MiPiM: From market to metropolis
Official statistics aside, the average participant is perfectly aware that standing room is at a premium and notches up miles on foot just negotiating his/her way through the throng and it is often a revelation that MiPiM can be organised at all. Having to decide between one meeting or reception and another has become a genuine headache for participants, not least those from the press, and one is constantly aware that being in one place, means you're missing out on something just as important elsewhere.
That was indeed the case on Wednesday, March 10, when a discussion panel entitled 'May we invite you to Poland', organised by an informal body called 'Opportunity Poland', was held to raise Poland's profile during the event, which was necessary, in the words of the Von der Heyden Group's Sven von der Heyden, because, "knowledge about Poland abroad is lacking and it's high time we changed this." 'Opportunity Poland', a "promotion program created by a voluntary group of firms," according to the organisation's press release, used MiPiM to announce itself to the world for the first time. And part of its PR campaign included arranging for the Polish yacht 'Pogoria' to dock in Cannes during the fair. Speakers at the forum included representatives of illustrious names such as the National Bank of Poland, EBRD, Hines Polska, EC Harris, the law firms Salans, CMS Cameron McKenna and Lovells, Ernst & Young, and ProLogis.
Most of the media concerned with the real estate market in Poland, were, however, gathered to hear what Apollo Real Estate and the Rida Development Corporation had to say at its press conference, (see related article) scheduled at exactly the same time as Opportunity Poland's discussion panel. Whether this was a deliberate ploy or not, the speculation that big news was to be announced was the crucial factor in claiming journalists' attention.
The city of Warsaw held its cocktail reception a little later and drew a tightly packed crowd around its stall. Around the same time, the capital's director of its Promotion Agency, Tadeusz Deszkiewicz, announced that it was looking for partners for a thirty hectare development, to create a new city centre near the Palace of Culture. "We are the only city in Europe -perhaps in the world - with no proper city center," he was quoted as saying to MiPiM's Daily News publication.
Though in that sense, Poland was shown to have catching-up work to do, in another, in the form of those exchanging business cards and sipping champagne at the reception, it would seem to have arrived in the new era. What was striking was how much of a community the Polish real estate market has become and how many of the people that have been active on it for such a long time, are non-Polish but play a central part in its affairs. The slickness of the very Polish representatives of Hines Polska, however, who were canvassing support for the firm's Metropolitan project in Warsaw, (a nominee in the 'Business Center' category at the MiPiM 2004 awards), was another sign of the market's maturity. They turned on the charm and steely determination in equal measure, to get all the Polish-based delegates to vote for their development. Unfortunately the Awards' ceremony was to take place tantalisingly soon after Lokale was due to go to press.
That was indeed the case on Wednesday, March 10, when a discussion panel entitled 'May we invite you to Poland', organised by an informal body called 'Opportunity Poland', was held to raise Poland's profile during the event, which was necessary, in the words of the Von der Heyden Group's Sven von der Heyden, because, "knowledge about Poland abroad is lacking and it's high time we changed this." 'Opportunity Poland', a "promotion program created by a voluntary group of firms," according to the organisation's press release, used MiPiM to announce itself to the world for the first time. And part of its PR campaign included arranging for the Polish yacht 'Pogoria' to dock in Cannes during the fair. Speakers at the forum included representatives of illustrious names such as the National Bank of Poland, EBRD, Hines Polska, EC Harris, the law firms Salans, CMS Cameron McKenna and Lovells, Ernst & Young, and ProLogis.
Most of the media concerned with the real estate market in Poland, were, however, gathered to hear what Apollo Real Estate and the Rida Development Corporation had to say at its press conference, (see related article) scheduled at exactly the same time as Opportunity Poland's discussion panel. Whether this was a deliberate ploy or not, the speculation that big news was to be announced was the crucial factor in claiming journalists' attention.
The city of Warsaw held its cocktail reception a little later and drew a tightly packed crowd around its stall. Around the same time, the capital's director of its Promotion Agency, Tadeusz Deszkiewicz, announced that it was looking for partners for a thirty hectare development, to create a new city centre near the Palace of Culture. "We are the only city in Europe -perhaps in the world - with no proper city center," he was quoted as saying to MiPiM's Daily News publication.
Though in that sense, Poland was shown to have catching-up work to do, in another, in the form of those exchanging business cards and sipping champagne at the reception, it would seem to have arrived in the new era. What was striking was how much of a community the Polish real estate market has become and how many of the people that have been active on it for such a long time, are non-Polish but play a central part in its affairs. The slickness of the very Polish representatives of Hines Polska, however, who were canvassing support for the firm's Metropolitan project in Warsaw, (a nominee in the 'Business Center' category at the MiPiM 2004 awards), was another sign of the market's maturity. They turned on the charm and steely determination in equal measure, to get all the Polish-based delegates to vote for their development. Unfortunately the Awards' ceremony was to take place tantalisingly soon after Lokale was due to go to press.
