MIP London Boss Says New UK Confab Will Be Complementary To Screenings As She Prepares For Launch & Looks Beyond 2025

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: With MIP London just over the horizon, Lucy Smith has a big challenge: to prove the need for a newbie event and convince sceptics that this will bring more of the industry’s top-tier execs to the English capital in Feb. “Over 700 people are already registered and we’re hopeful of landing somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000,” Smith, the Director of the Entertainment Division of RX France and MIP Markets, reveals to us as we sit down in the plush Savoy hotel, one of two venues MIP London will utilize, along with the adjoining IET London.

The capacity is 1,300 in each. The new event, from MIPCOM organizer RX France, comes after the curtain came down on MIPTV last year.

Since MIP London was announced, Smith has stressed this is not a simple swap of the Cote D’Azur for the banks of the River Thames. “It’s not MIPTV, let’s be clear on that.

MIPTV, for many reasons, was not working at that time of year. We have no regrets; we know that was the right decision and that we had to retire it.” She adds: “What we were listening to, and hearing, was that people wanted something different.