Hail and Farewell to Cannes
It is the end of an era. The GSM World Congress, or rather more properly these days, the 3GSM World Congress, has been a late winter hardy perennial on the Cote d’Azur now for more years than I, and I guess most of you, would care to remember. And this year is its swan song, its last year in Provence. From 2006 onwards it’ll be Barcelona, tapas, Gaudi and a changed world.
But that’ll be then and this is now, and if ever a venue, an industry body and an event are synonymous with one another and deserve to be celebrated together it is Cannes, the GSM Association and the 3GSM World Conference.
The Film Festival? Pshaw! Over-blown luvvie-dom run riot. You wouldn’t get Rob Conway dipping his hands in wet cement.
An early Rolling Stones track says, "There have been good times, there have been bad times"... and over the years the Palais on the Croisette has witnessed boom and bust in telecoms as the fortunes of the industry have fluctuated with the state of the global economy.
As we know, in recent times there have been far too many industry events held that have been sad shadows of their former selves. Events where a few bemused delegates wandered around a few scattered booths, chewing their lips, wringing their hands and fixing anyone passing by with an eye so glittering and mad that it would well and truly have put the wind right up Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner and no mistake.
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