Can Cannes cope with MIPIM?

I have a serious question as to whether Cannes can really cope with MIPIM any longer. The conference is bursting at the seams. This is a result of a hot property market that seems to exist across the globe. The almost inexorable demand for investment and space has led to the exhibition space itself spreading beyond the central conference hall itself to surrounding tents and extensions and to a myriad of tents and commercial areas cropping up in and around the main hotels of La Croisette.

You are now seeing MIPIM going global, with countries exhibiting taking in Europe, the Middle and Far East as well as taking in America.

The result is an even more desparate lack of hotel space in the city and to an infrastructure that is struggling to deal with the thousand upon thousand of visitors. It seems to sum up our current global quandry - how do we on the one hand allow for massive demand for growth while at the same time reduce our global fix for energy? The irony is that when sustainability is the key subject for delegates (and it most definitely is) the conference itself is struggling to keep up with demand for space.

The current talk this year is whether the conference will as a result have to relocate to another venue, say for example Barcelona. Another idea being thrown about is having two MIPIMs, one in March as usual and another in September. Something is definitely going to have to give for the conference to have a long term future.

Phil Clark runs a website, www.zerochampion.com, devoted to news and debate surrounding sustainability.