CBRE’s Ashley Hancox emerged from a ten hour “power nap” especially – he went to his hotel on Wednesday night for 40 winks and failed to wake up until Thursday morning. Must be the Lee Evans-look-alike’s new job, as regional head of offices, taking its toll.

Tom Bloxham of Urban Splash turned up for pre-dinner drinks, but either didn’t like the seafood on offer or had a more pressing engagement, as he didn’t stay for lunch. Still, his suit left a lasting impression. One wag quipped it was from Stevie Wonder’s new clothing range.

Peter Crowther, of Bruntwood, was a popular attendee, as he has a war chest for acquiring office space in Birmingham. He said he loved coming to the city as it is “always sunny”.  Peter hails from Manchester, where, as we know, it’s always raining. Perhaps this is the elusive new marketing campaign Birmingham has been looking for. I can see it on a banner draping provocatively from the AWM apartment next year, right opposite the Manchester balcony: “Birmingham: it’s always sunny. Ha, ha”.

Mike Whitby’s speech was, as usual, passionate and upbeat. Though there was some concerns over the number of city transport projects in the pipeline. Apparently, on the Birmingham stand in the exhibition hall this morning he announced there were nine. By lunch this had reduced to eight. Let’s hope the New Street revamp is still on track.

Word has reached me of Birmingham’s Alternative MIPIM event, held yesterday at Anderson’s Bar and Grill. More than 100 attendees by all accounts, including Dom Stokes and Jon Andrews from Stoford, who flew back specially from MIPIM to do the double. And why not? Because as we all know, while it’s 19 Degrees in Cannes, it’s always sunny in Brum.

The very polished Nick Axford, head of the firm’s EMEA research team, said there is cause for optimism, as the investment market is picking up.

Apparently, retail property is being highly sought after across Europe, with shopping centres topping the list. Girls, just imagine hubby coming home and saying: “Darling, I’ve bought you a shopping centre”. Sigh.

Nick also said that sentiment at MIPIM this year had improved. Of course, that is anecdotal, rather than based on the in depth analysis and professional insight of CBRE’s research team, but it is a view I’ve found echoed elsewhere.

On the Malcolm Hollis yacht this evening, the building consultancy’s chairman John Woodman said much the same, as did their guests from Wardell Armstrong.

Things must be good in Nottingham too, judging by the size of their yacht in the next mooring.

Birmingham has come in for a lot of stick in the past for its MIPIM expenditure. Although admittedly I’ve not been in the bunker and seen our city’s stand at first hand, I have to say our presence seems low key in comparison to others.

While Manchester – with their brazen banner and balcony cafe overlooking the entrance to the exhibition – and Nottingham have gone for the “my marketing budget’s considerably bigger than yours” approach, others, like Coventry, have adopted guerrilla tactics, with posters outside their apartment and the Carlton hotel.

It’s hard to judge which strategy is best – and anyway, they say half of any marketing spend is wasted, you just don’t know which half.  Next year, maybe Birmingham should stop beating itself up, ditch that Quaker mentality and hire a yacht. Let’s get some of that swagger that Professor Parkinson said we lacked.

Ran into Gary Taylor of Argent (running late for the Leader’s dinner!) and Nick Payne of Masshouse fame on the Croisette. Before you get excited and smell a JV in the offing, they weren’t together.

Also caught a glimpse of Clive Dutton, still looking dapper.

Thursday’s big event, at least for the Brum contingent, is lunch on the beach. Apparently they’ve ditched the baltis this year. Read all about it tomorrow.

But no, as Gary Taylor of Argent helpfully pointed out, here on BMI Baby Flight WW6529 was the great and good of Birmingham’s property community.

And, as Glenn Howells, added: “If this plane crashed it would set Birmingham’s property sector back by, er, at least three weeks.”

Leading the contingent was the leader of Birmingham City Council, and his lovely wife Gaynor.

There were plenty of lawyers on the plane: Martineau had wheeled out no one less than their newly minted senior partner, the avuncular Andrew Whitehead. Alex Jones of Mills & Reeve was here for a few days, impressively with only hand luggage. While Anne O’Meara, of Hammonds, had brought along a female colleague to up the female quotient.

A trio of Barclays bankers, who apparently have money to lend (!), took up one row.

As well as Birmingham’s own Starchitect Glenn Howells, Gary Church of NewChurch Integrated Architecture and Engineering represented the design community. Apparently he does a nice line in sheds and, if you’re in the market for a new waste facility, he’s your man.

There were even a few developers here. As well as Taylor, representatives from Miller and Stoford have made the trip.

I shared a cab from the airport (just 140 Euro, gulp) with the lovely Lara Day of Want Space Got Space, but there was no time to lounge at my hotel as I was off to the jointly sponsored Martineau and Tuffin Ferraby Taylor party at Coventy City Council’s apartment. A very pleasant reception, spoiled only by the view of a crass Manchester banner draped across the exhibition centre opposite, proclaiming the northern city to be the nation’s “cultural beating heart”.  I went there once. I’d say they have slightly more culture than a yoghurt, so it’s not much of a boast.

Dinner with Martin Field of the Urban Land Institute was entertaining. He confirmed that global property giant Hines has signed a memorandum of association with Hammerson, Henderson and the Australian Future Fund and that the powerful four are looking at “opportunities south of the Bullring”. I hope that Birmingham City Council can rope them in soon, so they don’t go too far south.

So what of today?

The grandly titled “Leader’s Dinner”, hosted by Mike Whitby, is being held this evening. Sponsors of Birmingham’s MIPIM presence are required to attend this invitation only soiree, and are briefed to bring along a guest from outside the city.

None of them, from what I can gather, has any one lined up yet.  

One, who shall remain nameless, asked me what I was doing tonight. Strictly speaking, as I was born in the Black Country, I do qualify to attend the dinner. Unfortunately, I am otherwise engaged. I suspect the sponsors will be trawling the Croisette tomorrow for contenders.

So far, the big questions for the week have remained unanswered. Is Birmingham going to announce the name of its new Strategic Development Director (the job Clive Dutton wanted, but never quite got – he’s here, representing Newham, by the way)? Word is the City had more than 50 applicants, and have short-listed, but no names yet.

Or is Birmingham Development Company going to unveil it’s new-look for the Post & Mail building? Since Alan Chatham and Mark Billingham are no-shows, I somehow doubt it.

But the burning question, the one that has keep my phone and in-box buzzing all day, is has Mike Loftus been reunited with his underpants?

I have to say, when I arrived in Cannes, there was a faint aroma of camembert. Even though I am in France, for a minute I was concerned it might be Mike Loftus and his cheesy feet.

But apparently not, “the Walrus”, as he is affectionately known in Birmingham, emailed to say: “Mon valise est trouve et arrive”. 

Now, it’s a while since I did O Level French – two decades, and the rest – but I think he was trying to say: my suitcase has been found, and has arrived.

However, as this blog is for an austere organ like the Birmingham Post, I didn’t want to take any chances, so I checked on babelfish (the translation web site). Apparently, the literal translation is: “My bag east finds and arrives”.  Let’s hope there aren’t any French property investors looking to come to Brum this week.

Sadly, it turned out to be little more than a lengthy attack on Trinity Mirror’s stewardship of the two main newspaper titles in the city, the Mail and the Post.

This was despite Press Club chairman John Lamb pleading at the outset for an honest and open debate about all aspects of the state the region’s media finds itself in, and what needs to be done to improve matters.

Let me say at this point that it is clear that the Midlands media is going through a tough time – there have been cutbacks and job losses at the region’s newspapers, business magazines, television and radio stations.

In my view, this is a result of three things: the recession, global or otherwise, which has helped kill advertising; the empire building of the BBC; and the advance of the online sector, including of course the Internet, but also newer developments such as Twitter and the blog community.

To be fair to Trinity Mirror, they have acknowledged the advertising downturn and reacted to the online threat by embracing it as much as they can. They have also warned about the BBC and the fact that other media cannot compete against it, particularly in the current climate, because of its privileged position and secure funding.

Unfortunately, there was little sympathy for Trinity Mirror, either from the panel or the floor – among the more interesting suggestions I heard were that the Post and Mail should be put into administration; that the two titles should be handed over for free by Trinity Mirror – not clear to whom.

Then there was the suggestion that the titles should be run by philanthropists, rather than the ‘greedy b***ers’ that run them now. Or the rather strange suggestion that the Post and Mail should be printed in all manner of different languages, from Urdu to Swahili and back again.

Among those who this struck a chord with was free newspaper entrepreneur and panellist Chris Bullivant, who believes that the future is free (not surprisingly really – he was one of the people behind the relatively short lived Daily News, a free newspaper in Birmingham which launched back in 1984).

Unfortunately, the cost and practicalities of a multi-language free newspaper would appear insurmountable, in my view.

You’d probably have to get rid of all the journalists to pay for the translation services, for one thing.

And also, how will you make sure Mrs Wong at no 23 gets the Cantonese version, and Mrs Patel at no 21 gets the Urdu version? As I recall, those sort of issues didn’t trouble the Daily News delivery boys – their speciality was dumping piles of newspapers in the nearest canal (allegedly!)

Must mention a few more curious suggestions from the floor – one was that Advantage West Midlands should prop up the Post and Mail, and another was that the city council should get involved.

An incredulous Nigel Hastilow, panel member and former Post editor, could hardly contain himself at those suggestions, and shot them down in flames pretty quickly, on the basis that proper newspapers must retain their editorial independence and can’t be in the pocket of local politicians.

And so, to finish with one final comment from the floor: a complaint actually, that teenagers aren’t reading the newspapers these days. Tut tut, it’s really not good enough.

“Actually, teenagers never did read newspapers,” said Hastilow, correcting another false impression.

And that was it. Not a very inspiring level of debate, and nor did it answer the fundamental question: what are we going to do about the crisis in the local media? Answers on a postcard please, in Urdu, Swahili, or whatever.

…and here’s a few quotes from the panel at the event:

Chris Morley (National Union of Journalists): “I’m probably the chief whinger on the panel.”

“There has been a debauchery of profit taking by media companies without an eye to the future.”

“Journalists need to be properly resourced. It shouldn’t be just about filling space; it’s about quality journalism. People will gravitate to quality”

Nigel Hastilow (former Post editor): (referring to the Birmingham Post) “No more blood left for the stone to give.”

Jonathan Guthrie (Financial Times): “Ownership of local newspapers resides with private owners.”

“People feel less local than they did. They’re not as interested in local news.”

Chris Bullivant (free newspaper entrepreneur): “Future of regional newspapers is free.”

The ‘Post’ pen portrait is a bit of a talking point in our office, as it poses a number of standard questions which the subject has to answer – and the problem is that most people give the answers which they probably think ‘Post’ readers want to see.

So, you usually end up with terribly politically correct nonsense – for example, the question ‘Best thing about Birmingham/West Midlands?’ is often answered by some reference to how wonderful the cultural diversity of the place is, and how fabulous that you can be out of the city and into the countryside in about 20 minutes.

 And then there’s the ‘First thing you would do if you were (city council leader) Mike Whitby?’ question – the answers to that range from the ridiculous to the bizarre. For example, someone suggested recently that Whitby should build a Metro system in the sky, to alleviate the transport problems on the ground.

Hmm, yes that sounds perfectly feasible – actually, it reminded me of that old film ‘Fahrenheit 451’, which featured such a system.

Anyway, enough of that, onto the pen portrait:-

 Name: Philip Parkin

 Age: 53 (groan)

 Job title: Partner, Headline Communications

 Best thing about Birmingham/West Midlands? Aston Villa FC

 Worst thing about Birmingham/West Midlands? Birmingham City FC

 First thing you would do if you were Mike Whitby? Get rid of the tramps and ‘Big Issue’ sellers from the city centre – god knows there are enough of them.

 Who are you heroes and why? Jimi Hendrix – the world’s greatest guitarist – and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. We’ll need another Margaret Thatcher to clear up the mess left behind by the current incumbent.

 What was your childhood ambition? I wanted to be an airline pilot – trouble was, I was hopeless at maths, so that idea got canned.

 What are your ambitions now? To win the lottery.

 Central Library: stay or go? Reminds me of the Clash song – ‘If I go there will be trouble, and if I stay it will be double’ …and all that. Yes, if it goes there will be trouble because it just isn’t the right climate to spend millions of pounds on a new library. And if it stays there will be even more trouble, because the current library is such a phenomenally monstrous building.

 Favourite phrase: two from the old Stiff Records of the 1970s – ‘Stiff Records, where money makes money’ and ‘If it ain’t Stiff, it ain’t worth a ****.’ Classic!