Realcast: MIPIM looks to Ukraine, ‘giga’ projects impress, make ready for the metaverse

In the spotlight this week:

Dan Innes and Richard Betts pick the highlights of the first full post-Covid MIPIM, attended by around 22,000 delegates. While everyone was clearly delighted to return to Cannes, their exuberance was tempered by the war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, and the impact on the wider CEE region was a dominant conversation.

Ukraine stand speakers recounted their experiences first hand and the real estate sector has clearly reached out to help.

But delegates were wowed too by giga projects in Egypt and Saudi Arabia; ESG was “more visible than ever” and “climate finance” was a new term now frequently heard, and likely to be a hot topic at COP 27 which Egypt is hosting in November.

Transactions were, as ever, key to MIPIM discussions as too were the implications of new technology such as the use of augmented reality and the challenge of the “metaverse” – will we need offices and will we need mass transit in the future?

Click on the video to watch the full discussion or listen to it on the podcast below.