Barcelona Meeting Point 2007 live!

Six days is a long time in real estate, and we can happily say that after almost a week manning the Properazzi stand and running this blog, we’re pretty glad to be back in the office…

THE DEBATE
Barcelona Meeting Point 2007 was all about the ‘crisis, crunch or correction?’ question - looking at just how badly the US subprime débacle will hit the European markets. Positive messages came from some of the big banks (don’t frighten the horses!), the CEE researchers and, unsurprisingly, from Housing Minister Carme Chacon. The worried-sounding speakers were Leslie Crawford (FT) who spoke of Spain’s impending property market implosion, Russia’s analysts (who stopped just short of applying the phrase ‘Russian roulette’ to their property scene) and the child visitors, who said they weren’t even thinking of buying in the city when they grew up.

THE NUMBERS
The 22,000 professional visitors were probably busy meeting potential partners from 642 companies in the stands, as very few of them turned up to the Symposium events; the only talk with a full hall was the one on the hotspots of Eastern Europe. This seemed a real shame - all speakers showed clarity, brevity and humour, and listening to them was an education.

Despite the market shivers, BMP saw about €5million-worth of transactions done (expected to be finalised over the coming weeks), proving the organisers’ claims that despite the property sector’s globalisation, there is still no substitute for face-to-face business - and 60% of space for BMP 2008 has already been pre-booked.

180,000 ‘general’ visitors came to the Fira Montjuic this year; sales areas for the big developers looked busy, but there were lots of freebie-hunters who were not at all interested in the content of the stands, and the overall figures show public interest dropped by 10% from 2006.

THE VERDICT
So - what worked this year? The Professional Exhibition and Symposium had a good mix of countries represented, and the choice to devote a large space to Brazil paid off - the Latin American stands, exhibitors and activities they supplied added colour and vibrancy to the show. Speakers from Eastern Europe gave great, impartial insight into their homelands and were generous with their out-of-lecture time, agreeing to informal discussiopns and interviews (some of which can be seen on this blog). The weak point seemed to be, ironically, in the sparsity of local commentators - it would have been helpful to have more Spanish and Catalan market specialists in the seminars, especially as they were so well-represented in the Public Exhibition’s stands.

Also mentioned by the professionals we spoke to was the lack of representation of technology in the event programme. As the internet, real estate software and online property portals were such hot topics, it was a shame they were not discussed. Perhaps this is something that could be featured next year…

Another negative, in our opinion, was the proliferation of ‘azafatas’ - employed for looks rather than interest and experience in the real estate trade. This led to several conversations (overheard by us) in which attendees asked questions and the people manning the stand could not answer - embarrassing for the company which hired them, a possible loss of business, and a rather cheapened atmosphere.

One final thing - we’d love to be invited back for Barcelona Meeting Point 2008, but will remember next year to bring our scarves, hats and gloves - the space was freeeeezing! More heating, please it’s so much nicer to greet all those new contacts with (literally) warm handshakes.