Mixed bag

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All in all, Cityscape has had it pretty good over the last 12 months. The Saudi Arabian legs of the property road show have been a huge success, and the relaunch of Cityscape Dubai was, while quiet, appropriate with its new emphasis on bringing global investors into regional markets.

But Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2011 was always going to struggle to live up to last year’s instalment. The launch of the 2030 plan, complete with an impressive model of the new city, gave the event a buzz which it was going to find difficult to replicate one month on.

Despite the presence of no less than three members of the UAE royal family, the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre was eerily quiet – a fact that did not go unnoticed amongst the numerous consultants that had paid for stands.

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Indeed, even last year – with the volcanic ash cloud grounding many flights from Europe – there were more people in Abu Dhabi.

Other consultants feel that the low-key atmosphere is to the event’s credit. Nathan Hones, general manager at Abu Dhabi-based firm Stride Treglown, says that it has given his firm the opportunity to get a foot in the door with some of the UAE’s biggest developers, including TDIC and Aldar.

“The thing is, you can have 150 conversations with the wrong people or you can have five or six with the right people which makes the whole event worthwhile,” he said.

“You can’t just pitch up and hope people come to your stand. You have to go and figure out who the best people are to speak to, and then go and see them.”

The prevalence of government agencies – particularly the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC) – undoubtedly presented good networking opportunities at this year’s Cityscape Abu Dhabi, and gave other firms the opportunity to see their projects under the spotlight.

“Let me put it this way, there are no surprises but there are quite a few interesting projects,” said Bradford Batcheller, director of public relations and corporate branding, KEO International Consultants.

“Some of the things we’ve worked on, like South of Shamkha and the ADEC schools are all very exciting. They’re exciting because we’re seeing so many of our projects become real. It’s good to see there’s still life in the market.

“The infrastructure is under way and the next step is the construction of the facilities. There’s a lot of action with some of our projects becoming real and events which are ongoing and our clients moving to the next stage.”

Lucy Casey, business development manager at Aedas — commenting on the first day of the exhibition — agreed.

“It’s good to see all the major developers still here and promoting Abu Dhabi. It’s a bit quiet right now but I think the next two days will be the busiest. It’s also great to see what the Abu Dhabi UPC are doing right now with their 2030 model,” she said.

Meanwhile, Stride Treglown’s Hones says that smaller firms at Cityscape benefit by getting the opportunity to speak to developers and potential clients who may not have heard of them.

“It’s less about people looking for work now and more about networking,” he said.