I’d been at Mobile World Congress—the mobile industry’s largest gathering, which takes place annually in Barcelona—for a total of about five minutes on Monday before I realized my phone was gone.

I checked my bag. I checked the floor. I checked the coat room. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

It’s never a good time to lose your phone. But of all the times I could have lost mine, this surely had to be among the worst.

As the Chief Marketing Officer of IBM’s Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment industry, I’d been working alongside my colleagues all around the world for months to make sure our company’s presence at Mobile World Congress was a success. And on the first day of the event, it was my job to make sure all our plans played out seamlessly.

To facilitate that, we set up a massive WhatsApp channel so that hundreds of sellers, marketers and staff members could communicate with each other. And on the first day of the event, that communication is typically a non-stop barrage of questions and updates, many of which directly require my attention: “Can you meet with this client?” “Can you look at this tweet?” “Where are you?”

So yeah. Not an ideal time to be without a phone. And yet, there I was, probably the only person, in a more than 2 million square foot exhibition center of 100,000 mobile industry professionals, without a mobile device.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. But I didn’t have time to appreciate it. I had to do something about this situation—and quickly. The first of my many scheduled business meetings was rapidly approaching. Luckily, I had an idea where my phone might be, and how I might get it back.

Digging through my pockets, I uncovered a receipt from the taxi I’d taken to the event venue, Fira Gran Via. Typically, I wouldn’t get a receipt for a minor cash transaction, but since this was a business trip, I figured the paper record would be useful. It turned out to be a lifesaver.

 I tracked down a Spanish-speaking colleague and in the coat room of IBM’s booth, where we’d set up a makeshift office, she called the number on the receipt on my behalf. A cab company representative told her she needed to place the missing phone request via email.

While she crafted the message, in Spanish, I opened my laptop and logged on to Find My Phone app. The app couldn’t determine the phone’s location, but it managed to lock the phone, and to send out an alarm with my colleague’s phone number on it, so that anyone who picked up the phone could get in touch with me.

No one called. And my colleague’s email went unanswered. So, I went about the rest of my day. To ensure I wasn’t completely off the grid, I made sure I was tethered to one of my colleagues at all times. They relayed pertinent WhatsApp messages to me in real time and made a call for me if I needed to reach someone quickly. They were my lifeline.

But I still wished I had a phone. Out of curiosity, I actually wandered over to one of the phone manufacturer’s booths at one point to see if I could buy a phone there. Perhaps I could snag one of those fancy new models that everyone was buzzing about? No luck. Alas, at the world’s largest mobile industry event, you can ride a virtual snowboard, control a 5G robot, and simulate a mission to the moon, but you can’t actually buy a phone. Go figure.

As it turned out, I didn’t need a new phone, because mine turned up. Four hours after my colleague emailed the cab company, she finally decided to try calling again. This time, the representative said they’d gotten in touch with my driver. Two hours after that, he reported that he had the phone, and agreed to meet me in front of a hotel near the event venue. We met at 4:30, I thanked him for the phone; he thanked me for the tip.

Phew!

IBM came to Mobile World Congress with a message about why communications service providers need to create “living networks” to manage insatiable bandwidth demand and keep customers connected. Turns out, to stay connected myself, I needed a different kind of living network, one comprised of kind colleagues and strangers with access to a whole host of different tools.

Technology alone, I learned this week, couldn’t get me my phone back—and technology alone won’t solve the challenges facing the telecommunications industry today. To get things done, in business and in life, we need people and technology working in tandem.

Oh, and don't tell anyone about this - it's a bit embarrassing.

RDM