Lithuanian ICT companies present new products and services at Mobile World Congress, the first live business event in one and a half years

No business cards, leaflets, handshakes, at least 1.5 meters distance between people, digital attendance certificates, COVID-19 tests every 72 hours, constantly worn FFP2 respirators, this is the new reality of business exhibitions. Nine Lithuanian information communication and technology companies experiences this reality at Mobile World Congress, a global tech event in Spain on June 28-July 1.

At MWC Barcelona Lithuania is represented by Exacaster, Telesoftas, Vertex, Metasite Data Insights, Dokobit, Paysera, Ondato, Heximus and FrontIT. After a break of almost a year and a half, this is the first live exhibition in which the joint Lithuanian national stand is organized by Enterprise Lithuania.

“This exhibition in Barcelona is very important for Lithuania’s ICT sector in strategic efforts to increase exports of services. Although ICT companies proved last year that they can adapt flexibly to meet customer challenges under all conditions, live communication, live delivery of services remains the most effective way to build relationships. We believe that the innovative ICT sector will understand the new rules of hosting exhibitions and establish successful partnerships with potential clients,” says Rasa Uždavinytė, director of the Export Department of Enterprise Lithuania.

MWC Barcelona is one of the first technology exhibitions in the world, having returned to physical format. It is estimated that the telecoms industry's biggest annual gathering attracted about 30 thousand participants, which is about three times fewer than before. Nine companies are represented by about 40 participants in the Lithuanian stand.

“Symbolically, after a pandemic in Europe, one of the first events of this scale is dedicated specifically to digital technologies, which have experienced a real upturn after a year of lockdown. The past year, and especially the second half of the year, was successful for us, allowing us to build and clarify plans for the future to turn into a super-app. By participating in this exhibition we present our plans, establish contacts, which will help in two directions. Firstly, to expand geographically and together with local partners to obtain licenses in the new countries of the Paysera network and, secondly, to expand the range of services in the super-app, as well as the number of supported currencies, the number of countries reached by transfers,“ says Kostas Noreika, main shareholder of Paysera.

Dean Zagacki, Chief Revenue Officer at Exacaster, a data analytics company, has missed just one Mobile World Congress event in twenty years. It was last year. “It's great to be back albeit in a scaled-down environment, keeping a distance from customers, prospects, and participants in Barcelona, keeping to the COVID rules with face masks all day and no contact in any form, even giveaways, and paper product information is not allowed. But it is at least a step in the right direction of how it used to be before this terrible disease hit the world and turned everything upside down. Exacaster has gone from it and now our customer base is growing, we are recruiting like crazy in these challenging times – it is a testament to the strength of our new products,” points out Mr Zagacki.

Exacaster presents a new generation of offer management tool that helps telecommunication sales and marketing teams to capture and respond to customer feedback in real time. This product is shown by the company’s representatives to potential customers in a live stand. “We show how our prebuilt Next Best Offer software application can help mobile operators improve customer experience & loyalty, increase revenue plus find new revenue streams!” suggests Mr Zagacki.

"The pandemic has changed everyone’s habits and lifestyle. Digitalisation and remote customer cognition for businesses have become not only an additional advantage, but even a necessity. The cognitive solutions of Ondato clients have helped many businesses around the world to move to the digital space in the face of a pandemic and to continue working in it. After a long period of time, we have the opportunity to attend a live conference and share our experience and digitalisation with businesses from all over the world and show that pandemic digitalisation can have a positive impact on businesses and economy," says Vytautas Urbonas, director of Marketing and Communication at Ondato.

The share of income of the Lithuanian ICT sector from exports is growing every year and currently accounts for just over 30% of total income. Last year, exports of the ICT services sector rose to EUR 952 million, which is 41% more than in 2019.

This year Enterprise Lithuania will host joint national stands in the following live exhibitions: the home interior design exhibition Maison & Objet 2021 in Paris, the largest defence exhibition DSEi in London, the international food, equipment, technology and packaging exhibition ANUGA 2021 in Cologne, the international private label exhibition PLMA 2021 in Amsterdam.