The hospitality vehicles that will ferry guests between the Martinez and the Villa de la Lézardière in the hills above Cannes are booked. The drinks are ordered and hundreds of industrial agents, developers, occupiers and advisers have blocked out the afternoon of 16 March. Yes, Shedmasters, one of MIPIM’s premier events, is back. And this year it turns 16, a milestone that surely deserves the raising of a glass, or two.
So established a fixture in the industrial calendar has the event become that none of that will come as news to readers of this supplement. But how many of you – from the fresher faced to the greyer of temple – remember the early days. This is a birthday worth celebrating with a brief stroll down memory lane.
The origins of Shedmasters lie in a development deal done in 2000. Gleeson Properties and Belgrave Land had bought a six-acre freehold site at Thame in Oxfordshire from BP. The scheme, rebranded as Thame 40, needed designing, developing and promoting.
The Thame 40 project development team, which included Graham Brown, Nick Redwood, Steve Davis, Howard Lupton, Mike Bracken, Graham McMoran and Tina Killian, hosted a private lunch for their contacts and as a result Shedmasters was born.
The team hired the well-known Villa Saf Saf for accommodation, which reputedly had played host to the Playboy parties at the Cannes Film Festival. The team decided to invite 80 fellow industrial colleagues and advisers along for a waterside networking buffet lunch, arriving in style by speed boat. “The rest,” says Savills’ Brown, “is history.”
The event was a success in more ways than one.
By April 2011 the 120,000 sq ft industrial/distribution scheme now known as Thame 40 had secured a prelet from Swedish-owned Atlet for a 38,000 sq ft unit, while Amersham-based Total Laminate Systems had bought a 15,800 sq ft unit for a figure thought to be around £1.4m.
Shedmasters itself, meanwhile, had found itself a niche and evolved as a go-to networking event for like-minded individuals.
Over the ensuing years, the event grew in numbers and in reputation. It is famously invite-only to weed out those who are unrelated to the industry. To this day it remains a private select event for key active players in the industrial/logistics sector.
By 2009 Shedmasters had moved to the exclusive Villa La Lezardiere overlooking Cannes Bay and now regularly plays host to hundreds of people each year.
Brown explains why. “It is an opportunity to meet people you know of but haven’t got around to meeting,” he says. “In the property business people move from job to job but the market doesn’t stop. A lot of people who were in different companies previously come now. The beauty of Shedmasters is that it is very focused on the industrial and logistics sector, whereas other parties at MIPIM cater more for people across the board.”
There may be no torrid tales to have emerged from the villa – if there are, do get in touch – but rare is the year that passes without drama.
In 2009, Estates Gazette editor Damian Wild was there interviewing attendees for EGTV. What seemed at first a sudden rain shower was in fact Graham Brown with a hose good-naturedly disrupting proceedings. Needless to say it was appreciated by guests.
A year later, with the market mood improved and a 10th birthday to celebrate, there was more of a party atmosphere.
In 2011, guests were left out in the cold when the automatic gates to the private villa malfunctioned. Party-goers attempting to leave were left waiting in the courtyard while staff tried to locate the fault. None of this deterred the crowd. One joker quipped: “I’ve heard of a captive audience, but this is ridiculous.”
In 2014, a certain management consultant commandeered EG’s high-tech camera. If only he had been using it for some noble journalistic cause, rather than to sneak a peek at the locals on the beach.
That same year, Shedmasters grew as MIPIM UK launched. As its own marketing blurb boasts: “We have taken the best elements (with the exception of the sunshine) from our Cannes event, repackaged and shipped them over to London’s Olympia.” The event returned last year, filling the first-floor conference space.
In west London, as in the South of France, it’s hard to imagine MIPIM without Shedmasters. Happy birthday.
No Cannes Do? You Cannes Do Both
Given the fun to be had at MIPIM – and the fact that not everyone in the industrial world gets to go – it was only a matter of time before Shedmasters spawned a domestic sister event.
No Cannes Do was conceived in 2009 and has been drawing hundreds to the OXO Tower on the South Bank of the Thames – and usually its 250ft terrace to enjoy a spring day that has been known to be balmier than the South of France – ever since.
Picture hundreds of property people basking in glorious sunshine, catching up over drinks on a terrace above a beautiful waterfront – that was 2011 at least. In 2012, while those in the South of France weathered the drizzle, London was bathed in glorious spring sunshine.
What began as a recessionary alternative to trooping over to Cannes is now a firm fixture in the calendar – rain or shine, good years and bad.
As one shedhead told Estates Gazette a few years ago: “Agents, investors and developers in the industrial sector are happy to get their business done over a few beers in a single afternoon.” Not all of them though. The enduring success of Shedmasters shows many would rather do so over several afternoons and long evenings.
Now though, the hardy needn’t make that tough choice. No Cannes Do has evolved into Cannes Do Both. With the industrial world known for its hardiness – witness the long-running Industrial Agents Society annual dinner and the IAS Awards – no one will be surprised, that such jet-setting networking is child’s play.
Canmoor, DTRE, IDI Gazeley, Irwin Mitchell, McLaren and Michael Sparks Associates will be hosting the event on Thursday 10 March 2016 – the week before MIPIM – to ensure that everyone can easily join them at the OXO Tower and make it out to Cannes as well.
