\n\tHello from Cannes. As you read these lines I am probably out of the exhibition, having finished from there and enjoying some sun before I fly back to Bucharest tonight. Between you and me, half of the visitors and participants left already from Thursday night. The other half are still here, but very few come to the Palais de Festivals during Friday. Croisette Boulevard, Monte Carlo, Monaco, or their flight back home capture their attention. Last night MIPIM Awards were awarded too, so there is nothing more to expect from this exhibition for this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMIPIM: Quiet and peaceful… down by 25%<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tMaybe I am spoiled, being at MIPIM since 2007. The truth is that this was the most "quiet" exhibition I attended since then. People with wider experience compare this year with 2004 or earlier. Visitors and participants reached an overall of 18.000, coming from more than 80 countries. But we didn't really see too many of them in the Fair. Usually they were out, enjoying their coffee under the sun or in a yacht, joining the event of acompany. (And there are tens of events like this…)\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe figure I knew for 2009 stood at 24.500 people, so this year we were down by almost 25%. The atmosphere was very "peaceful". Not too many people walking around, even less interested in asking, knowing etc. I don't have any official figure, but many people estimate that almost half of the participants just came "so as to come". No plans, no requests, nothing!\n<\/p>\n \n\tLesson no. 1: Forget 2010<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tWhen the top event is down, then I am sorry, but this is bad news for everyone. It looks that the European Real Estate market did not unfreeze yet, while the American has not revived and the Asian is still in trouble (especially the Chinese just entered into big problems, but we will talk about these separately). It was good that we saw the Russians again, after their disappearance in 2009, plus some serious people coming from the UAE.\n<\/p>\n \n\tIn MIPIM this year most people considered that 2010 is gone already, they didn't want to proceed in any serious deal. Some others have in mind to delay until September, hoping that the markets will reach stability till then. Many discussions ended with the promise to let things open for the near future. Noone is in a hurry, even when we talk for AAA properties in London or Paris.\n<\/p>\n \n\tNot everything was black though…<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThere are also the investors who will move on during the following months, but only for excellent assets, already studied projects and opportunities. Major investors are afraid of countries, problems with euro, unexpected factors of instability etc. So they will walk with slow, careful steps. You could easily spot these people inside the Fair: really focused on work, deals and new projects. But they were also very defensive, doubting about almost everything. Tough times…\n<\/p>\n \n\tBut the majority sent the message: "Most probably we will be more active in 2011, "if things will be better. Better in many ways"…\n<\/p>\n \n\tAnd the winner is… Poland!<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThere were many countries which participated at this year's MIPIM. It looks like the investors' interest is focused on Western Europe, with the major European economic capitals to attract lots of them. Paris, London, Berlin and other German cities were "hot". But there was a country which was the "hottest" one of all: Poland! For many different reasons, Poland was the "honey for the bees".\n<\/p>\n \n\tTomorrow: Why Poland is today the no.1 investment destination in CEE?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tWhat do you find there, which is missing in Romania?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tOn Tuesday: Where does Romania stand in the European Investment map?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n \n\tOn Wednesday: Memories from Cannes<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello from Cannes. As you read these lines I am probably out of the exhibition, having finished from there and enjoying some sun before I fly back to Bucharest tonight. Between you and me, half of the visitors and participants left already from Thursday night. The other half are still here, but very few come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[216,231,237,240],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}