MIPIM 2025 Update

Notes from MIPIM 2025

There is a belief that the organic, accidental networking in Cannes is of greater value than the meetings arranged in advance.  I think that depends on who you want to meet.  My meetings with directors of large Developers and Contractors, arranged in advance, were a huge success.  And those meetings justified the time and expense of the trip.  Those I met at large networking events were either SME Developers or those servicing the real estate or construction sectors in some way (all of course equally valuable), but there was no sign of the big dogs.  This year in particular it felt like those big dogs were having one to one meetings, entertaining their clients and attending exclusive, smaller dinners and events in the evenings.  That said, I did meet the Managing Director of a Tier 1 Contractor on the bus from Luton Airport Terminal to our easyJet plane, so anything is possible.

The United Trust Bank event is heralded as the main networking event of the week. This year it took place at Le Majestic in a room with no windows, but full to the brim of hungry networkers, hungry for new contacts and the smoked salmon bagels that United Trust had kindly put on.  The attendees were mainly SME Developers and those that service them. 

Next door to Le Majestic, sits the Armani Café, which is a convenient meeting place a short distance from the Palais des Festivals and an ice cream vendor across the road.  One door further up is La Malmaison, an international contemporary art centre, which this year, was exhibiting works from Cézanne, Monet, Renoir and Combas (opening hours 10am-1pm and 2pm-6pm).

France has a reputation for haute cuisine, but to find that in March, you will need to head to Paris or Lyon, the gastronomic capital of France. Again, for another year, the quality of the restaurants in Cannes left a little to be desired.  Slightly strange menu choices that didn’t quite work, slow service and high prices characterised the restaurants along the Croisette and Rue Félix Faure.  In fact the best meal I had was in an unlikely, modest restaurant on Rue Meynadier, being grilled sea bream with simply cooked Mediterranean vegetables.  The recipe for scallops in an orange sauce at La Cantine Provencale will hopefully be lost in the run up to MIPIM 2026.

There were two events in the hills immediately behind the sea front.  Well, 2.5km behind the seafront.  Dear Reader, I am a keen walker and decided to walk up said hill to one of those events and it was very, er, hilly.  So next time take a taxi.  One issue that came up was that some events turned out to be so far away from the main drag that they were impractical to attend, when taking into consideration other diary commitments. 

The Ridgemont breakfast was well attended at La Maison By Tripodi.  We welcomed a mixture of Developers, Contractors, Lawyers and others.  It was great to catch up with familiar faces and to introduce them to each other. Thank you to those who attended.  We have bigger plans for next year, more on that later in the year.

Juan Lopez of 39 Essex Chambers kindly invited me to their dinner at Bella Storia, where, I have to say, we ate well.  This year I was generally eschewing alcohol given the number of early morning meetings in my diary, so I gave the rosé a swerve when attending Kazeem Afolabi’s (BBS Capital) drinks on my way back to my apartment.

My week was book ended by a lunch with, my friend, Justin Sullivan of Adair.  And then a visit to the magasin de jouets (Lego and some small horses).

One area of Cannes that I think is under utilised during MIPIM is Cannes.  Because so much of the action is centered on La Croisette, Rue Félix Faure and the Quay, I think many opportunities to eat and drink well are missed. A coffee with a Contractor on Rue Hoche benefited from not being tainted by loud, middle aged men in gilets.

Of course, Cannes 2025 will be remembered as “the year it rained incessantly” and underlined the necessity to take an umbrella next year, as well as sun glasses.  A chatty retailer in the toy shop (yes, I too buy the kids toys, when away with work, in lieu of being a good parent) told me that it had rained more during the MIPIM week than in the whole of the month before.  And that did impact the event.  People were not crowding the bars and restaurants on Rue Félix Faure lapping up the sunshine and that changed the ambience of the week and made Cannes seem less busy than last year.  Here’s hoping for some sunshine in 2026.

Of course, the irony that the Cannes coastline is currently ruined by extensive construction works is not lost on me.  But once finished, Cannes is going to boast an impressive coastline from the La Pointe Croisette all the way up to Théoule-sur-Mer, the coast line that hugs the Bay of Cannes.  There have been rumours that the MIPIM event may move to Barcelona or another European destination, but I am a stickler for tradition, and it would be a shame not to have the excuse to fly down to the south of France each year.  So boules to that.