How Cannes you make the best of MIPIM?
How Cannes you make the best of MIPIM?
MIPIM is the premier real estate conference held annually in the French Riviera town of Cannes. This year’s event takes place between 11 and 14 March 2025. Golden beaches, boutique shops and over-priced restaurants surround the uninspiring Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, which is home to the MIPIM conference. Outside of the Palais, the real magic happens in the cafés, restaurants and bars that line the Croisette (the road that hugs the coastline), Promenade de la Pantiero, Rue Félix Faure and Quai Saint Pierre.
Cannes sits between Antibes and Saint Tropez. It is close to the transport hub of Nice. Which is nice (sorry). Assuming you are arriving via Nice, you can either take a taxi directly to Cannes (€85-90) or take the five-minute tram journey from T2 to Grands Arenas (€10). When you disembark the tram, turn right and cross the road to the Nice Saint Augustin train station. The train to Cannes costs €14 return (“allez retour”) and takes 32 minutes. The ticket machine is up a set of steep stairs and on the left. There is a lift to the left of the stairs if you have heavy luggage. The trains to Cannes are on platform 2 across a footbridge (there are lifts on both sides). You can probably also take a bus from Nice airport but, frankly, who can be bothered.
La Croisette runs from the Palais to the Cap de la Croisette peninsular. It was named after a small cross that was once located at the Cape Saint Honorât, a place of pilgrimage (much like MIPIM itself) for those travelling to the abbey itself on the island of Saint Honorât.
The main action takes place between Caffé Roma on Promenade de la Pantiero up to The Quay’s Irish Pub on Quai Saint Pierre and then along La Croisette, with its large and impressive hotels overlooking the beach. Events also take place on yachts moored at Quai Saint Pierre and in restaurants that sit directly on the beach itself.
French cuisine is renowned the world over, but don’t expect to be eating haute cuisine in Cannes. The well positioned restaurants along Promenade de la Pantiero and Rue Félix Faure offer adequately cooked food at more than sufficient prices. Greater value can be found in the huge number of back street restaurants a road back from the Promenade.
Caffé Roma is as big a part of MIPIM as the Palais or, indeed, rosé wine. It is well located being the first large bar that you meet when walking down Rue d’Antibes onto the Quai. It is packed from early evening, with delegates (drinkers) spilling out on to the square. I would keep walking, there are nicer places to sit and chat without a hoard of middle-aged men drinking bottles and bottles of rosé and talking louder, and louder, and louder, to the point where no one can hear what the other is saying. However, there is a good wood fired pizza restaurant in the corner of the square on which Caffé Roma sits.
A short walk from there is the huge “New York, New York”, with substantial outdoor seating. Behind New York, New York is Rue Félix Faure, set back, running parallel to the coast. This offers a variety of restaurants and bars, most, if not all, of which have outdoor seating. Following that road to the West, you will eventually happen upon Quai Saint Pierre, with a few bars and restaurants lining the Quai, but perhaps not as alluring as those on Rue Félix Faure.
The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès is located immediately to the East of Quai Saint Pierre (you can’t miss it…) on Boulevard de la Croisette. There are restaurants with outdoor seating immediately opposite the Palais. Bags could be stored (in 2024) in temporary structures organised by the conference organisers opposite Promenade de la Pantiero (look for the “chess board” markings on Google Maps).
The train station in Cannes is on Rue Jean Jaurès, a short 5–8-minute walk from Rue Felix Faure (head up Rue d’Antibes and then left on to Rue du Maréchal Foch). There is no information in English at the train station, so try to identify the train you need to board before arriving at the station, to make your journey as stress free as possible.
The main shopping district can be found along Rue d’Antibes. There are also coffee shops where some early morning networking can be had.
It is useful to make sure that your Outlook calendar appointments are synced to “local time” on arrival into France or do the maths in your head over breakfast to make sure you do not miss a valuable meeting.
Much is said of the huge opportunity to randomly bump into old contacts and meet new ones. There is definitely something to be said for the fact that everybody there is friendly and open to meeting new people, but much time can be lost, particularly around lunch time and dinner time, when most people are in organised meetings. My advice is to fill your day with one-on-one meetings and events from morning to evening and then allow a little time for organic meetings. Send out invites for meetings in January or February (UTC +1 (Paris time) – if you receive an appointment make sure those inviting you have done the same) to ensure that those that you want to meet have availability. Build in time to walk between venues. There are a number of pre MIPIM events in London (such as Yes Oui Cannes) that will enable you to meet fellow MIPIM attendees before you set off.
As this isn’t a jolly, setting KPIs is important. How many meetings do you want to have? What do you want to achieve out of them? Hold yourself to account and justify the time and expense.
Make sure you let your social media followers know that you are attending MIPIM and post updates whilst you are in Cannes to encourage those in your network or outside to get in contact if they would like to meet you. Equally, search for the MIPIM hashtag on social media to identify who is also attending the event. Watch out for fringe events that can be found on social media or by searching on Google.
Oh… and wear comfortable shoes (gilets are optional!). Bring sun cream and sun glasses (be optimistic) and perhaps an umbrella (that is the cynical lawyer in me). Take a portable phone charger, an EU adapter and paracetamol…
The real value of MIPIM is found in the weeks after the event, when most are eschewing rosé and attendees are sending out “follow up” emails to build on conversations in Cannes. That is vital to ensure value is obtained from the time out of the office and the associated expense. To ensure you do not forget to follow up, either write notes on the conversation on the back of the business card you have been given or make a note on your phone. Try to connect with new contacts on LinkedIn immediately after your meeting, whilst they remember you! And have any marketing materials available via a QR code to avoid hard copy materials being left at the table.
I am Managing Director of Ridgemont, a boutique real estate & construction law firm based in the City of London. We principally advise Investors, Developers and Contractors on procurement and dispute resolution matters. Get in touch if you would like to meet with me in Cannes this year, my email is johnwallace@ridgemont.co
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