Our MIPIM rep has made it back in one piece, although business card supply nearly exhausted following the annual migration to the South of France. So what is Redwood’s assessment of MIPIM 2014?

The prospects are sunny – the weather was glorious and so was the mood at MIPIM. If the sentiment last year can be described as ‘cautiously optimistic’, MIPIM 2014 by contrast was positively buzzing with excitement. The property industry is no stranger to talking a good game when times are tough but it was clear this year that a new confidence has returned to the market.

It is the year of the rebrand – the trend for businesses in the advisory sectors to shorten their names appears set to continue. Jones Lang LaSalle is the latest to follow in the recent footsteps of EY and from this month will be known as JLL. Delegates at MIPIM were also treated to a preview of the TIAA Henderson Real Estate brand, the new TIAA-CREF and Henderson Global Investors combined business which is set to go live on 1 April.

Meet the world in Cannes…and the whole of Mayfair – MIPIM is a funny old event and this year again it was for most people more about catching up with people five minutes down the road, rather than from across the globe. A business lunch on the beach is just so much more appealing than coffee at Pret…

MIPIM is going truly global – Europe and the Middle East no longer dominate MIPIM and it was clear this year that Russia, Turkey, South America and Asia are where the action is. However, when it comes to Europe, the Germans seemed to have a particularly large attendance in 2014 with German being spoken at every corner.

Technology fail – Provision of plugs is still sparse in the Palais – a simple, yet hugely frustrating problem that is overlooked year after year. Therefore late afternoon meeting can often lead to your ‘date’ being unreachable! Remote phone chargers were subsequently a highly coveted item.