IPEM Global

IPEM Global is an annual three-day private markets conference held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. It convenes general partners and limited partners across private equity, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure, and real assets, alongside placement agents, advisors, and service providers. The organiser is IPEM (International Private Equity Market), a Paris conference producer created in 2016 by Gilles Barissat. The 2026 edition runs under the theme "Mastering the Course".

The Palais des Congrès sits at 2 Place de la Porte Maillot in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, adjacent to the Porte Maillot metro and RER C station. IPEM Global occupies three levels of the building: exhibitor halls, a main conference stage, four summit rooms, two breakout rooms, ten networking lounges, meeting pods, and a TV studio.

Four populations. General partners running private equity, venture capital, private debt, infrastructure, and real assets funds. Limited partners: pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, endowments, and family offices. Placement agents, M&A advisors, and fund lawyers. Business service providers in technology, compliance, data, and fund operations. The organiser expects 6,000 participants from 2,400 companies across 50 countries for 2026, including 1,600 LPs and 900 GP firms. No attendance figure for this event is independently audited.

Eleven vertical summits run across two content days, 9 and 10 September, in four summit rooms: VC and Growth, Sovereignty, Infrastructure, Independent Sponsors, Emerging Manager, and Value Creation on 9 September; Private Debt, Private Equity, Secondaries, Asia Pacific, and AI on 10 September. IPEM groups the 2026 content under four editorial threads: Hunting Outperformance, New Names Familiar Faces, Sovereign Status, and Rewiring the Economy.

Three summits are new against the 2025 programme: Sovereignty, Independent Sponsors, and a standalone AI Summit. The Sovereignty track reflects the 2026 emphasis on energy security, defence, and digital infrastructure, and on the European infrastructure funding gap.

An invitation-only programme on the opening day, 8 September, described by the organiser as built by allocators for allocators. It covers macro and geopolitical shifts, portfolio allocation, liquidity, and GP-LP dynamics through panels, roundtables, workshops, and research sessions. The 2026 speaker roster is not published: the organiser's LP Congress page still serves 2025 content as of 1 September 2026.

Ten names are confirmed on the official programme: Jenny Johnson (CEO, Franklin Templeton), Scott Kleinman (Co-President, Apollo Asset Management), Blair Jacobson (Co-President, Ares Management), Andrea Auerbach (Head of Global Private Investments, Cambridge Associates), Michael Block (Head of Private Capital, OMERS), Sancia Dalley (Head of Emerging Manager Program, Prudential), Karim Radwan (Head of Investments, ALTERRA), Luke Sarsfield (Chairman and CEO, Ridgepost Capital), Isabelle Scemama (Global Head, BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts), and Jonathan Sokoloff (Co-Managing Partner, Leonard Green & Partners). Trade press adds Brian Bernasek (Carlyle), Andrew Sillitoe (Apax Partners), and Armen Panossian (Oaktree). The total announced speaker count is not disclosed. Note that the organiser's own /speakers/ page currently serves an archived 2021 roster and is not a valid source for this edition.

EUR 3,400 for GPs, placement agents, M&A firms, and asset managers. EUR 3,900 for advisors and business services, a tier that also carries an invitation to an official cocktail dinner. Every pass includes the 8 September opening reception, both content days on 9 and 10 September, an IPEM account with the event database and networking tools, and preferential airfare and hotel rates. The EUR 600 early-bird discount expired on 18 June 2026, although the visitor page still displays its banner. Dedicated LP packages exist and LP admission is approved by the organiser's investor relations team, but the official site does not state that LP or press access is free.

Registration is application-based through the visitor page at ipem-market.com. Passes are nominal and non-transferable. The call for speakers closed on 30 April 2026 and the programme is published.

IPEM runs a 1:1 matchmaking programme, and every pass opens an IPEM account giving pre-event access to the LP and GP database so delegates can identify and book bilateral meetings before arriving. On site, ten networking lounges and meeting pods sit alongside the exhibition floor. A hybrid or digital attendance option is not documented on the current official pages.

Yes. The organiser expects more than 400 exhibitors for 2026 and sells exhibition space alongside the main floor. Booth rates are not published; the exhibitor offer runs through direct contact with IPEM.

Sponsorship is organised at summit level rather than in a single tier structure. Named 2026 sponsors include PitchBook, New York Life Investment Management, Thrive Alternatives, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher on Private Equity; Barings, LSEG, S&P Global, DLA Piper, KBRA, 9fin, Aether, and Njord Partners on Private Debt; Coller Capital, Dechert, and Federated Hermes on Secondaries; One Peak and White & Case on AI; Tikehau, Eurazeo, Edmond de Rothschild, Accuracy, Control Risks, and EthiFinance on Sovereignty; and NASDAQ, SAP, EY-Parthenon, Marsh, and Singulier on Value Creation. Hogan Lovells and Cadwalader sponsor the opening reception at the Hôtel de Ville.

IPEM runs five events across the 2026-2027 cycle: IPEM Global in Paris (8-10 September 2026), IPEM Asia in Hong Kong (November 2026), IPEM Future in Dubai (3-4 November 2026), IPEM Wealth in Cannes (2-4 February 2027), and P&I x IPEM Private Markets in Chicago (April 2027), co-branded with Pensions and Investments. IPEM Global is the Paris flagship covering institutional private markets across all asset classes; IPEM Wealth addresses the wealth management channel instead. Between editions the organiser publishes IPEM Community, an editorial platform with a weekly newsletter.

The 2025 edition ran 24-26 September at the same venue under the theme "Winning the Long Game" and drew more than 6,000 delegates, an organiser figure. For 2026 the event moved forward to early September, added three summits, and raised its stated LP target to 1,600 against roughly 1,300 the previous year, which points to the organiser pushing the allocator base rather than holding it.

Retail investors and high-net-worth individuals without an institutional mandate: the access model is built around institutional LP-GP relationships. Early-stage founders seeking angel or seed capital: the managers present deploy at growth, buyout, infrastructure, or credit scale. Public markets professionals with no allocation to private assets. Consumer brands and start-ups seeking product exposure, since the exhibition is not an end-market trade show. Journalists after general business news rather than professional access.