Leicester and Leicestershire at Mipim 2015: Day Three
That's another successful year for Leicester and Leicestershire at Mipim, so what was all the fuss about?
But if you thought the run-up to this year's event was lively, you'll probably want to fasten your seatbelts for the 2016 sequel (I write this while securely fast in the middle seat of a packed flight from Nice to Luton).
It's fair to say Leicester and Leicestershire punched above its weight this year given the £55,000 that was spent, £25,000 of which came from the taxpayer.
The biggest success of the delegation's three-day presence was this afternoon's rugby on the beach event, hosted by England and Leicester Tigers legends Rory Underwood, George Chuter and Louis Deacon. It attracted dozens of people wanting to pit their skills with the oval ball against some of the sport's best-known stars. Many others watched from the sidelines, ensuring lots of attention on the Leicester Tigers branding which covered this section of the Cannes sea front, quite close to the main entrance of the exhibition centre.
The strategy of using the Tigers name to front the private sector side of the delegation was a good one (including a rugby themed lunch yesterday), and something which should certainly be built on for next year.
The question is whether the public sector side - this year represented by six non-elected officials from the city and county councils, and the local enterprise partnership - will be more regionally focused at next year's Mipim. That question will probably be kicked into touch for a while, with a heavily contested line-out expected in the run up to the 2016 conference. A fair few scrummages are then likely between public sector leaders in Leicester/Leicestershire, Nottingham/Nottinghamshire and Derby/Derbyshire before any such deal can be made.
Business leaders I've spoken to over the past few hours are fairly sceptical, but won't completely rule it out. As I said in yesterday's blog, Andy Cliffe, managing director of East Midlands Airport, is the highest-profile Leicestershire business person so far to have called for a more regional focus when it comes to inward investment. Many others agree with him privately, but the issue is politically and commercially sensitive.
The concern is whether an East Midlands public sector delegation will be able to run alongside a Leicester and Leicestershire business one, as an East Midlands private sector delegation is unlikely - that's very commercially sensitive territory indeed.
But at the end of the day, the focus has to be on making an even bigger bang in 2016. Surely joining up with its two regional neighbours will create a stronger pack. It depends on whether Leicester and Leicestershire wants to use the momentum from the past two Mipims to push on for a try, or go for a spectacular kick between the posts.
Before running out of rugby metaphors, I'll say this: you certainly don't get any points for dropping the ball.
Hi Ian. In your third paragraph, shouldn't the emphasis be on the fact that £30,000 of the funding was contributed by the private sector sponsors rather than referring to the taxpayers' contribution? Also, I thought that £20,000 of the "public sector" funding was actually from an ERDF grant rather than from local taxpayers, who actually only contributed £5,000. I also wonder whether it should have been made clearer that actually £55,000 is not a lot to spend in MIPIM terms when compared with other cities at MIPIM. However, as you rightly say, I do think that we punched above our weight and got great value and profiling for the money spent.
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