5G atop Mount Qomolangma! Come and Surf on 5G in Shenzhen World!

5G has recently come to be accessible on Mount Qomolangma. The hashtag of 5G mounting the summit of the world has gone viral on the internet, since this is the highest mountain we are talking about that many have a deep longing for. 

Thanks to the 5G coverage and the application of live broadcasting technology, the highest mountain peak in the world was no longer out of reach. Netizens could experience idling “on the clouds” and enjoy the sight of sunrises and sunsets from the perspective on Qomolangma through 4K high-definition imaging.

With 5G coverage, you don’t need to be there in flesh to appreciate spectacular cirrus from the world’s summit, something far beyond our imagination in the past. No one could deny that 5G is transforming the way we live. It has been even more true during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic where all kinds of 5G applications have led us to a life “on the clouds”.  

During this period of time, 44 million Chinese netizens watched online how Huoshenshan, a makeshift hospital, has been constructed via 5G live broadcasting; medical experts across the country are providing remote consultations through 5G video call; people self-quarantined at home saw cherry blossoms from a 5G camera mounted on a driverless vehicle; exhibitions at museums became available via 5G live broadcasting. 5G technology even makes it possible for us to stay online to go shopping, springtime outing... you name it.

Just in the past few months, there has been a spring of 5G applications in business verticals. 5G is gradually integrating itself into various fields and industries and influencing, subtly and silently, the way we live and work. The convention and exhibition industry, which is dubbed as the barometer of industry development and has also been in the grip of the pandemic, are pacing up to apply 5G to exhibitions, conferences and other events. Almost all conventional exhibitions and conferences have been moved onto the internet, and all the related activities like community communication, client maintenance and even transactions are now happening online. It could be expected that as conventional businesses resume in the post-pandemic period, these new technologies, media and platforms accessible in a high-speed network environment will continue to be favored by industries and finally become a normality.

While 5G surmounted the “third pole” on the earth, Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center, to be the world’s largest venue in the world upon its full completion, has achieved full 5G coverage as well. So, what new trends will 5G bring to the convention and exhibition industry? How will Shenzhen World fare in the waves of 5G?

Faster integration for online events

2020 is bound to be an extraordinary year for convention and exhibition industry. Under the influence of the pandemic, the demands for online exhibitions and conferences have increased rapidly, and it seems like the "fast forward" button has been pressed for the development of online events.

First, the influential Canton Fair Spring Edition was announced to be held in the form of 10 × 24-hour live streaming. Then, the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE), which attracted wide attention, moved its first roadshow promotion to the internet. Throughout the industry, there has been a continuous emergence of experiments of online events.

On April 13th, the Ministry of Commerce released the "Notice on Innovating Event Service Models and Cultivating New Growth Drivers for the Exhibition Industry", which requires that the exhibition industry should accelerat its transformation, upgrade and innovative development, and new online event platforms should be built, by making full use of 5G, VR/AR, big data and other modern information technology means to hold “cloud exhibition”. This has further promoted the exploration and expansion of online event business. In addition, Premier Li Keqiang presided over the executive meeting of the State Council on April 28th and instructed that the construction of new infrastructure such as information networks should be sped up, both industry and consumption should be upgraded, and the focus should be directed to domestic demand. Application-oriented exploration should be made to discover application scenarios of new infrastructure, so as to adapt to the new demand of digital consumption, and to boost the development of applications such as online office, distance education, telemedicine, Internet of Vehicle, smart city, etc.

At the same time, after long-time stay at home due to the pandemic, people’s lifestyle and mindset have changed a lot. Their personal experience in all sorts of "cloud xx" online events has made online participation much more acceptable for ordinary users. Working and living “on the clouds” has become a new trend, which also help foster user habits in advance before a large-scale promotion of online exhibitions comes.

In addition, the rapid application and realization of online events cannot be achieved without innovation and rapid development of network technology and application. In the first year when 5G came to be commercially utilized, it has withstood tens of millions of netizens' demands for internet use, and its stability, versatility and commercial availability are also maturing with each passing day.

Applications of 5G in more specific segments are still going through continuous exploration and expansion. During the epidemic situation, live broadcast and short video are no doubt the "star" applications that have boasted the fastest development and the most vigorous demand. With the promotion of 5G infrastructure and the spreading usage of corresponding terminal devices, live broadcast and short video would be even more empowered, and evolve into more influential media platforms and channels featuring video content. In many dimensions, convention and exhibition industry could be combined with online technology, and digital marketing platforms and tools. In that way, businesses could be integrated or transformed, paving the way for the integrated development of virtual and physical events, an stoppable trend of the industry.

 Big Data Real-time Dynamic Analysis

The arrival of the 5G era will ease the pressure on cloud storage to a great extent and it’s hoped that breakthroughs can be made in big data technology. Timely and easy retrieval of data on the clouds means that organizers and exhibitors could get latest dynamic analysis of the online events and be well-informed to swiftly adjust online marketing strategies and maximize traffic acquisition.

To provide better services, many offline services provided by Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center are also based on big data which provides audience with real-time information of parking spaces, restaurants and event peak hours through the smart service platform. In the future, organizers and exhibitors will also be able to access visitor flow distribution, brand search popularity and other visualized information on the platform and then timely change their marketing strategies. We believe the big data technology boosted by 5G technology will deliver even more impressive online applications in the future.Last year, when people spoke of 5G, the impression on it was simply a higher-speed network. We had imagined and discussed the future of 5G as wildly as possible at that time. However, we were still amazed, only a few months later, when we have witnessed how 5G has changed the lives of ordinary people and when we have been able to appreciate the sunsets at Mount Qomolangma via live streaming.

5G is leading us to the peaks and places once out of our reach. Despite the fact that convention & exhibition industry is already closely following the trend and many trials have been made to explore online events, sustaining efforts would still be needed to see how mature the application of new technology will be and how the technology will present itself at the end of the day.But this is also precisely the charm of industry innovation and development. Unpredicted as the limit is, you still want to fight for it.