The GSMA Mobile World Congress - the world's largest mobile industry exhibition - is due to get underway in Barcelona next week.

The event, which will be held at the Fira de Barcelona venue from February 16 to 19, is expected to attract industry executives and developers from across the globe. Many manufacturers and networks are also likely to make important announcements over the course of the exhibition.

Keynote speakers at this year's Mobile World Congress include, Cesar Alierta, Chairman of Telefonica (owners of O2), Nokia President and CEO Olli Pekka Kallasuvo, MySpace CEO Chris De Wolfe and Josh Silverman, CEO at Skype. Mobile phone news sources are abuzz with speculation as to what people can expect from this year's exhibition.

For instance, it's anticipated that Samsung is going to launch into the touchscreen phone market with an updated version of its popular Tocco handset. In addition, Taiwanese firm Acer is expected to launch its own brand of smartphones at Mobile World Congress, while rival Asus is likely to unveil its Eee phone. What's more, Finnish mobile giant Nokia is scheduled to announce its Symbian App Store, joining the ranks of the iPhone, Google Android and RIM's BlackBerry application stores.

The GSMA, organisers of the event, will also announce the winners of the 14th Annual Global Mobile Awards next week. Categories include Best Mobile Game, Best Mobile Brand Campaign, Best Mobile Internet Service and Best Mobile Handset or Device. The latter category counts the Nokia E71, T-Mobile G1 and BlackBerry Storm 9500 among its nominees.

The GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009 promises to be a star-studded event, with British jazz musician Jamie Cullum, actor Kevin Spacey and Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am all in attendance.