Ahead of MIPIM next week, I've been reflecting on its recent bad press and the future of the conference.

My dad sent me a really damning article about MIPIM the other day. He was appalled that a conference that I was attending, and have attended for many years, was essentially being labelled as a sexist forum for men to run riot and abuse the women for a week. Naturally he had concerns.

I reassured him that it isn't as bad as the media made out, certainly it hasn’t been for me and I honestly don't think it is, but I could understand his worried tone. In light of the disgusting antics at the Presidents Club dinner in London last year and the harrowing accounts of some of Hollywood's finest actresses at the behest of Harvey Weinstein's casting couch, you can see how a predominantly male-attended property conference hundreds of miles away from home would worry a girl's dad.

This is my seventh MIPIM. I have been attending since 2007, when I arrived fresh-faced and, frankly, terrified, to be welcomed by a sea of suits on the Croisette, pre-recession, clearly enjoying a 'jolly' away from wives and children. The recession woke everyone up however, and suddenly business targets were put into place for MIPIM. What would be the return on investment for a business sending colleagues to Cannes? What about the follow up? Finally, questions were asked about the benefits of attending.

I have been a PR in property for many years. I head up the Place team at Active Profile and I am Chair of the Forum for the Built Environment (FBE) in Liverpool, but, even though there are a lot more women in property these days, it’s still a male-dominated environment. That said, I am glad to say that the people that I work with are not the types of men that you would expect to see at the Presidents Club dinner. They are good people who look out for their teams and support and respect us. We have a strong work ethic, as do our clients, and I am going to Cannes with the absolute knowledge that I could count on anyone of them to help us out if we were in any difficulty at all.

I'm not saying that the hedonism of old doesn't exist in Cannes, it does. Post 2am, there are prostitutes there, but they are in many cities. I am a big fan of Barcelona, I love its culture and architecture by day, but in the early hours of the morning, there is a grimy underbelly that we choose not to see or report on.

The behaviour of the men attending the Presidents Club dinner - some of whom I believe were in property - was deplorable but we need to learn from this and move forward with the understanding that we are all equal and we should be treated as such. As a company director of a Board of four women, I believe that men and women should receive equal pay and there should be no glass ceiling for women in business. I’m proud to say that the majority of people that I have worked for in my life have been women, although, in the interest of balance, I should say that my male bosses have all been equally fabulous.

In short, I am not naive, I know that there is an undesirable side to MIPIM, but I honestly think that it is starting to disappear. We have moved on a long way in 10 years and my hope is that, in another 10 years, we will have shifted further into a more equal society in property – but we all have a big part to play in that.

More and more women are taking top jobs in property now and it's really encouraging to see that increased balance. With that, I believe, comes more sense.

Rest easy Dad, I'm in good company and by more women at MIPIM instead of shying away from it, I believe we are changing our businesses and the future of conferences and events like MIPIM for the better.