"VivaTech in Paris is ten years old. In 2016, 45,000 attended the first event. This year, at least 180,000 delegates will make the trip to the French capital. One highlight will be a "tech takeover" of the Champs-Élysées, where robots will walk amongst the plane trees. In a world where America and China dominate the technology debate, this is Europe's moment."
"The conversations will be familiar in Hall 7 at the Porte de Versailles, where delegates will gather in June. The productivity and revenue impact of artificial intelligence (where results are mixed), sovereignty and ethics (disputed), sustainability (AI is an energy-suck) and cyber-security and defense (vital and not always understood)."
"Maurice Lévy, who led Publicis for thirty years and is credited with building the group into a global giant, is the man who put France on the technology map. That it happened at all is a surprise, given the country's testy relationship with the freewheeling chaos of Silicon Valley and "move fast and break things" attitudes. There was once talk of a civilizing "French internet" to keep the barbarians at arm's length."
""The idea [for VivaTech] started a long, long time ago," Lév y tells me. "In fact, it started at the turn of the millennium. That is when I started to think about this. We were seeing how buoyant the ecosystem of startups in some countries was. And I thought that what we needed [was] to have something working like a lighthouse, in order that all the people could turn their eyes to Paris, to France, and say there is room for the entrepreneur, there is room for ideas, and we will do something.""
VivaTech in Paris marks its tenth year, growing from 45,000 attendees at the first event in 2016 to at least 180,000 delegates this year. A major highlight will be a “tech takeover” of the Champs-Élysées, where robots will move among the plane trees. Delegates will gather in June at Hall 7 at the Porte de Versailles to focus on artificial intelligence, including its mixed productivity and revenue impact. Discussions will also cover sovereignty and ethics, sustainability concerns tied to AI energy use, and cybersecurity and defense, described as vital but not always understood. Maurice Lévy, credited with building Publicis into a global giant, is presented as a key figure who helped place France on the technology map.
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