For quite some time, CTIA, one of the predominant authorities in the mobile world, has hosted an annual trade show called Super Mobility in the U.S. The show has traditionally been laser-focused on U.S. technology and the firms that produce it. Though CTIA would have no issue hosting foreign technological advancements and the people behind them at its event, that often did not happen in quite the right numbers to call the show anything but American in theme, standing in sharp contrast to the globally-focused Mobile World Congress that GSMA host each year in Spain. The two are looking to fix that though as they have announced they will be joining forces to create a brand new trade show. The new show will replace Super Mobility and be called GSMA Mobile World Congress Americas, in partnership with CTIA. This year’s Super Mobility, taking place in Las Vegas, will be the last.
While GSMA will continue to host its Mobile World Congress events in Barcelona and Shanghai, they stated that, working together with CTIA, they hope to attract a more global crowd to a show in the States and compete with the likes of CES. Calling the spirit of the event “truly global”, the pair says they expect to see somewhere in the area of 30,000 visitors and 1,000 industry insiders showing off their latest and greatest at the very first show. AT&T CEO Glenn Lurie spoke highly of the new event, saying that the mobile industry at large, along with mobile consumers, will be “the real winner” in this arrangement.
While CTIA’s annual event in the U.S. is meeting its end to make way for the new event, no such announcement was made about CTIA’s annual U.S. events, held twice a year. It’s likely safe to assume that these events will continue for the foreseeable future, though CTIA will be devoting considerable resources to co-hosting the new U.S. flavor of MWC. The event is set to kick off for the first time in September of 2017, in sunny San Francisco, California. GSMA will be doing most of the legwork and managing things, while CTIA will be helping to provide resources to make it all happen.