From Waiting for Godot to winning trust: Communications lessons from IPEM 2026

IPEM Global has long served as a useful barometer of sentiment across private markets. If there was one defining theme at this year's conference, it was realism.

The scale of the flagship Paris event keeps increasing, and this year was no different. More than 960 GPs attended, alongside 1,550 LPs, up 7% year-on-year. According to the organisers, LPs in attendance indicated plans to deploy more than $100 billion into private market funds over the next 12 months, underlining that investor appetite remains intact despite a fiercely competitive fundraising environment. Yet behind the record turnout, conversations repeatedly returned to a more difficult question: when will liquidity return?

Media coverage surrounding the event reflected this tension. The Financial Times described private equity's current predicament as a ‘Waiting for Godot’ moment, with investors still waiting for the meaningful distributions that many expected would have resumed by now. Four years after interest rates began rising, many market participants argued that financing is no longer the main constraint. Instead, the challenge lies in the gap between existing portfolio valuations and prices buyers are willing to pay today.

For communications leaders, this has important implications.

The industry has spent several years explaining a difficult fundraising and exit environment. Simply repeating that markets remain challenging is no longer enough. Investors are looking for evidence, not narratives. They want to understand how firms are creating operational value, managing portfolio challenges and positioning assets for eventual exit.

The conversations in Paris closely reflected the findings of SEC Newgate's recent Private Markets research. While 73% of LPs expect to increase their allocations to private markets, 63% of those already invested expect minimum returns of 16% or more. In other words, appetite remains strong, but expectations are rising. 

Despite the focus on exits and performance, there was also a clear sense of optimism about the long-term opportunity set. Apollo's Scott Kleinman described private capital as entering a "golden age of capital deployment", driven by enormous capital requirements across infrastructure, energy transition, AI and corporate financing. The message was clear: while the legacy portfolio story may be complicated, the forward-looking investment opportunity remains compelling.

IPEM's theme this year was "Mastering the Course". For GPs, the communications challenge is increasingly to show not just that they understand the course, but that they have a credible plan for navigating it. The firms that stand out over the next 12 months are likely to be those that acknowledge the realities of today's market while articulating a clear strategy for creating value both today and tomorrow.