This week, more than 109,000 visitors from 198 countries and territories attended MWC19 Barcelona, the mobile industry’s premier event. More than 55 percent of this year’s MWC attendees held senior-level positions, including 7,900CEOs.

There were 3,640 international media and industry analysts at the event to report on the many significant industry announcements. Preliminary independent economic analysis indicates that MWC19 will have contributed approximately €473 million and more than 14,000 part-time jobs to the local economy.

Intelligent Connectivity’, 5G was prominent at MWC19 and it was exciting to see a glimpse of that new world, with 5G-enabled handsets launched new products and services, and even the first demonstration of live telemonitored surgery over 5G technology. But what about the handsets?

Although we saw the return of Blackberry and Nokia handsets, it was foldable phones that dominated conversations. The Huawei Mate X appeared to be the star of the show with the most attractive folding phone and the only one with 5G.

As I was unable to attend MWC, I invited Paul Lipscombe, a reporter from Mobile News Magazine onto my daily tech podcast to learn more about what he learned at this year's event.