With MIPIM only two months away, options for entertaining your clients and prospects while in Cannes are pressing. We’ve put together here a range of networking options from breakfasts to cocktail parties that might help.

Breakfast

Breakfast on the beach has become synonymous with Cannes – it’s a popular choice and has become a customary calendar event for MIPIM regulars.  Kick-starting your day with an early morning coffee and croissant with your colleagues, clients and prospects is a good way to make the most of the hours in the day while combatting the (perhaps inevitable) hangover from the night before. It can either be a formal sit down breakfast or a short stand up affair where guests drop in, depending on the number of people you are inviting or what you want to achieve from hosting it.

If you don’t fancy hosting your own early morning gathering why not consider Wilmott Dixon’s popular breakfast event on Thursday morning or breakfast at Long Beach, hosted daily by Davis Weatherill, FIRA Landscape Architects, JDP, Conisbee and Simply Planning.

Coffee

Using a café as a meeting venue and grabbing a cup of coffee, is a quick and easy way to meet up with clients or prospects on the go while you get a much-needed caffeine boost. We’d advise that you try to arrange these meetings in advance to book people’s time, but schedule in small blocks of flexitime in your schedule for impromptu meetings too. You never know who you will bump into.

Lunch

Lunch can be just as rewarding with multiple venue options either on the beach or further in town. Hosting a small group of guests for an exclusive feel, inviting a carefully selected group that will benefit from each other’s company works well. Just don’t forget it can be busy and service may be slower than you might like, so keep your schedules in mind.

If you haven’t booked your restaurant yet, act quickly – they’re filling up fast. Popular beachfront venues include Plage Royale (our favourite), Long Beach, Le Goeland (closest to the Palais). Or further down the Croissette is Plage du Vegaluna, opposite the Carlton or L’Annexe and Plage du Festival. There’s also one of the many fish restaurants on Rue Felix Faure where you and your guests can sample the impressive fresh platters.

Dinner

Timed right, dinner can be a great end to the day – or start to the evening. 8pm is the ideal start time, dovetailing with the many cocktail parties to attend pre and post-dinner – most people like to drop in somewhere else before settling down for the evening.

Some of Holistic’s favourite restaurants for dinner are in the Old Town, along Rue Saint Antoine. Or if you’re struggling for ideas, the Michelin Guide has 121 to choose from.

Cocktail parties

Other ways to entertain include cocktail parties, which are great for informal networking, you can invite more people and they’re a softer way in for those looking for prospects. Look out for the UK Cocktail Party but there are plenty of private ones that are also worth attending, should you be invited.

A few other bits

Before you set a time and date for your event, it is worth checking the MIPIM Programme and the MIPIM Tough Guide to avoid potential clashes. You can also submit your party or event to be listed on the latter if you want to expand your guest list.

It is often a good idea to plan meetings or drinks around stand events in order to catch up with the right people – and if you are able to arrive early to key stand sessions, you may find a small but important networking window as others also wait for the event to start. Likewise, grabbing a drink after Manchester or London Stand sessions, for example, can also be a good way to talk to people who are operating in the same areas.

We hope this helps. And, once the logistics are all in place, bon appetit!

Happy New Year! There are lots of things bubbling around as we enter 2016, but as MIPIM gets closer, don’t lose sight of the fact that it is a hugely effective tool for business development as well as a chance to get across to the South of France in the spring. With this in mind, we’re revisiting last year’s highly-popular measure of MIPIM post, to kick things off.

Historically, people went to MIPIM to strengthen existing relationships, with little thought about how it could impact their new and long-term business development.

Now, though, everyone attends MIPIM to promote their services and network, so there’s no shame for those who are there to do the same. Indeed, this is one of the reasons networking here is so much easier than at other events in the property calendar. We’ve talked before about how to prepare for your meetings, but it’s also worth bearing in mind that you can meet a potential new business lead at any time. You could find yourself speaking to someone in the taxi up to an event in the hills, for example, or even on the flight to Cannes – don’t automatically discount any venue or opportunity!

From prospect to client
The ‘conversion’ from prospect to client can take a while, but it is measurable. MIPIM is the epitome of the ‘long game’ and rarely garners instant results. It’s important to keep a record of the people you meet, note what you discussed and maintain the relationship. We started working with someone two years after first meeting them at MIPIM. We kept in touch and once they were ready to start thinking about communications, we were their first choice.

Nurturing existing relationships
While MIPIM is a great opportunity to meet new people, which should not be underestimated, don’t forget those you already know. This environment is a great place to quickly rekindle and reinforce relationships within a short timeframe – as well as making new connections for those you find time to meet up with.

Go with an open mind
And although you’ll (hopefully) be attending with a full schedule of diarised meetings, approach people with an open mind, despite the number of delegates attending it really is a small world.

If business development is the main reason for your attendance in Cannes, set yourself achievable goals in the run-up. Bearing in mind that MIPIM opportunities can be a slow burn, aim to come back with at least six new connections to stay in touch with back in the UK.

Top tip: one way of measuring MIPIM is how your feet feel by the end!

We hope you’re all enjoying (and surviving) the seasonal festivities of this time of year, honing your networking skills ready for March.

We’ll be back in January with more regular updates, but in the meantime we hope you have found these posts useful and keep your questions coming.

Merry Christmas from everyone at Holistic – we’ll see you in the New Year!

Without a doubt the purpose of our blog is MIPIM in Cannes, and yet on this particularly British grey and drizzly Wednesday morning it only seems right to shout out to its UK sister event starting today in Kensington Olympia.

Now in its second year, MIPIM UK is set to play host to 4,500 participants from 35 cities and more than 2,000 companies over the next three days. Key note speakers include Minister of State for Trade and Investment Francis Maude, (today) and architect Zaha Hadid (Friday), while two summits – on reinvestment and occupiers – will be held at the same time.

The event is sponsored by Estates Gazette and Features Editor Stacey Meadwell is already down there reporting back – look out for her updates on twitter if you can’t get there yourself. But if you are attending, enjoy the opportunity to look ahead to issues facing the UK property market and catch up with your network – and if you think we should be extending our blog to cover the UK too, just let us know.

www.mipimuk.co.uk