The Mayor of Barcelona kicks off Welcome Mobile World Capital movement
This morning the Mayor of Barcelona and President of the Mobile World Capital Foundation, Xavier Trias, sent a first official greeting to Mobile World Capital Barcelona. The message, a pre-recorded video broadcast via a website designed especially for the purpose, could be seen live on four big mobile phones installed in the city of Barcelona and via social media. This message kicks off a new social movement called “Welcome Mobile World Capital Barcelona”, which is set to become the biggest “welcome” in terms of participants to the Mobile World Capital and the upcoming Mobile World Centre inauguration yet. The Centre is to open to the public next February 15th.
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The Deputy Mayor for Economy, Business and Employment, Sònia Recasens, and the Managing Director of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, Ginés Alarcón, watched the Mayor’s first message this morning live via one of the giant mobile phones located in the L’Illa Diagonal shopping mall. They also joined in with the “Welcome” movement sending messages via the website www.welcomemobile.mobi. National and international celebrities like soprano Montserrat Martí, chef Ferran Adrià, President of FC Barcelona Sandro Rosell, designer Custo Dalmau, F1 driver Marc Gené, tennis player Tommy Robredo, architect Benedetta Tagliabue and the actress and singer Leonor Watling, amongst others, followed the mayor sending their own messages of welcome.
From now until the close of the Mobile World Congress 2013, citizens around the world can also send their welcome messages (video, photo or text) to Barcelona in its capacity as the world’s first Mobile World Capital and as such celebrate the upcoming inauguration of the Mobile World Centre, an open platform and state of the art exhibition showroom where citizens are able to understand and experience how mobile is enhancing our lives. These messages will be shown one after another on the four giant mobile phones dotted around the city, in L’Illa Diagonal, Estació de Sants, La Maquinista and Gran Vía 2.
Located on the corner of Plaza Catalunya and Portal de l’Àngel, the Mobile World Centre is, along with Mobile World Hub, Mobile World Capital Festival Series and Mobile World Congress, one of the four cornerstones of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona initiative, a title the city has held since 2012 when it was named by GSMA as the mobile world capital after competing with more than 30 cities worldwide.