A new stage for the Barcelona Mobile World Capital

October 7, 2013

Having completed the first phase, the Barcelona Mobile World Capital (BMWC), which positions Barcelona as the flagship of mobile communications, is starting a new stage, with the aim of consolidating different technological, social, and business initiatives, which are being carried out around this project that began officially in January 2013.

Changes in the executive management team of the Foundation

Within this new context, Ginés Alarcón, General Manager of the Foundation until now, will step down from the project to pursue new opportunities, and Agustín Cordón, as Executive Vice President, will assume the duties of CEO.

In this new stage, the current General Manager of the Foundation, Ginés Alarcon, will step down from the project to pursue new opportunities, while still linked to the project by collaborating on various initiatives. Agustín Cordón, as Executive Vice President, will assume the duties of CEO.

Ginés Alarcón, appointed by the Foundation’s Board in July 2012, had joined the project a few months earlier to contribute to implementing its organisational structure and development. Alarcón, an industrial engineer with extensive experience in the telecommunications sector, excelled in his involvement and management which led to the start of various industrial development programmes and the promotion of mobile technologies.

As a result of collaboration with national and international companies and institutions, several projects were set in motion during this first work phase. The list includes m4all (disability), mHealth (health control via mobile devices), mSchools (mobile solutions in the classroom), the development of contactless technologies such as NFC, and the opening of the Mobile World Centre as a venue to showcase the full potential of mobile technologies.

Mobile World Capital Barcelona is an initiative aimed at turning the city into the permanent global centre of mobile technologies and an urban laboratory for new applications that will transform companies and people’s lives through the development of an industrial and technological fabric based on the potential of mobility, linked to various areas, such as health, the automotive industry, transport, the agro-food industry, mobile payments, and leisure, creating, at the same time, new business opportunities.

In addition to the Mobile World Congress, which is held annually in Fira de Barcelona, the Mobile World Capital, with headquarters in the MediaTIC building in the 22@ district, is based on MWHub, concerned with industrial and business development, Mobile World Centre and Mobile World Events more focused on the impact of mobile technologies on people’s everyday lives.

The initiative, promoted by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council, Fira de Barcelona, and GSMA, is governed by a Foundation chaired by the Mayor of Barcelona, which important companies from different sectors have joined. Barcelona was appointed Mobile World Capital for the period from 2012 to 2018 by the GSMA, the association that represents the interests of over 800 mobile phone operators worldwide and over 200 companies in the mobile ecosystem.