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Recession hits mobile data shows; some survive!

It's getting hard to remember which exhibitions and conferences in the mobile IT business are thriving, and which are cancelled; and even harder to remember which one is running when; but one at least, Mobile Commerce World Europe, MCWE, is going ahead in September.

The m-commerce arena is particularly confused; Mobile Commerce World and M-commerce World are not the same show. The M-commerce World show ran in February, as a sister show to SMS2000 and ISP World; despite pretty much coinciding with the Cannes blockbuster show, 3GSM, the SMS part of this triple expo outshone the m-commerce arm by a huge margin.

The September show is one of a series of international shows, with other incarnations in Sydney, Johannesburg, Stockholm and Singapore towards the end of this year. Organiser John Pozoglou told NewsWireless Net that the show was in its third year, with the first two exhibitions and conferences held at the London Arena; it's now moving to the Excel centre "because it's a modern venue, more in keeping with the style of the event," as he put it.

Two other events are aimed at much the same audience, at roughly the same time of year. IBC runs a Paris show, UMTS Mobile Internet, runs a week after MCWE. That's going ahead. Enterprise Wireless, run by Reed; was originally Mobile e-Business last year; that's also running, in the first week of October in Olympia. "They are the two biggest competitors, I'd say," says Pozoglou.

The event isn't to be confused with Mobile Expo, which was scheduled for the Excel centre too, but appears to have vanished from the calendar. Pozoglou's show has already been endorsed by the big-hitter names, Oracle and Nokia, not to mention the UMTS Forum and others like BT Wholesale.

"Last year the industry really suffered from the downturn; mobile business is such a nascent industry, and it was particularly hard hit by events like September 11th," Pozoglou added.

Wireless LAN (WiFi and so on) won't be a major part of MCWE. But there will be some sessions.

A tip for newcomers to Excel: although the site's own web pages offer guidance to how to get there, they don't highlight the fact that the old North London Line (Richmond to BroadStreet in the old days) which is now the Silverlink, runs to the Excel centre. Frankly, the best way to get there is by taxi or by air to London City Airport, which is right next door. And there is ample parking nearby.