Missed MIPIM this year? You missed out

Not sure about the ‘Global Urban Festival’ badging (puts me in mind of a hip urban music festival, NOT an international real estate jamboree dominated by blue suited and booted, gilet-wearing blokes), but while you could never describe MIPIM as cool, this year’s offering had less of the ‘work hard, play harder’ vibe of some of its predecessors and was far more diverse in every sense, and all the better for it.

Sure, there were a lot of organisations and big names missing. The local authorities were once again conspicuous by their absence. Many of the top REITs had no one there or just a minimal presence. The big agency firms also slashed their number of attendees. Ditto the big law firms. For many, the optics no longer work for a week in the south of France quaffing Champagne and rosé on a perceived jolly.

But while some organisations appear to have closed the door on MIPIM and switched to UKREiiF, the common refrain from the non-public sector no-shows was that they’d “decided to give this year a miss”, implying they might be back.

I hope they do return. On the evidence of this year’s rebooted event, MIPIM still has a lot to offer, perhaps even more than before as it evolves into a more truly international – and content-led, business-oriented – event.

It wasn’t just the fresh badging that signalled a change in tone. It was the general level of soberness. Gone are the days when MIPIM was an excuse to go on a week-long corporate bender. This year, I had to forego my usual game of counting the number of people weaving up and down the Croisette at the end of each day having imbibed too much because there were not enough of them. I resorted instead to counting gilets, which was less fun, but resulted in a gratifyingly high count – and, correct me if I’m wrong fellow attendees, there seemed to be a lot more this year than usual.

What I inferred from the general lack of drunkenness and high gilet count was this: people were there to attend conference sessions, do business… and stay warm while networking well into the cooler evenings. With more than 20,000 people having reportedly attended, they had plenty of opportunity to do all three and they clearly grasped that opportunity.

I don’t think I can recall past panel debates so well attended. I am biased as I chaired five sessions (on the London, Manchester and Oman stands) and hosted two events for BE News, but I thought this year’s MIPIM was particularly strong on the content front – which is vital if it is to continue its renaissance, as alongside generating new business leads, content is how people justify their attendance.

The opportunity to network and forge new business relationships is where MIPIM really comes into its own, though. I witnessed the power of MIPIM – and may I humbly add BE News – at our c-suite dinner debate on ‘How to lead in the age of distraction’ and lunchtime roundtable debate on ‘How to drive transformative innovation across the built environment’.

Just before the dinner debate, sponsored by Rehoboth Property Group and Freeths, I noticed a potential deal being struck between two of the c-suite guests, who had not met before. Several people afterwards marvelled at how diverse, and not in a contrived way, the group was, in terms of gender, ethnicity and age. The debate was appropriately wide-ranging and challenging, with strong and contrasting opinions expressed around the table.

The lunchtime ‘BE Innovators’ debate, sponsored by Saible and hosted on the DWF boat, was equally stimulating. Attended by a mix of innovators and supporters of innovation, the lunch, like the dinner, brought together senior people from across the built environment industry, many of whom were meeting for the first time, thanks to BE News.

They weren’t the only firsts I witnessed at this year’s MIPIM. I met two ‘MIPIM virgins’, one a young, black female PR from Manchester and the other a white CEO in his early 60s. Tellingly, the former planned to stay sober for the entire event and the latter had barely drunk anything by the time we met at the end of Wednesday. Both were taking MIPIM in its stride and thought it was great. Neither noted any downsides or expressed any unease about the event.

That has to represent progress, but there is still a long way to go. UKREiiF has already turned many people’s heads and will no doubt turn many more. If MIPIM it is to win back those who’ve defected as well as attract new delegates, it is going to have to do even more to demonstrate its value and worth, particularly to the big regional authorities and on the ESG and DE&I fronts – more initiatives like MIPIM Challengers please!

The good news is that, to use property parlance, MIPIM needs to be refurbished rather than demolished and rebuilt. The bad is that the refurbishment needs to be extensive, meaningful and visible if it is to regain its must-attend status. On the evidence of this year’s event, I reckon it has a good chance of winning lots of new followers if not winning back all the old ones. Still not convinced by the ‘Global Urban Festival’ tag, though.