Cannes may be home to an event palace, but the city has an identity all of its own
- Words by Antony Reeve-Crook
Words such as infrastructure or connectivity tell only half the story of a successful exhibition destination. There are many elements outside the venue and airport that you cannot commission.
These are the venues where the city itself is the star, be it for the markets it hosts or the nature of the destination. While many organisers are keen to point out their event brings markets together under a single roof; our memories of the event tend to focus on where that roof is located.
San Diego’s Comic-Con is an obvious example here, for anyone who remembers the fanbase outcry when talk emerged of the then wall-bound event moving to larger premises in Los Angeles, or across the country in Atlanta. Or look at city-wide festivals such as Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland, which brings comedy and thought- provoking performance to every venue and street corner with space for a performer and a microphone.
A festival atmosphere is the primary trade of Cannes, a small city destination on the French riviera imbued with the old school glamour. Most famous for, and synonymous with, the Cannes film festival (Festival de Cannes) the city is home to many event calendar highlights for the industries they serve. One does not say they are heading to Cannes for a show in the same way they say they are heading to the Birmingham NEC.
It seems appropriate then, that the main venue in town is titled the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, rather than ‘exposition’, the French word for exhibition. Situated beside the old port, 35-year-old modernist
venue is Cannes’ foremost for exhibitions and events. It opened at the end of 1982 offering 25,000sqm for exhibitions and 18 auditoriums, the largest of which has a capacity of 2,300. Following its expansion to 35,000sqm in 1999, renovation
in 2010 and recent addition of a new VIP suite as well as a huge LCD screen on the frontispiece – appropriate given the televisual subject matter of many of the shows it hosts – the venue remains the central hub for events in the city.
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The first ‘Festival International du Film’ opened in Cannes on 1 September 1939, but Germany’s invasion of Poland that
day - beginning World War II - forced the festival to close on 2 September
The Palais is managed by the Society of Mixed Economy for the Events of the city of Cannes (SEMEC), created to manage the Palais a decade after the venue opened its doors, the combination of three non-profit organisations: Cannes Tourism, the OMACC and the association Cannes Palais des Festivals et des Congrès. But as the old saying goes, if you want to know the quality of a person, look at the company they keep. If you don’t know much about Cannes as a destination for exhibitions, then perhaps you’ve heard of Reed Exhibitions, the world’s largest professional exhibition organiser. Reed Midem, which stages almost all its events in Cannes, is a particularly busy branch of the UK- based global operator.
Its portfolio includes the annual music industry trade show Midem; television and digital content shows MIPTV and MIPCOM, two shows with significant crossover held each year in spring and autumn respectively, as well as ancillary trade events specialising in key genres of programming, from documentaries and kids’’ television to formats and the future of television.
Comexposium is another organiser with an ongoing relationship in Cannes. The company recently brought its Trustech event to the city, a departure from its previous home in Paris. A trade fair dedicated to information and telecommunications technology, Trustech is one of the leading trade fairs for card identification devices in Europe, split between the communication and information platforms.
And of course, given that we are talking about Cannes, still very much a playground for the wealthy, where would be without yachts. The Cannes Yachting Festival, again owned by Reed, is 40 years old and remains one of the world’s foremost yachting events, with 50 per cent international visitors and 60 per cent international exhibitors mixing across the event’s overall footprint of 300,000sqm.
Of course some prefer the jet stream to gulf stream, which brings us to the ultimate luxury travel meeting, the International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM), Reed’s ‘flagship inspirational show’ in Cannes. The event explores the role of travel in the modern luxury landscape, and Reed chooses to retain its flagship edition in Cannes.
Another Cannes event well suited to the jet set, is the Tax Free World Association’s (TFWA) World Exhibition & Conference, an event for the duty free and travel retail Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes \ FABRE industry. The event is attended by 12,000 professionals and combines a global shop window for premium brands with an industry-wide forum and the chance to network with key influencers.
A festival of creativity
But perhaps it is the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, held each year in June, that best demonstrates the city’s ability to transmogrify into a living breathing exhibition space; a venue sans frontières. Now in its 65th year, the event began life as a festival dedicated to advertising, but according to organiser Ascential,
GETTING TO THE PALAIS
The journey to Cannes is straightforward from Nice Côte d’Azur airport. Reed Midem has partnered with Air France and KLM Global Meetings for its events, whose visitors and exhibitors can benefit from preferential rates. Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes \ AJURIA today it is built around creativity ‘as a force for business’.
More than any other, this show demonstrates the pull an event can have when a whole town gets behind the subject matter; in part because of the pervasive, all- encompassing nature of the event, which spans the whole spectrum of branded communications in arenas including health, innovation and entertainment and honours the finest creative work of the year.
Cannes takes great pride in its heritage as an exhibition city, home to shows that do not just play to an international audience; they are celebrated around the world. EW
