Overview
VivaTech (Viva Technology) is Europe’s largest startup and technology conference, held annually in Paris at the Parc des Expositions de la Porte de Versailles. Co-founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe (the global advertising conglomerate) and Groupe Les Echos (France’s leading business newspaper, owned by LVMH), VivaTech has grown from a French startup showcase into an international technology convening with 150,000+ attendees, 2,000+ exhibiting companies, and global media reach. Its timing — typically in late May, immediately following the Choose France Summit at Versailles — creates a powerful one-two punch of investment commitment and ecosystem visibility that France has no equivalent for in Europe.
VivaTech is a private commercial event, not a government institution. However, its relationship with France 2030 is close and mutually reinforcing: France 2030’s investment in the French tech ecosystem gives VivaTech world-class content — French AI companies, quantum startups, cleantech unicorns — that makes the event globally relevant. In turn, VivaTech’s international visibility amplifies France 2030’s message, reaches investor and corporate audiences that government channels cannot access, and creates commercial opportunities for France 2030 beneficiaries.
France 2030 Role & Responsibilities
France 2030 Showcase Platform: Each VivaTech edition features prominent showcasing of France 2030 beneficiaries — French Tech 120 companies, competition winners, sector hubs. The French government and Bpifrance typically organize dedicated pavilions within VivaTech that present France 2030’s achievements and opportunities to the international audience. Recent editions have featured prominent showcasing of Mistral AI, Pasqal, Verkor, and other France 2030 deep tech champions.
Presidential Keynotes: President Macron has delivered keynote addresses at multiple VivaTech editions, using the conference’s international platform to articulate France’s AI and industrial technology vision, announce France 2030 milestones, and directly address the global tech investor community. These keynotes — streamed globally and covered by international tech media — are France 2030’s most effective direct communication to the global tech ecosystem.
Startup Competition (VivaTech Challenges): VivaTech hosts startup competitions across technology domains where France 2030 investments are concentrated. Winners receive visibility, corporate partnership opportunities, and access to investors — complementing and amplifying the France 2030 ecosystem.
Corporate-Startup Matching: VivaTech’s core commercial proposition is matching large corporations with startups for partnership, piloting, and investment. France 2030 beneficiary startups participate as exhibitors and pitch teams, using VivaTech to secure the corporate customers and pilots that transform funded R&D into commercial revenue.
International Investor Access: VivaTech attracts institutional investors, corporate venture arms, and family offices from across Europe, North America, and Asia. For France 2030 companies seeking their first international investors — or scaling up from French seed rounds to global Series A and B — VivaTech provides concentrated access to this investor community in a way that individual roadshows cannot replicate.
Key Statistics and Scale
Attendance: 150,000+ attendees in peak years, from 150+ countries.
Exhibitors: 2,000+ startups and companies exhibiting.
International Reach: 30% international attendee share; keynote streaming reaches millions.
Media Coverage: Global business media (Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, TechCrunch) have dedicated VivaTech coverage teams.
French Government Presence: Typically 5-10 government ministers participate in VivaTech programming, including Macron’s keynote.
Leadership & Key Personnel
Maëlle Gavet, CEO of Publicis Commerce (VivaTech Organizer): VivaTech is organized by the Publicis-Les Echos joint venture. Various Publicis executives have taken the organizational lead over different years.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal (Board Member): As an LVMH/Les Echos shareholder representative, Hieronimus provides corporate strategy input into VivaTech’s format and content.
Strategic Importance
VivaTech’s contribution to France 2030 is primarily reputational and ecosystem-building. It provides France’s technology and industrial investments with a global stage that government-organized events cannot replicate — because VivaTech’s commercial editorial independence from government makes it more credible to global investors and media than a purely government-organized showcase would be. When Bloomberg or the Financial Times writes about French tech during VivaTech week, they are covering a commercial tech conference, not a government press conference — giving coverage a credibility that government communications lack.
The competitive comparison is instructive: no other European country has an equivalent event. Germany’s CeBIT conference collapsed; London’s Tech Week is fragmented; Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress is sector-specific. VivaTech is France’s unique competitive advantage in the attention economy of global tech investment — an event where the combination of presidential presence, world-class French tech showcasing, and international corporate/investor attendance creates a moment of concentrated visibility that compounds year over year into durable France brand equity in the global tech ecosystem.