The COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world last year forcing many governments to adopt strict measures to control the flow of people on the streets. Isolation and quarantines before the vaccine were the only viable way to prevent the virus from spreading. Now, however, with many vaccines all around the world is slowly returning to a normal state. There’s still a long road to go through. For that reason, we don’t think that “normal life” will be back before the end of the year. The vaccines are progressing, but several countries are yet to start them. Moreover, the new COVID-19 variants cause a certain concern since they can become resistant. For now, quarantine still and isolation still is a way to prevent this virus from going forward. For that reason, many companies will not be attending this year’s MWC 2021 Barcelona. Google is the latest company to pull out of the event.
In the beginning of the year, The GSMA, the organizer behind the world’s biggest mobile tech show, MWC, announced their plans to make this year’s edition of MWC Barcelona an in-person event. Following this announcement, some exhibitors and partners have disclosed that they will not be attending the event. Now, Google joins the list of companies that don’t think that we’re ready for in-person events.
Gizchina News of the week
Google will not attend MWC 2021 Barcelona, not even in 2022
The search giant put out a statement that will not be attending this year’s edition of MWC in light of the current COVID-19 travel restrictions and protocols. The official statement says that it will continue to work together with the GSMA and support its partners through virtual opportunities. The search giant added that will not be present at the 2022 edition of the event as well.
Google’s announcement comes to a couple of weeks after Sony Mobile, Oracle, Nokia, and Ericsson, announced that they will not attend MWC Barcelona 2021. We will not be surprised to see more companies pulling out as the event draws closer.
Apparently, the organizers’ measures for the event are not satisfactory enough for exhibitors. For that reason, the companies will not take the risk to infect employees. The GSMA’s measures include reducing the number of attendees from 100,000 to 50,000. Honestly, 50.000 still is a very concerning number for a virus that through new variants can infect multiple times faster. Anyway, the event asks for a negative COVID-19 test result from attendees that was done 72 hours before their arrival, touchless registration process, mandatory masks, and regular disinfection of stands as well as product samples, and audio-visual equipment.
MWC 2021 Barcelona starts on June 28 and goes until July 01, 2021. But that can change soon…
