Huawei: Mobile World Congress, the Mini Version

Each year Huawei hosts a local ICT congress in Myanmar so partners and media can see the highlights of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. It is the company's main platform for demonstrating its leadership in 5G and other technologies to the people who shape its reputation in the market.

COVID-19 made a physical event impossible. Huawei needed a way to keep that annual moment alive, hold the attention of a distracted media corps and show that its technology was relevant to Myanmar's immediate concerns, not just to a global showcase.

Ruder Finn Era worked with the Huawei team to reformat the congress as a full-day online event, with a programme that kept the flagship feel while designing specific sessions for the media rather than treating them as passive viewers.

The strategic move was to connect Huawei's global innovation story to the pandemic itself. Huawei experts outlined the latest ICT developments and, crucially, how the company was supporting the fight against COVID-19 through technology, a subject that gave Myanmar journalists a timely reason to cover it.

Journalists were invited into post-event Q&A discussions, giving them direct access to Huawei experts and the material for original stories rather than a rewritten press release.