MIPIM 2015: Seems like any other year – yet different

If you need to wait over an hour for a table in a restaurant in the middle of March, it is a sure sign that one of the most important real estate events in Europe – the MIPIM fair – has started. This year, as usual, the guests turned up in large numbers and the regular visitors did not disappoint, there were some new ones as well as a lack of some of the others who had until now always had a strong presence.
How to spoil a report from the beginning? By starting with some statistics... However, I will risk doing so this time, because they may put to bed some of the unease that this year’s MIPIM “seems slightly smaller somehow”, “there’s more space in the corridors” and the general sense that “there’s something missing”. However, the numbers speak for themselves – 22,000 guests representing 93 countries is a number comparable to previous years. However, there was a certain sense of something lacking – namely, the guests from Russia, who stood out in terms of the scale of their presence in previous years, but were considerably less visible this year. However, participants from Turkey tried their best to replace them, displaying a particularly impressive scale model of Istanbul – and unlike the much touted enlarged scale model of London, it delighted everyone with its detail and richness of colours. Guests from the land of the rising sun also made their presence felt. While Kyiv mayor and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who was going out of his way to promote the capital of Ukraine, simply could not extricate himself from the investors and financiers keen to gauge the situation in the country. He also found some time for an exclusive interview for Eurobuild TV, which is available on our video channel on the EurobuildCEE.com website and YouTube.
The visibility of those attending from Central Europe (particularly from the Czech Republic and the Baltic States) was worthy of admiration. The main players representing the region at the fair, of course, included Poland, the presence of which could not have been missed as soon as you came through the main entrance.