Almost 30 days had passed since I downloaded the Duolingo app and began the brazen attempt to brush up on my Spanish in preparation for my trip for Barcelona. I practiced almost every day, to Matt’s extreme annoyance, and finally packed my humongous suitcase and headed off to Europe for a 12 day trip. I was attending Mobile World Congress (MWC) which is a world-famous technology trade show that Lenovo participates in each year. This year I was a part of the planning process, and helped to coordinate Lenovo’s presence at MWC, and promoted new technologies unique to Lenovo that we’re excited about through events planned.
The first three days I was there consisted of meetings with vendors and venues I’d been working with leading up to the events, a good amount of self-tourism (selfie central) sprinkled in between my meetings, hard hat tours of the Lenovo booth during its final construction stages, and a big adjustment to the time, food and my hotel. The tapas, wine, cava, paella, baguettes and croissants were my favorite things to eat while I was there…
I got the chance to catch up with a friend from Davidson, Liz Wall, who actually lives in Barcelona at the moment and teaches English to “little Spanish brats that don’t pay attention.” She loves it! Liz toured me through the famous Gothic district, Borne district, and walked me on Las Ramblas, the touristy street in Barcelona known for pick-pockets and cheap trinkets. We ate dinner at a restaurant in Plaza Real and I was (and continue to be) amazed at how cheap you can purchase great wine there! After our dinner, around 11, Liz situated me on the metro to go back to my hotel and proceeded to go out to some of Barcelona’s famous nightclubs by the water. It became clear to me how old and lame I am getting when the thought of joining her made me react physically.
Monday through Thursday of that week MWC 2016 took over Barcelona. The congress yielded about 100K people, and walking in and out of the Fira Gran Via, the huge conference center which was constructed specifically for this congress, you felt like you were on line for an international flight. No one spoke the same language, they checked your passport, and people everywhere were slightly confused or in a huge rush. The traffic was absolutely terrible, the city’s public transportation systems continued to strike, sometimes buses, sometimes the metro, but the crowds and publicity that MWC brought in its wake were undoubtedly good for the city. Realizing I’m making MWC sound miserable, I should say it was an extremely impressive display for all things technology. The booth construction itself for all the major tech players was outstanding, each one better than the last, and the latest products on display were cool. A few coworkers and I tested out a virtual reality ride that LG displayed, where we put on sleek-looking glasses and went on a roller coaster ride that was completely 4D. I felt very nauseous after.
Throughout the week I had several events off-site, away from the Fira craziness. On Monday night my event was located at the Museu d’el Arte de Catalonia, which is located on a huge mountain face, next to Gaudi’s Parc Guell and the Olympic Stadium. I had fun exploring the beautiful, castle-like museum (cue the selfies).
My favorite part of the trip, when Matt joined me, will be featured in my next post 🙂
jetsettingjennie 