Asians bombard Mobile World Congress

The Asians are everywhere at the Mobile World Congress. The conferences, exhibition grounds, restaurants, everywhere. They are not just present, you can see their footprints on some of the wonderful products and services on display.

Not only are they pushing their own products, they are also holding strategic positions in key ICT companies across the world. One of the presenters of Windows Phone Series 7 today was Asian. Asian companies like Huawei, HTC, NTT Docomo etc had some of the biggest stalls at the exhibition.

Asians even have a number of restaurants at Fira de Barcelona, the event venue. In the absence of an African restaurant, Asian restaurants were the natural choices of many compatriots, who at least know what to expect, having been introduced to Asian cuisine back at home.

Interestingly, Americans, as other nationals were seen flocking into the restaurants. The Asians are winning on every front. They sure are positioning themselves to rule the world.

When will Africa join the train?

Clean up after yourself, please

There is something to be admired in the manners of Spaniards at QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants). No matter how highly placed a Spaniard is, when he eats at a QSR, he takes the pain to dump the litters in the dust bin before leaving. Their equivalent of Nigeria’s area boys are not left out. Even some funny characters with perforated body parts and scary hairdos take their trays to the dust bin to empty before going out.

At the restaurants within the Mobile World Congress complex, when you are done with your food, you take the tray to the dust bin, empty it and return it to the tray stack. Nobody is enforcing it or anything. In some cases, there are attendants waiting for you to finish so they can pack away the litters. But most of the time, the only job left is to dust the tables and chairs. The customers have taken away the litters by themselves.

Thank God I noticed this the first time I ate in at a QSR. I blended, straight.

How I wish we could take this lesson in humility and cleanliness in Nigeria.

Queue you must here



Participants queuing to buy snacks

For nearly everything, from registration to visiting the toilet, you have to queue for a few minutes for your turn.

The registration queue on Day One was probably a kilometre long. But it moved very fast. It lived to its name, FastTrack. This was possible because everyone registered had been issued a letter containing their specific bar code. When anyone presented his letter, the officials just scanned it and the machine would print the delegate's badge. For those who forgot their letters at home, the badge collection point was different.

To buy food was another small headache. You have to queue. For those who opt for the open air restaurants, they have to queue in the cold, and sometimes rain.

There are numerous toilets on the event grounds. But when you have over 67,000 visiting an event, you should expect a crowd at the conveniences. At Hall One particularly, the queues are unbelievable. Most of the time, if you are doing Number One, you only wait a few seconds. But if you are doing Number Two, you join a queue of at least seven others. How embarrassing, that!