Here are the craziest things we saw at Mobile World Congress 2017

Business Insider/James Cook

Google’s soft drinks bar.

BARCELONA, Spain — Mobile World Congress is the giant technology event that takes place in Barcelona every year. It used to be a relatively small event for telecoms companies, but it’s grown to become a massive showcase for the entire tech industry.

This year was no different. Google has a large outdoor area with a soft drinks bar where you paid with a high five. And tech companies showed off some truly strange products.

Take a look inside Mobile World Congress 2017:

Things got off to a dramatic start on Sunday when Greenpeace protestors scaled the outside of the Samsung press conference.

Nokia held a party on Sunday night after it announced the relaunch of the 3310. The artwork for the party featured retro Nokia phones.

But it was inside the main event where the really weird stuff was situated. IBM fed its Watson AI lots of information about Gaudi’s works, and it came up with this futuristic piece of art.

It included moving parts that rose and fell according to the sentiment of social media posts about Mobile World Congress.

Samsung likes to stock its booth with crazy virtual reality simulators. This man was enjoying his experience.

Is your dog connected? It soon will be thanks to this fetching connected dog jacket.

I took a selfie with this robot who was representing a tech company that I have now forgotten.

There are lots of vague marketing slogans around the exhibit halls. Here’s one.

Huawei decorated a futuristic sculpture by gluing lots of phones to it. Some of the phones fell off, though.

Here’s a shrugging robot.

This man was enjoying the “Power Rangers” virtual reality experience.

What does this mean? Nobody knows.

Google built a pixellated forest. There were people inside the trees trying out VR.

I did peek inside. It was a Google meeting room. Some men in suits were sat inside talking about technology.

There was also a Google sand sculpture.

And a Google ice sculpture, too.

But the coolest thing in Google’s area was its soft drinks bar.

The drinks were free, but you paid with a high five.

There was a counter behind the bar which tallied the number of high fives.

This robot’s head turned to stare at people.

Here’s a model of a connected seal. It doesn’t look happy.

Is virtual reality the future of driving? Maybe not yet.

Chinese smartphone company DOOGEE was showing off some phones which look rather similar to expensive Vertu handsets.

Correct.

ZTE created this model amusement park.

Lots of people came to take photos of it.

Chinese smartphone company Gionee hired this footballer.

And these dancers.

Virtual reality was absolutely everywhere at Mobile World Congress.

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