{"id":515,"date":"2008-03-25T00:30:58","date_gmt":"2008-03-24T21:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=515"},"modified":"2014-03-12T16:41:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-12T14:41:16","slug":"memories-from-cannes-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2008\/03\/25\/memories-from-cannes-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories from Cannes (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>The 50 years old gentleman came to my stand, without knowing much about me, I guess nothing at all. He was a Romanian citizen living abroad for most of the time. He asked to sit and to talk to the boss, so my people informed me to join the conversation. He started talking by trying to understand who I am and what my company does. Then he changed to some topics that sounded irrelevant, probably he was checking my knowledge about the real life and facts in Romania today. Then it was time for\u2026 football! Steaua, Rapid, Dinamo and the other teams were mentioned\u2026 The time was passing and after 20 minutes of discussion I could see my brother Greg making to me signals that there are another 4 people waiting to talk to me. But wait a minute. Is it normal for someone to pay around 1.700 euro (the ticket of the exhibition) so as to enter inside and just to talk about the weather, the society and the legendary Romanian football players? To me it was not and my patience was awarded.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYoung man\u201d, he told me in Romanian language, \u201cyou are the only one of the people that I met today that he respected me, without to know who I am and what I do. You did not treat me badly, you did not kick me out in 3 minutes, although as I see you have many people waiting you. So, you deserve this\u201d. He puts his hand in a bag and he takes out a project presented in 10 big pages. We call it \u201cPUZ\u201d and we mean the study an expert is doing, so as to finalize the shape of a real estate project and to upgrade the urbanistic parameters of it.<\/li>\n<li>The shape of the land made me jump on my seat. I knew this land, VERY GOOD. I was trying to sell it for the last 3 years. I was tricked by endless number of \u201clovely Romanian crooks\u201d who were promising to me the owner, but the owner never appeared. I knew all its story and many more\u2026 He started describing to me where the land is located and he was surprised that I knew very well everything about the area, all the projects there and all the advantages. When he realized that I really have studied his property, a smile of satisfaction appeared on his face: \u201cYou deserve to have this land by exclusivity, so as to sell it. I will be more than happy to collaborate with someone as professional as you are\u201d he told me.<\/li>\n<li>Now I have as exclusivity one of the top 5 properties in Bucharest, with authorisations approved and an excellent location for a SUPER mixed use project. With 3 openings, out of which the first is on a very circulated principal boulevard and the second is on an important and always busy road. I waited 3 years and I am sure that in maximum 3 months I will have sold the property, as I have already 4 very serious clients for it. Sometimes it is nice to be awarded for your principals, isn\u2019t it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I was really happy to meet a very interesting businessman, with origins in Czech republic, citizen of London since the second world war. \u201cMy young friend\u201d, he told me, \u201cbusiness is not only hard work, but also lots of luck\u201d (well in luck I can not say I am very good, I think my advantage is in hard work). Examples of successful investments, an approach of business which really fascinated me and a passion which is not easy to find in someone who must be at least 65 years old. Important detail: On the last day, Friday, he passed by the stand of my company, just because he wanted to crosscheck \u201cif you came to your work today, or if you abandoned it, partying or leaving earlier\u201d. He was very happy to find me there (me to leave before? Impossible\u2026)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The General Mayor of Bucharest, mr Adrian Videanu, had a small speech. Really small, but in these cases actions count more than words. The same was the speech of the Chief Architect of the city, mr Bold. But the stand of Bucharest and the whole project was very successful. I do not know your political beliefs and I am not interested at all in the political games of Romania, I will just state my opinion as I feel it: Part of the progress of this city is owned to the way it was led by its leaders. As it always happens in the world, a city moves forward when its governors have positive things to add in it. Mr Videanu and the rest of the mayors of each sector of Bucharest deserve part of the congratulations for the success to attract here billions of euro in the last years.<\/li>\n<li>The stand of Bucharest in Cannes was really well designed and it hosted some of the biggest companies of the country (which probably paid the costs too). In the party of Thursday, 13th of March, everybody was there. You could meet all the people, all the top businessmen and many other interesting persons. The connections and the arrangements I did were really very helpful, especially as I have the right product for most of the investors there.<\/li>\n<li>I am more than sure that next year Romanian presence in MIPIM will be even stronger and the first step for this will be MIPIM Horizons exhibition, in December this year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Probably the most successful cocktail party by a company located in the Balkans was the one that Panhol Group organized at its stand, on Thursday 13th. Live music, painters creating your portrait, all the top businessmen from Romania and Greece and lots of fun were the parts of a successful event. Panagiotidis family, owners of Panhol group (Panhol = Panagiotidis Holdings) was all present, starting with the father who created the company and now he watches proudly his son and daughter upgrading it from the no. 1 developer of Northern Greece to one of the major developers in the Balkans in the years to come.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The first night of MIPIM, Tuesday, it is a tradition to have an open party in Carlton hotel, on Croisette boulevard. This year the situation there was worse than 2007, with most of the people drunk very fast and fighting for some food really badly, an atmosphere which had nothing to do with style. Our team stayed there just few minutes and I noticed that the same happened to many others, who left the place really fast. I don\u2019t get it, they organize an event like this and they don\u2019t take care of having enough food for everyone? Not to mention about the rude doormen, who were behaving like they were guarding the doors of paradise\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Generally talking, MIPIM can be described as a \u201cplace to be for work\u201d during the day and \u201cproblem to choose\u201d in the nights due to the endless parties. By the beach, in clubs, on boats, EVERYWHERE there were endless parties going on, with free drinks and people from any possible place you can imagine. Having a very pressing schedule with meetings starting from 08.00 in the morning, I did\u00a0 not attend to any of these parties, but I heard so many stories that really made me curious for next year\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I also made new friends in MIPIM, like the people from Bahrain. A very polite team of professionals, presenting a major project there, right across our stand. To be honest, when you see their project, anything we may present is too little, as they had something really very attractive (you can check it in the site <a href=\"http:\/\/www.durratbahrain.com\/\">http:\/\/www.durratbahrain.com\/<\/a>). I also promised to help them in something they are searching in Greece and I will be very happy to hear about their next major project there\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I declare myself privileged for meeting a company such as Platinium Real Estate Agency (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.platiniumimmo.fr\/\">www.platiniumimmo.fr<\/a>). Mr Samy Bouquevan and his people did all possible so as to host us, solved all problems that occurred and really treated us very good. I suggest them to you without any fear. They were PROFESSIONALS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I warn you, Cannes is a very dangerous place for you, if you decide to bring your wife or girlfriend. The shops are across the street from the \u201cPalais de Festivals\u201d and the temptation is really very big, especially if you make the mistake to send them for a walk during the day, when they are open. All the major brands are there, one next to the other, with excellent outlets and the best collection available for you. As my friends told me, this year the record in shopping expenses was done again by Russians, with tens of ladies walking around the Croisette, each with 5 \u2013 10 bags\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sorry for writing so much today and I apologize for the \u201ctoo personal\u201d writing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 50 years old gentleman came to my stand, without knowing much about me, I guess nothing at all. He was a Romanian citizen living abroad for most of the time. He asked to sit and to talk to the boss, so my people informed me to join the conversation. He started talking by trying [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[240],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515"}],"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=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/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=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}