Gerard Melgar L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona)

L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona)

Updated Monday, February 26, 2024-13:34

  • MWC Felipe VI: "The mourning of Valencia is the mourning of all of Spain"

  • MWC The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona hopes to reach close to 100,000 visitors in an edition with a flying car and boat of the Copa América

With a line-up of authorities very similar to that of last night's opening dinner, King

Felipe VI

presided this morning over the official opening of the Mobile World Congress (

MWC

) in

Barcelona

.

After being received by the President of the Government,

Pedro Sánchez

, both welcomed the President of Paraguay,

Santiago Peña

, who is on a working visit to Spain accompanied by three of his ministers.

The Catalan regional authorities, following the invariable script of recent years, have avoided the photo at the reception of the Monarch.

The president of the Generalitat,

Pere Aragonès

;

The vice president

Laura Vilagrà

and the president of the Parliament,

Anna Erra

, did greet Felipe VI minutes later in the room where the inaugural conference of the most important international exhibition in the technology industry was held, which opens its doors at the

Gran Via venue. of Fira de Barcelona

until Thursday and expects to receive around 95,000 visits.

Anna Erra and Pere Aragonès greeting King Felipe VI and Pedro Sánchez at the MWC 2024.GORKA LOINAZARABA PRESS

The ministers

Jordi Hereu

and

José Luis Escrivá

;

the Government delegate in Catalonia,

Carlos Prieto

;

the mayor of Barcelona,

​​Jaume Collboni

;

the mayor of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat,

Núria Marín

, and the president of the Barcelona Provincial Council,

Lluïsa Moret

, have completed the political representation.

On behalf of

GSMA [

MWC

organizing association

], there were the CEO,

John Hoffman

, and the marketing director,

Lara Dewar

, while Fira de Barcelona was represented by its two top managers, the president

Pau Relat

and the general director

Constantí Serrallonga

.

Artificial intelligence

In a congress that has crossed the interests of the mobile phone industry for several years now, this year's edition, with the motto

Future

first

, is marked by technological concepts yet to be deciphered, such as

artificial

intelligence

(

IA

).

Felipe VI himself referred to this technology yesterday in his speech at the welcome event at the National Museum of Art of Catalonia: "The great pace of change and the introduction of disruptive innovations can be quite overwhelming, which is why there is so much debate about if our societies are prepared".

The tour of the delegation chaired by the King, without Sánchez, who had an agenda of business meetings scheduled at the fair, visited the stand of the public-private foundation

Mobile World Capital Barcelona

, ​​the

Spanish Pavilion

and the

GSMA

exhibition space , where the Monarch has climbed into a

Renault

concept car model (

H1 First Vision

) and has met the former Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities

Pedro Duque

.

Next, the authorities visited the stands of the operators

Orange

,

Telefónica

and

Vodafone

, where Felipe VI tested some of the applications of these

telecommunications

companies .

As he did last year, Sánchez has taken advantage of his presence at the MWC to schedule an agenda of business meetings.

The President of the Government, who yesterday announced the creation of an artificial intelligence language model in Spanish and co-official languages, met this morning with the CEO of Ericsson, Börje Ekholm, that of Nokia, Pekka Lundmark, and the Director of Operations and

number two

of Meta, the Spanish Javier Oliván.