UPDATES BELOW
Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 has already had to endure a list of exhibitor withdrawals due to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan China, and it seems like there’s a distinct possibility that the entire event could be cancelled. According to Spanish daily publication La Vanguardia, the GSMA will hold a crisis meeting on Friday, February 14 to examine the situation and decide whether MWC 2020 will or shoud for that matter go ahead.
This revelation comes after numerous high stacks exhibitors decided to pull out of the show or in some cases suggesting a minimised presence on site during the event. Companies that have withdrawn completely so far include Amazon, LG, Nvidia, Sony, and Vivo. Meanwhile, the likes of ZTE and TCL confirmed that they would not be holding press conferences, but would still have a presence in the exhibition arenas.
This comes just hours after the GSMA had announced improved health and safety measures at the event which include banning people travelling from Hubei province and increased and more regular cleaning and disinfecting of the arena and stands.
We will update in due course if there are any changes to the MWC lineup or proceedings.
UPDATE:
Head of Global PR for HONOR has said on Twitter that GSMA has informed her team that the article by La Vanguardia is “Fake News”. GSMA is said to have communicated the following message to the HONOR PR team earlier
“Regarding reports that GSMA will discuss whether to cancel MWC2020, the GSMA interface said that it has not received any news about the discussion of the plan internally, and the relevant reports are not from its official sources.”
GSMA told my team its fake news!
— Bhavya Siddappa (@bhavis) February 11, 2020
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