Barcelona madness...

It will be chaos next week, more than likely. According to latest estimates from the GSMA the number of people to descend on 3GSM in Barcelona next week will hit the 60,000 mark, well up on last year's figure of around 50,000 and almost double the 34,000 that went to Cannes in 2005. The number of exhibitors is also set to be higher at 1,300, compared with 1,000 last year.

For many of us going to the event next week, and that includes pretty much all of Total Telecom and our sister title Total Content + Media, a key concern will be security and crime. It has been reported that the police dealt with over 1,000 reported thefts from show visitors. It is to be hoped that the situation will improve this year and that measures have been taken to combat crime during the event.