By John Wilson

Next month, GSMA’s Mobile World Congress returns to Barcelona. Attendance expectations are high for the show, with the event staff planning on welcoming 50,000 attendees from over 200 countries converging on Fira de Barcelona (in Barcelona’s Montjuic district) for some insight on what’s next in wireless communication.

This year’s event, like those in years past, promises to be simply massive. As communications providers and vendors interested in OSS and BSS, you’re playing a bit of a needle-in-a- haystack game at this event, where you’re as likely to get sucked into a presentation on the pros and cons of the “Angry Birds” app as you are to

find meaningful conversations on support systems software. In order to provide a little direction, we’ve taken a look at the advance conference agenda to help you plan your visit more effectively.

Monday’s conference programming breaks down into three categories - apps, mHealth and business services -with forums in each at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. So you can play it straight down the middle with the Business Services Symposium (developed in conjunction with the TM Forum) all day, or you can mix and match at will.

Morning: The obvious choice might be the 9 a.m. Business Services Symposium keynote (developed in conjunction with the TM Forum), but the mobile health discussion in the 9 a.m. slot, Can mHealth Become a Profitable Business? How and When?, might be more interesting for those who’ve already been to OSS/BSS shows recently and want to hear something new, especially since plenty of mHealth products and services are in need of some OSS/BSS attention.

Afternoon: Sticking with the split, there’s Taking Apps to the Mass Market, A Glimpse into the Future Business and Technology of mHealth and Managing Applications and Enriching the User Experience. By this time Monday, you’ll know where you want to be.

Late Afternoon: Mobile world has some heavy hitters lined up Monday in the late afternoon with Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, taking the stage for what they’re calling “Live Keynotes”. Now, Live Keynote means they’re streaming live, which is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, these are key talks from heavy-hitters in the tech world, but on the other hand, the guys back in the office can view the talk just as easily, and most likely have a better seat than you do, fighting crowds in the auditorium. And when’s the last time a CEO really rocked the boat during a keynote? Still, if you don’t have meetings lined up, these may be a decent way to spend a couple of hours.