MIPIM 2011 – THE YEAR OF THE SMARTPHONE

Smartphones and mobile technology were the dominant methods of accessing news from the world’s premier real estate event, according to the results of the Mipim News Survey 2011, undertaken by Remit Consulting, Revolution Public Relations and Targacom Advisory.

The study, based on the responses to an online questionnaire about how news from Mipim was obtained, revealed the increasing importance of mobile technology within the property industry, with 39% of all respondents accessing news from their phones. This figure rose to 60% for those who were attending Mipim.

Bob Thompson of Remit Consulting says: “The real story here is the importance of mobility to property professionals and shows that they take notice of news on the move if it is provided in the right way. It also implies that if new mobile applications are well designed and provide real benefit, then the property industry will adopt them. Clearly the smartphone has become the technology accessory of choice for the property professional. ”

The survey also reveals that Twitter and other social media platforms have continued to grow in use as channels by which news is accessed. Email and websites continue to be very important both to attendees and those staying in the office. However, for the first time, more respondents used Twitter than did websites. For those that attended Mipim, Twitter and email were the most important news channels, while websites knocked Twitter into third place amongst those who did not.

Andrew Barber of Revolution Public Relations says: “This year’s Mipim will be considered as the point when social media in the corporate real estate market went mainstream and the survey gives a clear demonstration of the influence that the ‘read write web’ now has on the distribution of news from the property sector.”

Download a copy of the Mipim News Survey Report 2011