Jonathan Doughty, Managing Director at Viklari Consulting Limited, has been a longstanding MAPIC attendee, as well as a valued member of the MAPIC Awards Jury. This year, for the 30th anniversary of MAPIC, the Awards Ceremony is undergoing profound changes, and Jonathan Doughty is at the center of it, as the Master of Ceremony.
Jonathan Doughty, Managing Director at Viklari Consulting Limited
What is your current role in the industry?
I am an F&B and leisure specialist advisor to the property industry and I have been doing this since 1992 when I founded Coverpoint. In that time, I have been incredibly lucky to have worked on some of the absolute best retail and leisure projects around the world, with some of the very best people in our industry. I am still highly active working for ECE Marketplaces as a consultant and a small number of other specialist clients. The food and leisure industries are booming and I am fortunate to be part of this incredible change in the retail and placemaking industry.
How long have you been attending MAPIC?
That is a really difficult and I was rather hoping you could tell me! It has been part of my professional life for so long now. My first MAPIC experience was around 1997 as the world in which I was working got bigger, expanded further, and became truly international. As my business grew being at MAPIC became increasingly important, with all of the clients and potential clients in one place, as well as an easy format to learn, meet new people and build new relationships that are still going today.
What is your best MAPIC Awards memory?
That is actually a really tough question to answer. Just after I sold Coverpoint to JLL in 2014 we all arrived in Cannes for MAPIC and it was a special year, but no award. In 2017 I joined ECE and that was a really special year at MAPIC when food was featured so much on the stand and the content. However, without doubt, my best MAPIC Awards memory was being awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. Nothing has ever come close to the feeling that night, being recognised by your own industry – it was truly MAPIC magic.
What will be your role in the 2025 MAPIC Awards Ceremony?
I am honoured to be asked to be the Master of Ceremonies for the MAPIC Awards ceremony in 2025, the 30th Anniversary year of this incredible event. I will be attending during the week, but my focus will be on Awards night and the new format, the changes in award categories themselves and trying to make sure that everything goes smoothly and the evening is a great success. It’s exciting!
What are you hoping for, regarding the applicants, this year?
I hope that we will get a wide range of the absolute best projects around the world of retail, leisure and placemaking, submissions from the best operators and occupiers in our industry and an energetic and engaged response from the industry to the new format and new Award categories. It is more precise, more detailed, and easier to enter, so there is no reason not to submit. It really is worth it.
What can the attendees expect from this year Ceremony?
A huge amount of work has gone into changing the format to be more in keeping with he needs of MAPIC attendees and the pressures they have on their time while in Cannes. As a result, the event has taken on a new style with theatre seating, a proper “Award style” event, staged in a new location for the MAPIC Awards. It is not what everybody is used to and I am excited to see the change take place.
This year, the MAPIC Awards Ceremony is free for all attendees. Join us in the Grand Auditorium from 18:30 on November 4!
Want to apply for an Award? Check the categories: https://awards.mapic.com/mapicawards2025/en/page/categories
