listen to many of the keynotes as I was busy running around to meetings and social gatherings. However, here are my reflections from just being there.
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Generative AI has taken over and 5G monetisation has disappeared into the shadows
I don’t know what has happened to the talks about monetising 5G but that is irrelevant since all that matters right now is generative AI. The word “AI” was plastered all over the place and is the only thing that matters. There is no doubt that AI will help simplify some processes including in customer service and transforming customer data to actionable insights. What bothers me is that this industry has some of the lowest customer happiness scores across the board and in many cases I believe it’s management teams and board representatives that believe AI will somehow magically change this on its own. In many instances it is the people that cannot even save a PDF that is supposed to ensure that these tools are used in a way that makes sense. Anyhow, AI is here to stay and I’m looking forward to seeing how it impacts the customer experience and job market overall in an industry so people heavy as telecom.
MWC is a bit like a trendy nightclub in an affluent capita
As a significant telco brand, especially if you are an incumbent, you need to be at this show to ensure that people know that you are still relevant. You need to have the largest table in the VIP area, ensure that you serve the best drinks and that the coolest people hang out at your table and not someone else’s. A stand at MWC starts at 100k EUR and goes to several millions. I am certain that this is pure “capital destruction” as my Head of Marketing & Communications, Sebastian Stecki, would say. The number of companies I saw hanging out in stands at the edge of one of the distant halls were overwhelming. Filled up with merch that will go straight into the trash can at the airport if not sooner and with it the company that handed it out has been forgotten.
That said I understand why companies like Ericsson and Nokia keeps coming back year after year and spend more and more money. One industry colleague told me that Ericsson decided not to participate a certain year, which led to the industry questioning the wellbeing of the company. You just must be there. As a scaleup you are much more forgiven obviously and I’m super happy with our choice to spend all our money on the travels and representation. It might be the modest Swede in me talking though so let’s see what happens next year. Perhaps we fly in Taylor Swift to sing our new Telness Tech anthem.
In between all the buzz there are some people that really knows what they are talking about
The best keynote that I saw was by far my friend David Clyde from Lebara who spoke about brand building and awareness. A topic all telcos would benefit from studying a bit closer. David spoke about the elements distinguishing a challenger brand from main brands and which tools a challenger has at their disposal if they just choose to use it. So many telcos do not have this basic brand building in place which means that the customer loyalty is low.
Lastly, here are some dos and don’ts if you plan to attend MWC:
· Plan your meetings and social events well in advance and make sure you add meeting location, so you don’t spend 20 min trying to find each other.
· Be flexible, despite rigorous planning there will be changes to your agenda the same day.
· Divide your meetings into “must" and “nice" to have not to end up drowning in nice to have meetings that does not lead to anything else than a nice conversation while you did not have time for your must haves.
· Leave some room in your calendar for spontaneous meetings and second meetings with hot leads.
· Realise that you cannot do both the morning and night shift. Make sure to be there with enough colleagues to spread the workload and ensure you do what you are best at
· Bring enough business cards, add people on LinkedIn right away and ensure that you have a QR code on your phone with your contact details for easy access to your details (no one has time to add this manually)
Pro tip 1: Arrive the weekend before to ensure that you get time to socialise with important people before the madness starts.
Pro tip 2: Book an afternoon return ticket.
Link to the reflections in Swedish as posted in industry newspaper Telekom Idag:
https://telekomidag.se/kronika-reflektioner-telekombranschen-mwc/