Mobile World Congress (ne 3GSM)

I have just got back from WMC/3GSM - the main industry trade show for the mobile phone industry.

It's a madcap few days where geeks from around the world converge on Barcelona, Spain. Effectively turning it into a mobile geek heaven (or hell). Bridie took great delight in people-watching the arrivals at the airport: "geek ... tourist... geek... geek... geek."

All the big names announce their latest offerings, companies try to out-hype each other, and all the suits converge for days and days of meetings. But the reality is that you need to fight to see the new toys, the hype is short lived and the meetings often are not necessary. The idea is good, but it doesn't live up to expectations.

It's a tiring time, with the only positive thing to look forward to are the parties each night. Symbian's party was Monday night in a nightclub called Opium. It was rockin with a band downstairs and a chillout room upstairs. Tuesday I went to a chip manufacturer party with a middle-eastern theme; food, drinks, belly dancers the lot. I even had tickets to the Samsung party on Wednesday night but I had to fly back.

Ironically international roaming wasn't working that well - so I missed a lot of calls. The best voice mail I had was "that thing that is buzzing in your pocket is your phone - you should answer it sometime."

Some photos from one of our corporate blogs

Anyway... home now. Yay!