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Paris tech event Viva Technology scales up in 2019
Parisian technology event Viva Technology is returning to the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre on May 16-18, and will be open to the general public on the last day. A year ago, the show featured 1,000 exhibitors, a number that has risen to 1,500 this year. Nearly 100,000 visitors are expected at the exhibition centre’s Halls 1 and 2, and at the Dôme de Paris (formerly the sports arena), which will be home to European start-ups.
As usual, the event will feature plenty of conferences, with some 450 speakers, among them the CEO of Rakuten Mickey Mikitani, IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty, the founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, the CEO of Huawei Ken Hu, and the CEO of Ericsson Börje Ekholm. Also on the programme are Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Jean-Paul Agon (L’Oréal), Pierre Moscovici (the EU Commission), Sébastien Missoffe (Google) and Sy Lau (Tencent).
Once again, luxury giant LVMH will play a significant part in the event, sponsoring a section that groups together a series of innovative start-ups currently working with the group’s labels. For example, Guerlain will present a 100% audio-driven olfactory advice tool using the Google Home voice assistant, and Acqua di Parma will showcase a mirror offering personalised fragrance recommendations. Bulgari will introduce the B.zero1 automated jewellery vending machine, and Fendi an immersive experience centred on the Baguette after-sales service. Viva Technology will also be the occasion for the LVMH group and its CEO to pick the winners of the LVMH Innovation Awards competition among 30 finalists.
‘Tech for Good’ technology, which focuses on sustainable and ethical technology solutions, will feature in a cycle of conferences with start-ups like CaCommence Par Moi, Yuka, Ecosia, Lita and Black Market, and so will ‘Green Tech’, with start-ups like Watergen, Bin-e, Growberry, Agrove and Hexagro.
The show will put women entrepreneurs and influencers from the tech sector centre stage, and feature one of Europe’s largest hackathons, lasting 36 hours.
But Viva Technology’s 2019 edition is going to focus above all on Europe, home to “only 30 of the 265 unicorn start-ups identified worldwide,” said the organisers. An issue that will be “at the heart of the debate at VivaTech this year, notably via a cycle of dedicated conferences, the presence of pavilions sponsored by many EU member states, the participation of several EU Commission officials and the launch of VivaTech’s Next European Unicorn Award.”
Viva Technology’s 2018 edition recorded an explosive growth in attendance, which grew 47% and topped the symbolic 100,000-visitor mark.
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