Planning a break?
The Corenet Conference in Berlin last week proved rather more star-studded than Diary was anticipating. Not only were 500 of the industry’s hardest-to-pin-down occupiers rounded up neatly into one venue but some bona fide stars hit the city over the same week. And we are not talking about the delegates attending the annual sealant and adhesives conference running alongside the property event at the Intercontinental. The cast of US female prison series, and EG favourite, Orange is the New Black, was spotted in Soho House after a launch event to promote the third season of the Netflix show. Corenet delegates were bemused by Diary’s excitement over the multiple celebrity spot. Clearly not a property industry favourite despite the gratuitous shower scenes.
Labour’s spirits take wing
From Berlin to Manchester and the Labour Party conference. An early highlight was Sunday’s London First party, staged to promote its “Let Britain Fly” airport campaign. A venue in the sky was duly picked – Cloud 23 at the Hilton Deansgate – but there was turbulence to come. Maybe it was the promise of 72 hours of hard conferencing ahead, or perhaps it had more to do with the free bar, but guests were in high spirits. It wasn’t the noise from the crowd, however, that most challenged the six – six! – speakers. Someone had decided that the speeches required an appropriate soundtrack, with One Day I’ll Fly Away duly blasting from the speakers. The sound desk operative, clearly a Randy Crawford fan, was in no hurry to hit the mute button.
A prime case for deportation?
The property industry was near universally relieved to see the Scots vote no to independence. But few can have been as happy to hear we are better together as JLL’s Neil Prime, whose sympathetic City agent peers launched a petition to have him deported if the Scots voted yes. Last Friday was also a great day to bury bad news. Not so for Canary Wharf. The landlord was obviously so worried that its sparkling numbers would be overshadowed by events up north that it went to the trouble of bringing its stock market update forward by 24 hours.
In the dark on rights of light
The City Corporation seems to have got itself in a real pickle with a move to intervene in a rights of light dispute between Goldman Sachs and its neighbours, which happen to be two of the biggest investors in the Square Mile, not to mention fund managers that invest on behalf of millions of UK pensioners. So it looked for a brief moment like it had decided to cut its losses entirely and ban the public from a meeting to hear the case. Diary was relieved to discover the locked door was actually the fault of an over-zealous doorman rather than an attempt to stifle democracy, even if the decision was abruptly deferred once members realised the legal and PR mess the decision was likely to incur.
Economics? My brain hurts
The West End agency party scene is back in full swing. Last week saw London agents Hanover Green and LEVY Real Estate host birthday bashes on the ?same night (five and 75 years ?respectively) and this week the newly enlarged Colliers International team, bolstered by its acquisition of H2SO, hosted its office markets party at Claridge’s Hotel, W1. While the Colliers party was in full swing, with champagne and canapés being scoffed, some venom was felt by staff who told Diary at the bash that employees had to be up for the 7.45am start to Colliers’ annual economist briefing from Roger Bootle. Diary commends the hardcore revellers who partied until midnight and managed to attend the breakfast briefing. We envisage a few bleary eyes and a reminder for the former H2SO staff of how life and culture in the large corporate agencies world can be.
Flushed with indignity
More party conference gossip. Labour is no stranger to a bust-up with the UK’s train operators, but at this year’s conference, shadow transport minister Mary Creagh took a new kind of swipe, scolding Virgin Trains for its “talking toilets”. The cubicles play light-hearted audio messages to passengers using the facilities. Creagh told a Virgin Trains representative: “I don’t know if that’s the kind of innovation people want. It’s very annoying when you’re trying to make a phone call.” The company man hit back, pointing out: “Our toilets aren’t designed for having phone conversations.” Creagh responded blithely that her conversational tactic was in the interests of dodging the attention of journalists. Diary promises we don’t get our scoops from lurking outside train toilets…
