MIPIM is a property expo that happens every year in Cannes in France. No one ever knows what is stands for; but it’s the place for property investors, developers, and regions showcasing themselves as the ideal location. It has become a key date in the calendar for anyone working in inward investment.  

 

I first became aware of MIPIM when I joined the CWLEP Board in 2016. Our Local Enterprise Partnership joined with other LEPs and Local Authorities across the Midlands to fund a regional showcase of our eco-system and key investment opportunities. We had a Midlands Pavilion that hosted panel events and a smaller showcase for Coventry & Warwickshire in one of the apartments for more informal drop-in meetings and conversations.  

 

Through my experience on the LEP Board I have learnt how important political will is to any significant investment in an area, whether it is in regeneration, property development, or infrastructure roll-out; and it is our collaborative working as a Midlands region and a Coventry & Warwickshire geography that is emphasised at events like MIPIM. I remember Ubisoft telling me, before they set up their global studio in sunny old Leamington, how important it was for their decision-making that they had everyone of influence around the table in Coventry & Warwickshire to showcase our location proposition.  

 

After a couple of years following MIPIM, I identified an opportunity to add more weight to our local narrative and highlight the partnership working of our creative and vibrant eco-system as they co-developed new environments in which to thrive. The video we created for MIPIM 2019 mentions Leamington’s Arches and Spencer Yard in the Creative Quarter, Coventry’s Canal Basin, and CAB Studios in Alcester; and it could have mentioned many more. All these properties have a different investment and commercial operating model depending on the community they seek to serve.  

 

MIPIM was cancelled in 2020, and in a global pandemic such an event is obviously very low on anyone’s list of priorities; but it was a shame for me as I was excited both to be going for the first time and also to be presenting on the theme ‘The Future is Human’. I was excited as we had much to add and build on from our creative eco-system video including an interactive showcase of our innovation assets across the region. We developed the prototype for an interactive map showing Coventry & Warwickshire as the home of future manufacturing with names like Fanuc and the MTC at Ansty Park; the home of future interactive entertainment with our global-leading ‘Silicon Spa’ games cluster and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Audiences of the Future Demonstrator; and the home of future mobility, as we have been since the invention of the bicycle, with assets ranging from Quinton’s Rail Technology Centre in the South to MIRA’s Technology Park in the North and everything from WMG to UKBIC in between.  

 

And a pandemic has shown us how crucial it is to be the region that invests in innovation, the region that invests in the future and what the future means for all of us. I look forward to the next MIPIM, whenever it comes, and the chance to showcase the human future we are creating here in Coventry & Warwickshire