Calling all MIPIM Challengers – share your great industry solutions

Leaders can only improve and transform their sectors by listening to others. In this regard, the built environment is no different from any other. Yet property and development has often been accused of doing the same things the same way for a long time.

When I first took on the role of director of MIPIM last year, I promised to listen. Over the past 18 months, I’ve spent most of my time listening to others in a bid to understand how we can improve our industry and the role MIPIM has to play in this transformation.

MIPIM attracted delegates from more than 90 countries this year and, as organisers of the only truly global real estate event, we cannot sit on the sidelines. We must be at the centre, uncovering the innovative ideas and facilitating the challenging conversations that raise standards and drive our industry forwards.

The first message I heard loud and clear was the need for all of us to better understand how we can make a more environmentally friendly built environment, one that better adapts to climate change and achieves net zero as quickly as possible. That’s why in March we held our first Road to Zero platform in the MIPIM programme, which culminated in the signing of the Road to Zero Alliance of high-profile businesses, including PwC and real estate investment trust Icade, in a drive to take faster, more effective action.

While this is an important first step, we obviously cannot go for net zero alone. At this stage, we have some but not all of the answers. We must therefore look to a wider pool of great minds to solve these global challenges. It is very easy to extend this logic beyond net zero to the other interconnected issues we face, from housing to the future of the office to the public realm in our cities.

So let’s start hearing from younger and more diverse voices. With this in mind, we have launched MIPIM Challengers, a new platform that will give a voice to our sector’s future leaders.

In a nutshell, MIPIM Challengers will bring to MIPIM 2024 a cohort of young professionals in the built environment to take part in our conference programme through a series of workshops, talks and events to set out new innovative ideas for solving the global challenges we face.

If you would like to be a MIPIM Challenger, the application process is simple. Candidates just need to submit a 600-word essay in English, addressing the question: “What is the most crucial challenge confronting global urban development, and how can young professionals contribute to its solution?”

The first Challengers cohort will be selected from the 16 best essays, as judged by a panel of built environment experts. All 16 MIPIM Challengers will be invited to attend our full conference and events programme in Cannes in March 2024. The initiative is open to all built environment professionals under 30 who haven’t been to MIPIM before.

I hope that this initiative will empower young trailblazers to help us to discover new solutions for some of the issues we regularly discuss at MIPIM, and encourage all of us to create a better urban landscape for future generations.

I’m incredibly excited to be facilitating meaningful connections between the next generation of built environment professionals and influential global property experts at MIPIM. This can provide the Challengers with the opportunity to learn from political figures, investors and the wider property community.

If you would like to challenge our industry, then please apply. I cannot wait to hear new, brilliant ideas from our best and brightest.