The Mobile World Congress 2009 will take place in Barcelona next week (Feb 16-19), under the big cloud of uncertainty that the current economic downturn presents to the mobile industry. Reports are saying that the event organizers expect a 15% decline in the number of visitors, compared to the 54,000 who visited in 2008. Many mobile companies are also reducing their presence in the event, in light of the shrinking marketing budgets.  Perhaps another sign of the times is the number of high profile keynote speakers, as if to show that the mobile giants are doing their best to push business forward.  A few names on the speaker-list are: And the list goes on.  The budget shrinkage also impacted the Israeli delegation to GSMA, which has been reduced from 60 to 46 companies this year. That said, we have to remain optimistic and remember that the most advanced technology innovations come from new entrants, not from the incumbents. Indeed, some of the Israeli companies participating in GSMA 2009 have exciting announcements to make (participants: scroll down for a special note ). The 46 Israeli participants in the

Keynote speakers include Governor Bill Ritter, chief of U.S. naval operations Admiral Gary Roughead, and Georgia Institute of Technology director of the Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines Henrik I. Christensen.

Drones, which are controversial on the battlefield, aren't just for warfare. Their uses also include drug-trafficking surveillance, wildfire management, bomb disarmament, medicine, farming, weather forecasting, and monitoring the recent oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, points out The Denver Post, which reports that more than one dozen Colorado companies will man exhibits.

The most powerful factor in economic growth is human capital – the level and concentration of skilled, energetic, and productive people. Charting the human capital levels of nations and regions is a...
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