How the war in the Middle East affected the world’s largest mobile phone exhibition

Tuesday in the middle Mobile World Congress 2026three industry experts gathered for a panel discussion to chat about it Smart glasses And extended reality technology. But a fourth member of the committee, who was based in Dubai, never attended the conference. Two days ago, the United States and Israel launched air attacks on Iran, and flights were grounded throughout the Middle East.

Even thousands of miles away in Barcelona, ​​on the western edge of the Mediterranean, MWC has been affected by the conflict. While the events and meetings at the world’s largest mobile technology conference went as planned, albeit with an anxious awareness of larger geopolitical events, there was a notable absence.

Some booths remained empty, and some scheduled meetings among absent attendees did not take place. Exhibitors wandered the halls and saw a dwindling presence of Middle Eastern companies.

While the conflict had only just begun with MWC, it had already impacted attendees and changed the experience. Although far removed from the fighting in the Middle East, the impact of war was felt just as seriously in the middle of a conference on bringing people together.

The financial, emotional and mental cost of the war on technology conference

The fourth speaker on Tuesday’s panel was supposed to be Roman Axelrod, co-founder of Xpanceo, who will likely discuss the smart contact lenses that the company intends to showcase in prototype form at MWC. But neither Axelrod nor Al-Ainat left Dubai, where the company is based. Conference attendees who walked by the Xpanceo booth were greeted by employees who had come from elsewhere and apologized for having only made hasty video demonstrations of technology samples that were supposed to be demonstrated.

I had already planned to chat with Valentyn S. Volkov, co-founder and CTO of Xpanceo, who also couldn’t make it to MWC. While the company was deliberately headquartered in Dubai as a reliable and predictable jurisdiction for business (in addition to its central location, with many business destinations within a 7-hour flight), the country is within the airspace of the current conflict. As a result, companies lose money, especially money spent on MWC opportunities.

“We actually lost a huge amount of resources – physical, mental and scientific resources – simply because we couldn’t get everyone to Barcelona. We couldn’t get our prototypes to Barcelona as planned,” Volkov told me.

Fortunately, Volkov was in good spirits when I spoke to him via Zoom via a laptop in the Xpanceo cabin. It was safe, noting that the local authorities in Dubai were providing “logistical safety.”

Our conversation quickly turned to the smart contact lenses the company is working on, with plans to roll out working prototypes by the end of the year. As Volkoff described their potential capabilities, they seemed like the next evolution of smart glasses, like the Google specs I saw at Google I/O last year, which offer heads-up display information relayed from a nearby phone, and even potentially health data like glucose readings taken from the lens’s contact with the eye’s tears.

“These beauties were supposed to be shown for the first time (at MWC), and we put a lot of effort and resources into that. It’s just pure bad luck,” Volkov said.

Thanks to modern networking technology, Volkoff and I were still able to have this virtual conversation – and fortunately, the war had not affected him or the infrastructure where he was. But anyone can tell you the value of having a personal exchange over small screens. What was lost through the wire because Volkoff wasn’t there to explain the features and concepts of Xpanceo products through body language and illustration?

It’s not hard to imagine expanding this to include all the business conversations and networking opportunities lost by those whose flights have been canceled and whose lives have been interrupted by the conflict in the Middle East. Some of these meetings will likely shift to digital chats like mine, but MWC is a show about making new connections in person, seeing new devices and learning about the latest technology trends across the mobile and telecommunications industries.

But I met some attendees who were suffering the opposite fate, having departed early from countries that were now in restricted airspace. They have made it to the MWC, but it’s too early to know when they can return home.

Stranded at MWC, return unknown

I sat down with Said Saidi, one of the exhibitors at the show, and chatted in between his calls home. I couldn’t imagine the stress he was under with his family in Dubai and I had no clear idea when he would be able to join them again.

Saeedi, who has lived in the UAE for 19 years, is relieved to be able to speak to his family on the phone every few hours, who he said are safe. Aside from the noise made by the defense system and the drones coming from Iran, his reports from inside said that everyone was living in peace and had no shortage of supplies, and so far had not faced any major pressure.

Saeedi explained that this contradicts the misinformation spread on social media that says people are stuck in the UAE without housing. As W. said Reports have been repeatedThe government and hotels have provided stranded travelers with free accommodation.

Saeedi said he had taken an early flight to Barcelona the previous Friday, but most of the other models from the Middle East usually fly out on Sunday. By then, commercial flights from the region had stopped Largely grounded After the initial strikes launched by the United States and Israel on Saturday morning. He said the impact of the region-wide disruption of air travel was stark. After walking around the exhibit hall twice, and even all the way to the startup zone at the far end of the convention center, attendance from the Middle East is “close to zero,” Saeedi said.

During his arrival at MWC, many meetings that Al-Saidi was supposed to hold with his peers from other Middle Eastern companies were canceled or held online. It’s a loss all around.

“Usually the main purpose of the exhibition is to show that we are present, that we exist, and also to get to know new potential clients and new businesses,” Saidi said. While executives may typically move in their own circles, at MWC, anyone can meet them on the show floor. “The exhibition is always a good opportunity to meet people, have a first handshake and build on it,” Saeedi said.

Waiting for oblivion to be lifted, but the effect remains

During three days of wandering the MWC exhibit hall, I tried to gauge the scope of these absences. None was more evident than in the startup zone, 4YFN, which was filled with company representatives from every corner of the earth – except for a group representing the Federation of Palestinian IT Companies. Only two of what was supposed to be seven booths were set up, with the rest of the startup representatives unable to travel to the show.

The actors who were there politely declined to comment for this story and were unsure when they would be able to return.

Al-Saidi said the same thing. While he stressed that his company was taking care of him, and that he felt completely comfortable as long as his family was safe in Dubai, he had no idea when he would be able to return to his home country.

“I don’t have any expectations,” Saidi said. “At this time, we cannot predict anything.”

From inside Dubai, during our conversation, Xpanceo’s Volkov had a more optimistic outlook, with great hope that the situation will stabilize within a week. But if the issue is long-term, he said his company would be prepared for that, too. Work continues remotely at this time.

The war is likely to have an impact on the mobile phone industry beyond the MWC. Analysts revised their previously bleak 2026 phone sales forecast to an even bleaker outlook, predicting a 13% decline over the year. Mostly, they are to blame Lack of RAMwhich has plagued the technology industry as well AI data centers eat up memory.

But when I spoke with Jeronimo Francisco of the International Data Corporation, he noted that the regional chaos caused by the war with Iran contributed to the decline, at least in terms of disrupting supply chains, increasing the cost of oil and forcing companies to find workarounds to wartime bottlenecks.

“If there was no memory crisis, instead of the market going down 13%, it would go down 5% in the worst case scenario, or something like that,” Francisco said.

It was an emotional moment for the mobile phone industry. Although the AI ​​industry’s RAM shortage is poised to drive up phone prices in 2026, MWC was awash in company logos embracing… Artificial intelligence agents And other applications Generative artificial intelligence. Satellite companies have ushered in the era of increased connectivity beyond traditional cell networks. Going to the show is an opportunity to learn about the exciting trends that await phone owners in the coming months.

But even when MWC feels like it’s in a bubble of wonky news and enthusiastic expectations, sometimes the bubble bursts with world events that dramatically disrupt life. At CNET, we’ve covered many of the coolest finds we made at the biggest phone show of the year — but even deep into phone dives, it’s important to remember the human impact of conflicts that travel thousands of miles to a convention center in a Catalan beach town.