The urban festival that is MIPIM?

How's your MIPIM diary looking? If it's anything like Big Picture's, the invitation emails have started landing with increasing regularity, and the outlines of a busy schedule of coffees, conference sessions and parties is starting to take shape. Almost inevitably, there are already overlaps that will mean some dashes along La Croisette (and back again) if commitments are to be met.

A month out from what remains the real estate sector's most prominent forum, the event invites are a useful reminder of just how much investment and development work happens unseen before being unveiled in Cannes. Catching up with clients, contacts and friends old and new remains a key part of MIPIM's offer, and everyone will have one or two things they are particularly looking forward to. For the exhibitors it is a chance to start new conversations; strong presences from the likes of Invest Newcastle and Scotland are vital in attracting new eyes, ideas and investors to markets that offer great opportunities and potential.

But for all MIPIM's promise, many attendees are a touch unprepared. There is always some day-to-day work in the build-up that means planning can be put on the back burner, and it is easy to be lulled by a full diary into thinking that preparation is done. Your calendar may be back-to-back, but are the appointments all strictly useful? It is all too easy to be a 'passive' attendee in receive mode - taking in what everyone else is doing at saying at the conference - rather than an 'active' one that seizes the chance to tell your company's compelling story.

At Innesco, we're often asked for any tips about how to make the most of the conference, and our advice (beyond "wear comfortable shoes") is always the same: make time in the weeks before to properly plan your time in Cannes. For some, that might simply mean making sure the diary is full, and that every appointment is genuinely valuable; it is a basic trap to return home having had plenty of meetings but nothing to show for them.

But for other - arguably most - delegates, the priority should be grabbing the opportunity presented by MIPIM to communicate with a wider audience. And while the conference is only four-and-a-bit weeks away, there is still time to make that mark. Maybe it's a brand-building visual presence. Perhaps it is a short delay to a major announcement to coincide with the conference. Or it could be as simple as one-on-one media briefings with journalists that would otherwise be hard to reach.

When we talk to people across the industry, they hold MIPIM in high regard but worry they are not making the most of it; in short, they want to make sure that the costs of attending - be it time, money or resource - are converted into tangible takeaways. And that is where Innesco can assist: guiding strategy, shaping narrative and ensuring that a raised profile generates momentum and not just noise. Between the Innesco team, there are well over 50 years of MIPIM-going experience, something that is reflected in the sheer range of support activity we will be undertaking at the conference in March.

From press conferences to chairing panel sessions, parties to introductions, you will see us around in Cannes. So come and say 'hi', and if there is anything we can do to help make your MIPIM more of a success, then please get in touch.