Well, I said I had high expectations, and so far we're very
much on track (despite being with an inch of losing my wallet and
passport on the way in to Cannes last night)!
Following a 'home team' dinner yesterday evening, which
was a great opportunity to touch base with the rest of the Deloitte
Real Estate guys, things kicked off in earnest today. After
dusting off the effects of last night's Chateauneuf du Pape, I
made my way this morning to see Sean Beech (Head of Deloitte Real
Estate in the UK regions) kick off the proceedings at an Atlantic
Gateway breakfast event, sponsored by Deloitte, at which Sir Howard
Bernstein and Mayor Joe Anderson focused on how Manchester and
Liverpool can work together for mutual economic advantage. It was
standing room only - a testimony to the interest and support of the
business community to the combined Liverpool-Manchester mission -
and the buzz of MIPIM was, despite the early hour, unmistakeable.
Sir Howard wasted no time in going for the jugular of UK economic
policy, arguing in no uncertain terms for the need to rebalance the
UK economy, typified by the massive inequity of transport
investment in London and the SE compared to the rest of the
country. Other key themes included the case for a strong regional
planning framework to support coordinated, strategic investment in
clusters of economic activity and innovation (spot the irony in
that one) and the "once in a generation" opportunity to
address passenger capacity constraints and more productive freight
distribution through HS2, with a strong push on the need for a
proper UK freight strategy.
Following a couple of short, sharp but productive client meetings,
I then made my first schoolboy error of the week by failing to plan
in enough time to get between appointments. I belatedly rocked in
to what promised to be one of the highlight events of the week, a
panel discussion on the Metropolitan Revolution with the inimitable
Bruce Katz (@bruce_katz) and the Chair of the UK Cities
Commission, Jim O'Neill. A-list stuff. The discussion centred
on the need to stimulate city-level innovation ecosystems. I missed
most of Bruce's presentation, but luckily had seen him speak
back in the UK a few weeks ago. Some key points: a whole generation
of new industries is being driven by corporate and private
collaboration; sprawl is dead; density isn't; technology is
fundamentally disrupting business models; federal government
structures are defunct; cities are the here and now and future and
need to be underpinned by comprehensive strategies driven by
networks of leaders. There was, without doubt, an overwhelming
sense of the need for a "Metropolitan Revolution"
amongst the audience, in the need for a recalibration of working
arrangements between cities and central government in the
UK.
My next stop was lunch with the pending COO of a top 10 global
real estate investment business. Really great to hear his
intellectually engaging perspective on how sustainability is
impacting on their approach across Europe and beyond (much higher
up the C-suite agenda than 12 months ago), and managed to drive
some great opportunities for our sustainability, valuation and
property management teams.
Now, it's straight into back-to-back client meetings before
dinner with an investment client tonight. Half-way through the
first day, and I'm shattered already! Time to catch my second
wind...
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.