Have you got your MWC travel booked? If your answer is yes, let me say this: Well done.
However, if you’ve not sorted it, can I strongly suggest you get on with it? You already know it’s going to be a painful experience. The longer you wait, the more eye-watering it will be.
Mobile World Congress is taking place this year from 2nd-5th of March (gone are the years when the WAGs or HABs (husbands-and-boyfriends) would complain about the event taking place over Valentines). And if you’re into mobile, it’s definitely worth a visit — especially for the networking.
I am going for one day. It’s the new thing. Everybody’s doing it. Well, not quite. Most people make sure they’re on site from Monday to Wednesday at least. However I no longer have a pressing need to report and document everything live. Plus it’s not typically that cost effective — at all — to be dragging a camera crew around Barcelona for the whole week. In years gone by I used to go for the whole week — Sunday to Sunday. But for the last two years I’ve been super-compressing the experience into a single day.
I fly out from London Heathrow into Barcelona arriving about 10am, take in the show, then fly back about 8pm.
This means I don’t screw up my whole week. I strongly recommend it.
Anyway, if you haven’t booked your travel yet, all is not entirely lost.
I’ve just done an Expedia (arriving Sunday night, departing Thursday) with flight and hotel included. The top result? £1,502. Not bad. Not bad at all, actually. This, after all, is MWC. The prices are usually SHOCKING. (Expedia is actually telling me that 55 other people are viewing that entry!) The flights are from Stansted and the hotel is one I’m not familiar but has a 4/5 rating. Here it is for posterity. I’ve no idea where the hotel is but it does say *Barcelona* as opposed to somewhere godawful 100 miles away. The deal will be gone shortly, trust me.
I booked my flight back in May (here’s my post). I’ve decided to do the Wednesday as things should have calmed down by then but there will still be a bit of energy around the show floor.
If you’re liking the idea of doing MWC in a day, here’s how I did it last year for £156 (excluding show entry and my taxi to and from the airport).
Book now!