At the end of February two members of the Metalitix team were presented with the opportunity to attend the largest and most influential event for the connectivity ecosystem, MWC Barcelona. MWC Barcelona is the most significant annual gathering for the mobile industry and technology sectors. The event, held in the expansive Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, is a hub for technology, community and commerce, attracting over 101,000 attendees, more than 2,700 exhibitors, sponsors and partners from over 205 countries.
Why visit MWC Barcelona
The event is a fantastic opportunity for Metaltix to expand our network through networking with industry decision-makers from hardware and software manufacturers, agencies and startups while experiencing new and futuristic technologies with a view to exploring new business opportunities. There is also an extensive Keynote and Conference program that provides insights into industry trends and debates. So wIth a fully loaded presentation, business cards in their pockets and appointment slots filling up fast our intrepid duo set off for Barcelona.
MWC First Impressions
First impressions were impressive, the sheer size of the event was however a little intimidating. The atmosphere was electric and overwhelmingly positive which created A LOT of excitement. It was clear from the outset that the dominant theme of this year was AI and the integration of this into businesses in a myriad of ways. Spread over 8.1 halls it was going to be difficult to see absolutely everything so there was a divide and a conquer plan put in place. Phil Scales, our Senior Customer Success Manager was taking meetings with the larger scale enterprise partners while Matthew Charles Morton our Product Marketing Specialist tackled the early stage startup part of the exhibition, 4YFN. But first they visited our very gracious partners and hosts for the event, HTC, to see what new technologies they had on offer and where Metalitix could provide value.
HTC Viverse at MWC
HTC had a lot of hardware on display including their VIve XR Elite Headset. While there were gaming and sports simulation use cases for their headset their main focus was however on business solutions for virtual collaboration, Viverse for business. Viverse for business is a modular platform that allows businesses to create avatars, communication features and custom virtual rooms.
HTC describes their activation, “At Mobile World Congress, Viverse and partner Cityscape will showcase how companies can use this modular approach to create their own virtual environments and brand them with their own corporate design. At launch, the following modules will be available for selection: Common Rooms, Reception Rooms, Showrooms, Team Rooms, Meeting Rooms, and Auditoriums.” Metalitix, with our spatial analytics, could provide constructive feedback in the use of these 3D elements to aid in the improvement of the virtual experiences resulting in smoother communication and greater collaboration resulting in increased productivity for participating companies. Having explored HTCs latest technology it was time to see what else was on display.
Technology at MWC
Mobile World Congress is always where the latest and greatest tech is displayed and 2024 was no different. We were treated to displays of XR glasses, phones, laptops, smartwatches, early concept products and even a robotic dog. Motorola showed off their latest phone, the bendy phone, that can be worn around the wrist. Samsung showcased their Aura competitor the Galaxy Ring that can monitor sleep, heart-rate, menstrual and fertility-cycles. Phil had a go with the Humane AI pin that attached to your clothing and completed tasks such as translating, currency conversion and sending natural sounding texts to friends while displaying through a projection onto your hands. One piece of tech that really caught our eye though was the Lenovo see through laptop.
While still only being a concept the ThinkBook Transparent Display Laptop featuring a 17.3-inch Micro-LED transparent display could revolutionise the clam shell designed laptop. The laptop enables the overlay of virtual content onto the real world, similar to the way the Apple Vision Pro headset does. The screen can be used as a virtual whiteboard, enabling collaborative work. The keyboard is also entirely digital, doubling as a drawing board, appealing to creatives seeking real-time digital creations. This innovative concept is a giant leap in display technology, promising interactive and immersive computing experiences for the future. With all the new tech consumed it was time to get back to the job at hand, nurturing existing relationships and forming new ones.
Customers & Partners at MWC
In Halls 3 & 4 many of our Partners had stands to visit, the larger Agencies all provided a good opportunity to have fruitful discussions around their future activations and plans. We also took the chance to visit Tonomus, whose ‘cognitive’ cities and future plans align nicely with Metalitix upcoming projects to add predictive analysis to the platform.
In halls 8 and 8.1 was the 4YFN (four years from now) section of the event which held all the smaller up and coming startups in the industry. It was a great opportunity for Matthew to meet numerous founders who are working in the VR/AR/XR world and introduce them to Metalitix and how we as a platform can benefit their projects. There were production houses, game creators, educators and entertainment providers all who need an understanding of what the users in their experiences are doing. We are looking forward to developing those relationships further with our free trials so they can see the power of Metalitix for themselves. In between meetings there was the opportunity to attend seminars and round tables to hear and discuss the pressing matters at hand.
MWC Seminars
The overriding theme of the event was AI so a lot of the seminars were focused around that. This allowed us to improve our knowledge of the use of AI as a platform and how it is and will be adopted by consumers and business alike. We were able to get an understanding of the convergence of Data and AI through seeing how some of the large Telcoms are approaching AI themselves. The obvious takeaway is how AI will be used to analyse and structure data which gives us food for thought in our own collection, analysis and presentation of our data. It wasn’t however all about consumption for the Metalitix team at MWC
One of our team members found himself involved in a round table discussions hosted by Comviva titled, “AI IN MARKETING – THE GAME CHANGER FOR GROWTH.” Surrounded by some of the major Telcoms top Marketing talent Matthew took part in a healthy discussion on the positives and minuses of AI when it comes to executing marketing for growth and customer experience. There was a lot of positivity in the room about the opportunity AI presents. As long as, as Marketers, we embrace the technology and see it as another string to our bow and not a threat to our existence.
MWC 2024 Conclusions
As we reflect on the Event, it was clear that AI is playing a major part in every organisation's plans of future growth. As an experience analytics platform what was often missed was the data collection phase and how to ensure the proposed AI solution was constructed using the most appropriate data set. Sadly most demonstrations seemed to forget this core part of appropriate utilisation of AI, however several companies were beginning to modularise and monitise this in interesting ways.
One of the most exciting areas we are working on at Metalitix is the standardisation and collection of datasets relating to different types of XR activations. Our aim is to build this dataset to a point where we can provide this as a basis in which to apply Machine Learning and build a truly robust AI functionality to support the XR space specifically. By doing this, working with many different organisations and the XR experiences we can build a dataset to not only inform unbiased benchmarks but also provide predictive analysis of applications. The goal is to improve users understanding and optimise their activations to the point where the User experience of all.
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