Industry trade group GSMA appears intent on hosting its annual MWC events this year under the shadow of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, vendor participation in those events remains in flux.

GSMA CEO John Hoffman explained to the group’s Mobile World Live outlet that its MWC Shanghai event scheduled for next week remains on and that it was still on track to host its annual event in Barcelona, Spain, in June.

Hoffman noted that the MWC Shanghai event remained on track due to the “extensive testing, tracking, and entry requirements,” of the Chinese government that “has essentially made the country a ‘bubble’ protected from Covid-19 outbreaks, with regional and national authorities both supportive of the GSMA’s decision on the event’s format.”

The Shanghai event, which was cancelled last year, will be limited to 20,000 attendees, which is one-third of the 65,000 attendees it hosted when it was last held in 2019. In addition to the in-person format, GSMA will also host virtual access to the MWC Shanghai event.

The event is likely to draw mostly China-based vendors and attendees looking to highlight that country’s 5G efforts.

“They see it as a coming out to showcase 5G in China,” Hoffman noted in the story. “It’s on a scale unlike anywhere else in the world, but not a lot of people [elsewhere] recognize China has done these things.”

GSMA does have a lengthy list of “admission rules” for the Shanghai event, including the need for attendees to “undertake the Enhanced Identification Requirements … required by the Chinese government.”

GSMA was forced to cancel the Shanghai event last year, along with all of its larger events, due to the pandemic. The event is typically held after its larger Barcelona event, but this year has swapped places on the calendar.

While the Shanghai event appears set, the MWC Barcelona event will place a bigger burden on GSMA.

Hoffman noted that a “successful” Shanghai event will include “nobody gets ill,” while Barcelona will have different targets.

“Barcelona will be a little bit different, it is the big stage,” Hoffman said in the story. “Covid requirements will decrease our capacity. We’re not going to have 110,000 people, with travel restrictions, testing capacity, and one-way traffic through the exhibition, there’s no way.”

Despite that concern, Hoffman also talked of creating a “bubble” for all of Barcelona.

“Our view is it would be great if the world was vaccinated, but we can’t rely on that in 2021, so instead we’re relying on testing upfront to ensure our bubble isn’t just the Fira Gran Via but the whole of Barcelona,” Hoffman said.

Barcelona is approximately 39 square miles and home to more than 1.6 million people.

At this point, GSMA is stating that MWC Barcelona attendees will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours of arriving in Barcelona, and that it will have testing available at the Gran Fira venue. GSMA will also set up a “touchless environment” for all of the event.

That challenge is on the minds of potential attendees as most countries are only now starting to see a ramp up in vaccinations and new COVID-19 variants are beginning to spread.

“I think that June is honestly too early for any events,” Anshel Sag, senior analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, wrote in an email to SDxCentral. “I don't think I'm going to attend and I think that there isn't any way that vaccination levels will be high enough to mandate vaccinations. I think without mandated vaccinations for that kind of attendance it is a non-starter. Rapid testing is not reliable enough and the idea of turning Barcelona into a bubble is laughable if you consider 50,000 people entering the city for an event. I think a few thousand would likely be doable, but that's unlikely scalable.”

A Cisco spokesperson noted that the firm was not attending the Shanghai event as an exhibitor, but that they did have someone scheduled as a speaker. It was still “undecided” on the Barcelona event, citing “ongoing discussions with GSMA.”

VMware spokeswoman Angela Leaf wrote in an email to SDxCentral that the firm was not attending the Shanghai event, but did “hope to participate in MWC Barcelona later this year. We value our participation in important industry events, meetings, and other gatherings. However, given the evolving nature of the COVID-19, we continue to assess conferences that we are sponsoring or have a booth or other trade-show presence, and working with those show organizers and VMware teams to determine next steps, should conditions change.”

Ericsson and Nokia, which have traditionally been two of the biggest exhibitors at GSMA events, are also mulling their options.

A Nokia spokeswoman said that the vendor is "planning to physically attend" the Shanghai event but that it was still "early days yet to comment on Barcelona."

Ericsson in a statement explained that it "has signed up for our regular space in Hall 2 of La Fira, and plan accordingly. Should there be indications that the global pandemic remains a risk factor as we get closer to the event, we will independently review our decision."

GSMA was forced to cancel all of its major events last year due to the pandemic. The biggest impact was from its annual Barcelona event that is typically held in late February, and that was officially cancelled just weeks before it was set to begin.

As part of that last-minute cancellation, GSMA offered a compensation package to attendees and exhibitors tied to future events. This included a full refund for individual attendees and future discounts for exhibitors.

The events are significant money makers for the trade association, with a Bloomberg report last year claiming GSMA garners 80% of its annual revenues from the Barcelona event alone. The trade group’s CMO Stephanie Lynch-Habib told the news outlet that GSMA doesn’t expect to recover from the COVID-19 crisis until 2023, and it has cut bonuses and slashed non-staff spending by about 40% this year.

UPDATED: This story has been updated to include comments from Ericsson and Nokia.