MIPIM has confirmed Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion FBA as the keynote speaker for its 2026 event in Cannes, positioning theory, policy and real estate transformation centre stage as the conference prepares for its 36th edition.
Aghion, Professor at the Collège de France and INSEAD, and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, is best known for co-developing the economic growth theory of creative destruction alongside Peter Howitt. Their work, recognised with the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics, argues that long-term prosperity depends on new innovations replacing outdated practices, allowing economies, and by extension cities, to avoid stagnation while improving productivity and competitiveness. His background spans public finance, economic transition and AI governance. At the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Aghion served as Deputy Chief Economist and Research Coordinator during its shift from centrally planned to market economies.
More recently, he co-chaired the French Artificial Intelligence Commission, advocating that AI should be treated as a national priority for investment, research and workforce training. That perspective, backing innovation as a hard economic driver, is expected to resonate strongly with the 2026 MIPIM programme, which under new Director Nicolas Boffi is expanding its content into AI disruption, data centres, productivity, and the path to net zero.
Aghion’s keynote session will connect those themes to urban development, examining how sustainable cities can be shaped through digital competition, green investment, and coordinated public and private capital. He is also expected to consider the impact of policy on regional balance, productivity, and the practical conditions cities need to maintain competitiveness.
MIPIM 2026 will return to the Palais des Festivals in Cannes from 9 to 13 March.