Don’t rain on his parade
Arguably the most difficult thing about MIPIM is convincing those you left behind that the conference is not all rosé and sunshine. It’s hard graft (and raining). David Rabee of proptech company Virtual Walkthrough was at pains to convey as such with this photo, entitled The Real Mipim. It was accompanied by the tale of a delegate so damp and dispirited that we wanted to give him a hug.
Rabee produced the selfie while inside the storage cupboard of the company’s stand, shared with CBRE in the Palais. Having played in the LandAid tennis challenge on what we will now remember as Wet Wednesday, Rabee had lost his delegate pass so had to find a new one, was dashing around in a new suit to attend a meeting he was late for, and said new suit was getting drenched due to his refusal to buy a €40 (£32) umbrella from touts along the Croisette.
Finally, arriving at his stand two minutes before the meeting’s start time, he crawled into the cupboard to squeeze the water out of his jacket. It was at that point he discovered the meeting organiser had got their time zones confused and he had missed the meeting by an hour…
Cobblers to the climate
And still out in the rain – the weather at MIPIM upset a lot of people – but Estates Gazette perhaps felt most sorry for those strolling along the Croisette in their best brown leather shoes. One EG reporter spoke to no fewer than three disgruntled property fashionistas bemoaning the water stains that will never be wrung out of their stylish Italian leather. We suspect they were among hundreds more suffering. It never rains, but it pours.
Taken for a ride
With 24,000 people descending on MIPIM, enterprising measures are needed to make sure the right people remember you when the (mostly) sun-sprinkled French Riviera is more than just a short stroll away. Diary met one delegate who nailed it. Having won a year’s worth of free Uber journeys from the taxi app when he became the billionth person to travel with it earlier this year, the delegate was offering rides to those in Cannes where there was a potential for business. On one occasion, he helped out a fellow delegate running late for a flight and in exchange took his pass, which got him into all the best parties. That’s a true businessman.
He’s from Barcelona…
How about this for a (somewhat depressing) sales pitch – the brains trust at Europa Capital has worked out that buying a flat in its Casa Burés luxury residential development in Barcelona and commuting to London is an altogether cheaper proposition than buying a standard two-bed in Clapham, SW4, and jumping on the Tube every day. It can’t be that much worse than the Northern Line half the time. ¡Adios Londres!
All in order
Amid the chaos of MIPIM, Diary welcomes any opportunity for order. So we were rather envious of this pocket-sized bespoke brochure flourished by an architect delegate to the show. The document listed day-by-day the appointments in his diary, along with photos of the people he was meeting, and maps of where to go. We must say, said architect looked particularly unfrazzled as a result. Perhaps he should patent the idea ahead of MIPIM UK?
