This year’s MIPIM was good fun, as always. Nearly anybody we wanted to talk to was there, and most seemed to have time for a chat. We found the pace of the fair agreeable, and highly hospitable in a manner much less frenetic than in earlier years. We attended a wide range of pre-selected events, had plenty of our own appointments, and there still seemed to be enough time for spontaneous, unplanned gatherings, leading to new faces and ideas. Call it serendipity if you wish  - we always associate it with Cannes, and it was there in plenty this year.

Even the entertainment was low-key, in keeping with the buttoned-down tenor of the industry these days. Only the lawyers seemed to have no qualms about making a late-night splash on their harbour-side motor yachts, or in Cannes’ better class of hotel – but then, it’s good to be the winners, whether the market is leveraging up, or trying to negotiate its way out of a lost cause. Somebody has to salvage the MIPIM’s reputation as a glamour event, after all – now that the Russians no longer appear quite so keen to entertain all and sundry, and Europe’s now-nationalised banks have to be seen to be acting suitably chastened. Continue Reading