So, the annual jamboree that is MIPIM has been and gone, and thousands of middle-aged, sleep-deprived, vitamin deficient (mostly male) property professionals are trying to explain to their partners and accounts departments the irregular nature of their credit card receipts once again.

My personal challenge of avoiding Caffe Roma was successfully passed, and with the benefit of a couple of days reflection, I'm left with two abiding thoughts – and they are interlinked.  The first, is that Manchester has really upped its game.  Its new stand-alone premises, slipping out onto the Cannes sand, was a vast improvement on its home in the bunker of previous years.  But more than the style, there was substance to Manchester; it was coordinated, there was a collective positivity and energy, and a real sense that there was an overarching message to the week.  Like a seminal album, there was a start, a middle and an end, brought to a rousing crescendo by the moving tribute to Sir Howard Bernstein.  It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea; a couple of people I spoke to at the close bemoaned the regular reference to football parlance, and the omnipresent force of Gary Neville no doubt underpinned that.  However, the vast majority welcomed Manchester’s ability to roll out their own personalities and, in Gary’s case, he is rapidly becoming as well-known for his property interests as for his former days berating his colleagues at the Theatre of Dreams.

The second, is how London presented itself.  The London stand, once viewed in the context of Manchester, felt – with the exception of the terrace – a bit dark and dingy.  Whereas previously it was the place to be, I couldn’t help noticing how many people passed on through and made their way to the West Midlands stand (also a great improvement) and Manchester.  Again, the substance counts more than the colour of the trim of the tent.  Frankly, it felt a bit like walking around a disconnected trade fair.  And in my opinion, I trace that back to the virtually complete absence of the GLA.  Whereas in previous years, the GLA was the glue that pulled the different London boroughs, developers, and service providers together under the banner of team London, this time out, it felt more like a confederation of small businesses.  In many ways, this was exacerbated by the well-meaning presence of  Local London, the collective of east London boroughs, supported by a number of developers and consultancies (including Iceni).  We all know that London is moving east, but by the end of the week, I was ready to put a tenner down at Ladbrokes on London moving east, right out of the tent, and doing its own thing in 2018.

MIPIM is hugely expensive, and it is totally understandable that when faced with competing demands on budgets (and time), the financial controllers may win out over the business development managers.  However, it’s fundamentally about brand London, and giving the visiting masses – old and new – the belief and conviction that it remains ahead of the competition.  It didn’t feel like that this year.

There is an awful lot emerging out of London at present. But instead, we were left to walk around displays and models that felt suspiciously similar to that of previous years.  There was little new messaging coming out of the London tent; rather it was emerging from our noisy neighbours next door.  I hope the Mayor and his advisors recognise that this was an own goal for London, and that Manchester has well and truly set the benchmark for what we should expect to see next year.