A look back on Viva Technology

Viva Technology, the international event in France focusing on innovation and startups, organized by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Échos, returned to Paris last week after a successful first edition in 2016.

This year, Viva Technology brought together around 50,000 visitors, 5,000 startups, 400 speakers, 1,000 investors, 1,000 journalists, 20 open-innovation labs carried by industry leaders, 200 partners from the startup ecosystem and 100 unveiled innovations from all around the world which is pretty impressive for a 2nd edition.

While the first two days (June 15–16) of the event were reserved for professional visitors, the public at large could check out all the technology on Saturday, June 17. It was also an opportunity for families, professionals, students and entrepreneurs to try out new technologies and to apply for jobs in the sector.

Like last year, the show was divided into several parts. Main partners, such as Google, Facebook and Orange, showcased their new technologies available to test live at the show. Around 20 other major companies (BNP Paribas, Cisco, SNCF, Sanofi) sponsored “Labs” on various themes, each featuring several startups co-working on various projects.

In the “Discovery & Hall of Technology,” visitors were able to admire lots of innovations being demonstrated by creators: flying drones, self-driving cars, connected objects, 3D printing, interactive robots, virtual reality experiences and much more.

Seabubbles is a flying water car system, soon to be an app based flying water taxi in Paris

Interacting with cutting-edge robots

Like last edition robots were all over the place. Visitors had the possibility to meet and interact with cutting-edge robots such as Pepper, Dumy and Buddy.

Pepper is a social robot that could been seen and interacted with at the entrance and at several stands at the event. Pepper is able to do almost everything ; it can make an appointment, prepare your holidays, make jokes, have true conversations. This human robot is designed on the model of a 10 year old child.

Dumy is a robot teacher able to help your child to acquire basic knowledge about for instance geography, history and maths. Dumy is also able to detect intrudors in the house and could therefore be used to protect your home.

Dumy, a robot teacher able to help your child to acquire basic knowledge

Furthermore, there were LuxAI to help autistic children, the barman-robot that distributes futuristic cocktails (RealTimes Robotics) and Buddy, the social robot that connects, protects, and interacts with each member of your family.

Buddy, the social robot that connects, protects, and interacts with each member of your family.

Moving towards a different reality

VR (Virtual Reality) is becoming a mass market product and its applications are more and more widespread not only in media and entertainment (Orange, TF1, XXII) but also in HR and industry (Valeo).

At the event, visitors could experience and try out games (Orange) in virtual reality but also drive cars (Valeo), fly (Icaros), learn languages, follow classes or discover particular regions of France through cameras in drones. The possibilities with VR seem endless for almost all industries and sectors!

E-bulle, a connected chair // VR at the Orange stand

Attending inspiring conferences

Finally, six conference rooms hosted inspiring speakers with diverse profiles and backgrounds to present their vision and analyze key emerging trends, disruptive factors (Digital Transformation) and best business practices across all sectors (Consumer of the Future).

World class tech leaders and entrepreneurs attended this edition including Eric Schmidt (Alphabet), Bernard Arnault (LVMH), John Chambers (Cisco), Daniel Zhang (Alibaba), Yuanqing Yang (Lenovo) and Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook).

Like this article? Follow Newscene