Prestigious guests, government announcements, robots, innovations in terms of transport, a Girl Power movement in the air: Here is the Look Forward Recap ‘ of the third edition of VivaTech. This year, the exhibition of new technologies and innovation took place from Thursday 24 to Saturday 26 May at Porte de Versailles in Paris. The event was a great success with 100,000 visitors, compared to 68,000 in 2017. 8,000 start-ups, compared to 6,000 the previous year. Finally, 2,000 investors, against 1,600 last year. A successful bet for this third edition of VivaTech that moved much of the Silicon Valley in Paris by offering an event that can compete with the Las Vegas CES.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Secretary of State for Digital Mounir Mahjoubi, CEO and founder of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg were distinguished guests at this event where big companies and startups were there to present their latest innovations.

Girl Power, women in tech

Special attention has been addressed to the place of women in technology, still too few in tech and at the head of startups. VivaTech wanted to make its event a springboard for young women, with 40% female speakers, a percentage much higher than most conferences dedicated to the same subject. Indeed, a good part of the show’s programming was dedicated to the question of the women’s place in the sector of new technologies and digital. The main stage of the show has hosted a dozen inspirational personalities, entrepreneurs, athletes, politicians, researchers … including Hapsatou Sy, Laurence Fischer, Celine Lazorthes and Marlene Schiappa, Secretary of State in charge of Gender Equality.

 

TECH PERSONALITIES PRESENT IN VIVATECH

After the opening speech by President Emmanuel Macron, about the reconciliation between innovation and the common good, many stars of technology have succeeded on the main stage of the show, addressing the economic, social and ethical issues of the artificial intelligence (AI), big data or robotics.

 

On the next day of his meeting with the French President, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke on Viva Tech’s “Stage One” on Thursday, May 24, after speeches of IBMs CEO (Ginni Rommety), Microsoft (Satya Nadella) and Uber (Dara Khosrowshahi, who announced to choose France for its R & D center dedicated to flying taxis).  A rare intervention for the CEO of the largest social network, a few weeks after the Cambridge Analytica case, about the misappropriation of personal data of hundreds of millions users of the social network for political purposes. Meanwhile, and in discussion with the CEO of Publicis (Maurice Levy), he announced that if Facebook has become “compliant GDPR” in Europe, the platform will extend its data protection procedures to the world.

STARTUPS WE MET DURING VIVATECH

VivaTech is mainly the meeting of startups that, without a doubt, will revolutionize the world of retail, fashion, and beauty. Here is a selection of these startups met at the show:

Clothparency, the platform made to better consume fashion. Indeed, this digital platform will help you buy your clothes in full awareness of their impact on the environment and also help you understand what is behind a ship t-shirt or jeans. How? By downloading its plugin, an extension module, on your browser and Clothparency will be responsible for telling you the human impact and environment that may have your clothing.

Innolin, the flax and cork-based eco-material, light, resistant, acoustic insulating, thermo-formable and ecological. The company responds to requests from architects, designers, and design schools to create custom-made materials.

WosomTech, a startup specialized in augmented and virtual reality, for retailers and offering solutions that simplify their daily lives and increase their sales through two products; Easybuild: an application made for real estate and building, and Bimception: an increased catalog for retail companies and brands, this product is a real communication tool to improve the customer experience and increase sales, thanks to 3D objects that the customer can place in his indoor environment.

Cleep, the social app that replaces the screenshots and simplifies the shopping experience. This free app, available exclusively on iOS and Made in France is presented as a “smart digital shopping-bag”.

Ookup, the stock market sneakers. Indeed, it is a stock market where the user can buy and sell his favorite pairs, new or used and guarantees 100% authentic. It’s an innovative and intuitive service, allowing every amateur or collector to buy or invest in a pair that is close to his heart. The small innovation of the startup is the algorithm that analyzes the supply and demand in real time and that allows creating the price of each model on the secondary market

Perfumist, the creation of an algorithm to choose well your perfume. No longer procrastinating between a multitude of odorous thanks to science and data, this is the concept developed by the startup. Based on an algorithm that involves artificial intelligence, the application helps you find the perfect perfume for you or your friends and family.

Skeerel, a startup built to simplify the purchasing experience by offering an easy and fast authentication solution without password