Let’s get one thing out of the way: what you don’t get at the Colette are the palm trees and shimmering sea views you associate with Cannes. This is a hotel rooted in one of the busiest areas of town. On the other hand, you are still only  a five minute walk from the Croisette, beach and Palais (if you are attending Midem, MIPIM or the Cannes Film festival). There are also many places to eat and drink, with  a busy open air market just around the corner.

Tips for staying in downtown Cannes

Although Hotel Colette boasts about its soundproofed windows, if you are a light sleeper I would still advise you to do the same as in any downtown hotel in any city: bring a set of earplugs. They really are better than spending a night complaining about scooters or car horns. If you don’t need them, they don’t take up much space in your luggage.

The Hotel Colette has 47 rooms, including two suites. Business travelers will appreciate the free wi-fi in rooms and public spaces. There is a business centre and cosy reading space. The hotel also offers assistance with printing and the use of computers as well as laundry and shoeshine services. Electric bikes are available for guests, which is very handy for visiting the town or getting around when the roads are blocked off for the festival.

All in all, the Colette has been developed for business travellers that enjoy somewhere friendly to stay. Another advantage is that the train can drop you within 10 minutes of the airport for just over €5.

Check for availability at the Colette right now

This provides everyone with massive opportunities and challenges. Needless to say, an event like Midem in January 2012 is anxious to point out the opportunities.

Visionary Monday at MIDEM

This year, Midem is inaugurating a Visionary Monday, giving keynote speakers to chance to address the worldwide music community. The shift from push to pull marketing had led to new ways to build lasting, profitable and loyal relationships with audiences. At Visionary Monday, artists, industry leaders, marketing and technology experts share their insights and discoveries on new innovative ways to reach, engage with and monetize audiences, on related key issues:

• What are the new rules of audience engagement and monetisation?
• How to build an artist career as a brand? What are the most sustainable models to achieve it?
• What are the content strategies and tools to engage with your consumers and raise brand loyalty?
• Is the technology the future for music or is music becoming the future of technology?

Speakers this year include Wendy Clark, SVP Integrated Marketing with Coca-Cola, Mark Ronson, Grammy-winning, artist, producer and DJ, mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, Dan Rose, VP of Partnerships and Platforms with Facebook and Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

It would be interesting to see how these principles would apply (or are already being applied) in other industries such as television and cinema. The presence of Coca-Cola and Facebook is interesting as they are both outside the music business, but both use music to support their business.

Are there any special engagement issues you would like to see covered? What significant changes have affected your business over the past few years?

Other resources:

• More about Midem 2012.
• Getting the most from Midem via Cannes-or-Bust.
• Studio rental

Kate Ancketill, CEO of trend tracker GDR Creative Intelligence (UK), will profile emerging concepts that will revolutionize retailing tomorrow. A consultant to major international companies such as Sony, Macys, LVMH, Nike and Land Securities, Kate Ancketill researches into and anticipates new consumer trends. Heard about “longevity stores” or “genetic testing spas” yet? Ancketill underlines the importance of creativity and the influence of new technology in shaping these new brands.

Terry Green, Non-Executive Director of Qmatic AB (Sweden), will highlight the key role of new technology in tomorrow’s shops. A specialist in queue management and consumer flows in retail outlets, Green helps brands reduce the waiting times in shops, enhance customer satisfaction by giving them a relaxed in-shop experience, and thereby boosts retailer performance. Sounds basic, but then the important things often are!

International brands in Asia and Europe
In addition to market positioning, the strategy of international expansion is key to remaining competitive in an industry of intense rivalry. For the first time, a simulcast MAPIC conference session will be organized with MIPIM Asia in Hong Kong to highlight the potential of the rapidly-evolving Asian market that is opening up significant opportunities for international brands.

At MAPIC, Carmine Rotondaro, Worldwide Real Estate Director PPR Group (France) and Jacques Ehrmann, Chief Real Estate and Development Officer of Casino Group (France), will share their experience in this market with two keynotes at MIPIM Asia: David Sancho, Vice President International Expansion for Mango (Spain) and Professor Armando Branchini, Executive Director of Fondazione Altagamma (Italy), a business forum for large Italian luxury groups.

So you’ll get two sets of retail learnings in one session. For details, check the MAPIC programme

Calculating the return on investment of a trip to Cannes is not easy. Rather than look at that, I’d like to ask a few questions that can help those that have decided to attend a trade fair in Cannes, notably how do you get the most from your visit?

Plan for success

At the risk of stating the obvious, the “secret” of success is to plan. But plan for what? And how? This very much depends on what brings you to Cannes and how you define success. Take a second to think of the one big reason you have to attend either Midem or the Film Market (the other events work along similar lines). Let’s say you have a new product you think you can license worldwide. If you are reading this, you are probably a relative newcomer, so what are your realistic expectations?

Nearly everyone you might want to reach will be there. So how do you reach them? How do you then approach them? With what, and with what expectations?

You should know that very few deals are done directly at Midem or the Film Market. Although you are entitled to try, it is far more likely that what you are getting at Cannes is two very simple but precious things: access to interesting people and – hopefully – the permission to keep in contact with them afterwards. That’s it.

Wait, what about my sales figures? I’m not going to Cannes to waltz around the Croisette! Nope, you are going to build partnerships, to find the perfect fit for your product or service in a few if not dozens of territories. You are going to find people that need you in some way. This is not to say you won’t sell stuff – the trade fairs would crumble overnight if that was the case, and some companies report 75% of their annual sales are a direct result of contacts made at the fairs – but you have to focus on connecting with people first.

 

Midem, TFWA and MAPIC offer great networking opportunities

How do I meet the right people in Cannes?

Don’t wait for Cannes to come around to meet the right people. Start as soon as possible. I strongly advise getting one of the early bird event rates for two reasons: you save money (sometimes enough to cover a cheap hotel); and you have a head start in mining the database. Again, with your new product, you go looking for licensors. First, pick off the big names in territories you know. That part is easy (although getting a reply from them is more difficult). Then comes the time-consuming but fun part: investigating the hundreds of smaller players in each region. This could well be where your business comes from.

Why? Because these people are usually more open to deals. There are far more of them. They are less courted and might have more time for you. Check their profiles completely. Visit their website. Check every angle of their work. What other activities are they involved in? Google/Bing/EntireWeb them. Have they sent out press releases recently? What does that tell you about them? Is there  something else you can suggest them? Think wide.

Offer more to stay in the game

Although some companies can afford to attend Cannes with one hot product, I strongly advise against it. There is  nothing more gutting than to realise after the first three meetings that your product is totally dead in the water for whatever reason and you have three more days of spending money to look forward to. If you’ve done your homework, you’ll know the people you are meeting are also active in character licensing, physical distribution, packaging, music supervision or whatever. Move the subject in that direction and hit them with the back-up plan. Rep someone else, if necessary. Mention your next upcoming project (if it is notably different from the one you did not impress them with right now). It could pay for the trip and more.

And when all else fails…

Never let yourself feel down when all else fails – there’s time enough for that in the plane going home. Analyse what people are telling you. Look for new angles. How could your idea be re-packaged? And in your time off, attend the conferences, they are a source of great ideas and also offer great networking opportunities. Read the dailies and determine to try and meet at least one company mentioned in them per day (I have a trick for that, more of which later).

And lastly, I strongly recommend doing what only about 15% of people do properly: follow up every contact 10 days later and see who is still open to some sort of business situation. Remember also that your Cannes event is usually about five days. The database, however, is open for 12 months. Armed with your new knowledge, you can develop products that fit what you learnt and can then go find exactly the right person to contact in each territory. The fact that you did not make a sale this time does not mean you never will – on the contrary. A slap in the face is often  a great stimulus for business. You are now armed with greater insights and access to the people that can make them work.

I’d really love to get some debate going. So feel free to make comments ask questions (below). I deal with specific aspects of travelling to Cannes on the rest of the site. Keep up to date using the RSS feed, follow me on Twitter or why not get Cannes news straight to your mailbox. I cover Cannes, music and movie biz news.

Michael Leahy

Stay just 15 minutes walking distance from the Palais, and five minutes from the beach. This hyper-practical sunny 29m² studio with a large 10m² terrace (double-glazed) offers a small view of the sea and a magnificent view of the 19th century Vallambrosa castle.

You are within 5 min walking distance of the beach (Boulevard du Midi) and close to the restaurants of Le Suquet area. A lot of shops and facilities are around the building.

Transport: 30 min from Nice airport. The train station and main bus terminal (by the Hôtel de Ville/Town Hall) are within 10 minutes walking distance.

What you get
• 4th floor of a modern high standard building with a concierge and elevator.
• Terrace 10m²
• Separate kitchen, equipped
• Separate bathroom with bath/shower
• Separate toilet

Perfect condition. BONUS: A little supermarket & post office on the ground floor of the building.

Ideal for rental: holidays or congresses such as Midem, MIPIM, Cannes Lions and the Festival de Cannes.

Rates for two people max:

FILM FESTIVAL : 1,500 euros   Other congresses MIDEM-MIPTV, MIPCOM- MAPIC … : 600 euros

Mid season: 400 euros per week -  Summer season : 500 per week. Winter season : 350 euros per week.

Mail Cannes or Bust for availability and photos:

Enjoy the view of Vallombrosa castle!

Fancy breakfast on the terrace?

Photo © 2009 Kjetil Ree, some rights reserved.

While the financial quasi-meltdown caught most people by surprise, it was not news for Nouriel Roubini. He is one of the few analysts to have foreseen the problem. He will be addressing Mipim on Thursday, March 10 2011 to assess the global economics outlook and its impact on real estate.

Roubini is the co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics, an economic and geo-strategic information service and consultancy hailed by Business Week, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and The Economist. He is also a professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Dr. Roubini has extensive policy experience as well as broad academic credentials. From 1998-2000, he served as the Senior Economist for International Affairs at the White House Council of Economic Advisors and then the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, helping to resolve the Asian and global financial crises among other issues. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and numerous other prominent public and private institutions have drawn upon his consulting expertise.

Roubini has published over 70 theoretical empirical and policy papers on international macroeconomic issues and co-authored the books “Political Cycles: Theory and Evidence” (M.I.T. Press, 1997) and “Bailouts or Bail-ins, Responding to Financial Crises in Emerging Markets” (Institute for International Economics, 2004), and Crisis Economics – A Crash Course in the Future of Finance (Penguin Press, 2010). Dr. Roubini’s views on global economics issues are widely cited by the media, and he is a frequent commentator on various business news programs.  The Financial Times has also provided extensive coverage of Dr. Roubini’s viewpoints.
Dr. Roubini received an undergraduate degree at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy and a Ph.D. in economics at Harvard University. Prior to joining Stern, he was on the faculty of Yale University’s department of economics.

Interest in his talk will be high, reflected in the fact that he will be addressing the main hall in the Palais des Festivals.

But the way people talk about Cannes can be unsettling. Open up any trade magazine and there will be debates about the importance of Cannes, the relevance of Cannes or even if Cannes will be held this year at all. They are not talking about the town, of course. They are talking about their 5-day vision of it at the trade fairs and festivals.

“Are you going to Cannes this year?”
“Are you going to Cannes this year?” could be an inquiry about the Cannes festival, Midem, MIPIM, the yacht show, Cannes Lions or the horse event. It’s flattering but also a little worrying that the name of the town is synonymous with so many events that are held there. Think of Hoover and Xerox, which lost their capital letters to become a vacuum cleaner and a photocopy. The truly bizarre question to ask people that live in Cannes is, “When is Cannes this year?” Um, it’s actually there quite often, guys.

“To hoover” is also a verb in Ireland. So how long is it before Cannes becomes a verb? Which one would it be? The verb, “to attend a trade fair”? Or the verb, “to spend some time on the Riviera”? To do deals? To go on a jolly? To shimmy up the Croisette? Would you say, “I’m going to cannes over to London for a few days”? Or, “How about cannesing to Venice for the festival?”

iPhones, databases and not leaving home
The question is all the more relevant as with the rise of databases and social media, Cannes has become pretty much a 12-month event. You can tap into the Midem or Cinando databases and do business with people that were at Cannes right around the year. Many of the events have iPhone apps that let you participate without leaving home. To make things even more complex, many of these trade fairs have larger and larger overlaps, as filmed content can be found at MIPDOC, Cannes Lions, the Cannes festival MIPTV and MIDEM, and music is at all five too.

Will it one day just become one big blob of an event that runs like a convenience store? Or a smaller one held every weekend like a car boot sale? As trade fairs and festival begin to morph and adapt to the new business landscape, Cannes will have to define itself too. And I know just what to call it: Cannes.

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This is the theme developed by The Write Stuff & Consorcom, who have worked on 6 MIDEM campaigns, as well as several for MIPTV and MIPCOM over the years. The company has also worked for EAS in Amsterdam as well as developing the names for Amazia in Hong Kong and MIPIM Horizons. A little disclosure is in order as the same company runs Cannes or Bust!

To see more of their work, visit The Write Stuff.

Many of these debates will spill over in real time through Twitter and the blogs. On this point, it’s interesting to note how enthusiastically the UK property sector has adopted Twitter. Follow the Tweets. The backstage photo is from David Lisnard, taken from his office at the back of the Palais this morning.

I’ve always known people who attend Cannes fairs without paying the entrance fee. I can remember seeing Freddy Cousaert (who got Marvin Gaye back into the record business) holding court from a kerbside table, calling over passing acquaintences to do business. Organisers Reed Midem exert quite an influence on the town and during the Cannes film festival, people without a badge cannot enter many of the major hotels. They take these things seriously in this town.

Squatting a restaurant looked like a great idea. But I doubt they will be trying it again any time soon. There’s a clear  line between entertaining people outside the Palais and riding piggyback on a major event. If you’re attending Cannes and want to organise something like this, my tip is to play safe and take passes to the event in addition to entertaining in the café/restaurant/club. The key point seems to be that they were not even registered with MIPIM, and were therefore perceived to be leeching the event. Drivers Jonas is considering an appeal.