Under the London Property Alliance banner, WPA and CPA attended MIPIM conference in Cannes to champion Central London’s built environment to an international audience of property professionals and investors.
Our prominent stand in the London pavilion was supported by Board member organisations Capco Covent Garden, Grosvenor, Landsec, Oxford Properties, The Crown Estate and Twentytwo (AXA Real Estate).
The stand’s theme was ‘London: HQ City’, a major piece of research by Centre for London, co-sponsored by London Property Alliance, Heathrow Airport and London & Partners. The Alliance is proud to champion Central London’s role as the home for European and global headquarters, helping drive national economic growth and prosperity.
Our keynote events at the conference included:
- ‘London and the UK: Strengthening the Spokes for Inward Investment’ breakfast hosted at the UK Government pavilion. Held in partnership with Sheffield Property Association, the roundtable involved 15 local government and industry leaders from across Britain and Ireland. The focus of the discussion was a recently published Centre for London research report (read it here) that explored the capital’s relationship with the rest of the UK and how to build closer working relationships between country’s city regions. Sponsors of the research included London Property Alliance, the City of London Corporation, Westminster City Council and the GLA.
- London Property Alliance stakeholder lunch, attended by 50 senior industry representatives and policymakers – including the Deputy Mayor of London Jules Pipe. The keynote speeches were by WPA Chair Craig McWilliam, CPA President David Ainsworth and founding Director of Centre for London Ben Rogers. Ben explained the initial findings of ‘London : HQ City’ research
- City of London investors’ reception, hosted by the City of London Corporation, CPA and London Chamber of Commerce & Industry. This annual event brought together key investors, owners and developers involved in the City of London. At the event, Policy Chair Catherine McGuinness championed CPA’s joint research with the City Corporation ‘Create, Innovate, Location: London in a Changing World’ (read it here)
- ‘London: HQ City’ seminar, hosted by JLL. This seminar for CPA and WPA members looked at the emerging findings of Centre for London’s research report. An expert panel discussed London’s attractiveness as a destination for global and European headquarters, the importance of HQ jobs to the national economy and how to maintain the capital’s global appeal post-Brexit. You can watch a highlights of the seminar here.
- City of London research seminar. Following our launch of CPA’s joint research with City Corporation in London the previous week (more information here), the research findings of ‘Create, Locate and Innovate’ were explored at this panel discussion in the Palais des Festivals. Head of Research at the City Corporation, Dr Laura Davison presented an overview of the research – with a panel discussion including CPA President David Ainsworth, Chief Executive of British Land Chris Grigg and Jo Tasker from Tech London Advocates. Read the research here with coverage included in numerous publications including Property Week (£), EG and The Telegraph.
As well as our own busy events programme, WPA Vice Chair Olivia Harris was a panellist in the UK Government pavilion, talking about innovation in the housing sector. WPA & CPA Director Rosie Day spoke on a panel in the London stand about the City of London as ‘A Place for People’ (the theme of last year’s research report, read more here).
The Alliance was well represented at a number of other partner and stakeholder events, by Executive Director Charles Begley, WPA Chair Craig McWilliam and CPA President David Ainsworth. They attended the Property Week Editor’s Dinner, West End BIDS lunch, London First and LCCI events, and multiple CPA and WPA members who kindly invited us to their various receptions.
