And the winner is…
Liz Peace’s retirement bash at the RAC Club on Pall Mall was undoubtedly the party of the week. A gathering of the great and good, and entertaining speeches to boot – not least from Peace herself. Too much of a civil servant (still) to name the best and worst president of the 13 who were notionally her boss at one point or another, instead she handed out Peace’s Oscars. In her own words:
Best judgment: Jeremy Newsom, for appointing me
Best party conference experience: Ian Henderson, for arriving at a bed and breakfast dive in Blackpool for the Labour party conference, and asking for morning tea and a copy of The Times to be delivered to his room
Best knees: David Hunter (Diary: David, please get in touch)
Best attendee: Ian Marcus, who would turn out at every BPF event and even acquired a reputation as property’s Tom Cruise. For reasons lost on Diary he was known as Maverick, of Top Gun fame. (Diary: Ian please get in touch, we need to know)
Most talkative: former Hammerson CEO John Richards
Best fast response: Ian Coull, then of SEGRO. On seeing Peace and his wife turn up to an event in the same Armani suit, he threw his arms around both and said: “I didn’t know you both shopped in Primark.”
Best HR advice: Martin Moore
Best at keeping BPF executive on its toes: Nick Ritblat
Best at responding to emails: Hermes’ Chris Taylor (an early win, given he doesn’t become president until 2015)
Sportiest: Rupert Clarke
Best dressed: Toby Courtauld, despite once being labelled a wino by Mary Portas (for his wine trading investment, not his park bench drinking habits)
Best off-the-cuff commentator: BL’s Chris Grigg
Moodiest publicity photo: Brockton Capital’s David Marks, who also once gave BPF staff a reading list
Best Friday afternoon confidant: L&G’s Bill Hughes, for being there when the CEO needs to rant
And Peace’s assessment of her own contribution? “Media tart, loves parties.” That may be true, but she delivered much more than that.
Cardiff kicks off celebrations
The city of Cardiff was on track to have one the most celeb-filled parties at MIPIM UK. On 16 October it was due to host a drinks reception at the Bluebird, where stars from reality TV show Made in Chelsea are regularly spotted. As well as a host of rugby legends, such as Rhys Williams, due to attend the event, the city of Cardiff lined up TV presenter Alex Jones of BBC’s The One Show to present its raffle for MIPIM UK’s charity, the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Kudos to the Welsh capital for trying to make the UK every bit as glamorous as MIPIM’s regular Cannes home.
What’s in a name?
From London to Munich. The efficiency of Expo Real attendees – and perhaps the German hosts – in booking stands a year in advance resulted in a couple of anachronisms at the conference this year. Those scheduled for meetings with GVA would have needed to double check whether they were meeting at the GVA stand or the Bilfinger stand. And those meeting DTZ might have raised an eyebrow at the UGL branding and association writ large on the soon-to-be private equity-owned agent’s turf – quite correct though, as the TPG-led buyout had not completed at the time of the conference. No problems for CBRE which, as usual, had the most prominently situated stand – and, it was rumoured, the most expensive – at the event.
Bizarre burgers
There was fierce competition at Gourmet Burger Kitchen’s landlord day last week. Apart from a day spent touring the chain’s London restaurants and hearing about the group’s ambitious expansion plans to open 10 restaurants by the end of the year, attendees were invited to make their mark on the menu. The “slider decider” challenge saw landlords submit their own original burger recipes to top Gourmet Burger Kitchen chefs. Shelley Sandzer got people talking with its “Elvis Burger”, with peanut butter and banana, but CWM’s Emily Violaris stole the show with her beef patty with pancetta, blue cheese and artichoke hearts.
The big cheese
British Land’s annual media dinner is always hosted somewhere suitably swanky. This year’s was domestic, up the Cheesegrater and, in what Diary is sure is no coincidence, looking down on the Walkie Talkie. No prizes for guessing the table decorations. Yes, a cheese grater, with a mountain of freshly grated cheese tumbling out. The only surprise was that it was a BL board director – not one of the supposedly less, ahem, cultured journos present – who scooped up a fistful of cheese and said: “Isn’t anyone else going to tuck in?”
