February’s GSMA‘s world congress, 3GSM, is set for record attendance. After 50,000 attendees last year, at least 57,000 are expected this year. Lighthouse principal consultant, John Moroney, will report from the event for Analyst Equity: drop us a line if you’d like to meet with him there.

The growth of the event seems pretty unstoppable after the growth in attendance last year, the first year in Barcelona, and a 30 percent rise in attendance at 3G Africa. Lighthouse’s money is on the total attendance next month exceeding 60,000.

The growth represents more than the ubiquity of mobile technology. The GSM Association has made 3GSM a highly attractive event by developing a plurality of niche streams and sideshows. Specialist events for Government executives, marketing leaders, innovators and other reflect the many aspects of the mobile dimensions of life. The Barcelona venue’s astonishing scale is exploited fully.

However, the 3GSM event is also a key place to do business. For a number of reasons, the telecoms industry is slightly more relationship-driven than other tech markets, partly because of the regulatory environment. People are there to seem colleagues, and see solutions, in the flesh. That’s part of the reason why Lighthouse will be there, to demonstrate our telecoms Analyst Attitude Surveys. We’ll be joined by more than 1,000 exhibiting firms and over 2,000 journalists.

We see no reason why 3GSM should not continue to grow each year, until it reaches the full capacity of the Barcelona venue. And the GSMA must already be asking themselves what their options are at that point…