The 7th edition of VivaTech, the annual technology trade show bringing together industry leaders, innovators and start-ups, took place from June 14 to 17 at the Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles. For one day, we had the opportunity to explore the halls of this exceptional 2023 edition, which attracted over 150,000 visitors, making it the world’s leading innovation event of the year, ahead of the 2023 CES in Las Vegas!
Nearly 2,800 exhibitors showcased their innovations around the major tech topics of the year. Industry leaders such as Amazon, Meta, Google, and Microsoft were all present. 11,400 start-ups from 174 different countries had the opportunity to pitch their work to curious onlookers, investors and industry representatives such as Dan Schulman, current CEO of Paypal, Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, Elon Musk and Marc Benioff. But that’s not all! Numerous political figures, including French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, also took part in this year’s VivaTech trade show.
President Emmanuel Macron’s Q&A session can be found here: : A Conversation with President Emmanuel Macron.
A focus on Artificial Intelligence...
This year, the show’s traditional sessions were particularly focused on the key innovation issue of recent years: Artificial Intelligence. The controversial multi-hatted billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla and, more recently, Twitter, was on hand for an hour-long discussion session on the subject. Hosted by Maurice Levy, co-founder of the show and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Publicis Group, the session took place at the Dôme de Paris. The event not only brought the show to a fitting close, but also attracted a large number of young entrepreneurs and start-ups, making this year’s edition a resounding success!
Find out more here: A Conversation with Elon Musk
Our day at the show was particularly punctuated by the main stage sessions on artificial (and generative!) intelligence: « Reinventing business with generative AI » and « Business transformation in the age of artificial intelligence ».
These sessions are a reminder of the challenges that artificial intelligence and technological progress can bring if we don’t respect clear protocols in this constant quest for evolution. These various exchanges also highlight the importance of sustainability and GreenTech in tomorrow’s challenges: a subject discussed at length during the session « Towards a circular economy: sustainability by design », with the enriching presence of Marie Castelli, Head of Public Affairs at BackMarket.
... But also the Paris 2024 Games and sport!
An entire hall was devoted to the place of technology and innovation in the rich world of sport. This year’s theme was clear: the Paris 2024 Games, and the importance of technology – whether for information, communication, or operations – to this eagerly awaited edition from the capital of Paris! The future of sport and the representation of women in these two environments (tech and sport), were also among the themes addressed.
Several very interesting sessions took place on a stage dedicated to this space, the “Stadium”: « From the stadium to the boardroom: women leading the way stade » or « How brands can contribute to the legacy of the Paris 2024 Games: a conversation with Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour».
And let’s not forget the start-ups who showcased their innovations for use on and off the pitch! This was demonstrated by all the projects presented, using Big Data and artificial intelligence to analyze and improve match performance.
Salesforce event of the week: the exceptional presence of Marc Benioff
We couldn’t attend this event and not tell you about the one the Salesforce community had been eagerly awaiting… The exceptional presence of Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, appointed Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur at the end of 2022. Indeed, as he points out at the start of the exchange, Marc Benioff had not travelled to Paris since the start of events linked to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The twenty-minute session, moderated by Maurice Levy, his long-time friend, briefly reviewed the history of the Salesforce success story, and quickly focused on Salesforce’s initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence. The world’s number-one CRM company has its own artificial intelligence assistant on the platform: Einstein. With this AI, Salesforce had set itself the goal of bringing the power of artificial intelligence to all users in the performance of their everyday actions. Today, a new generation of Einstein has arrived, with Einstein GPT directly integrated into CRM and in direct collaboration with OpenAI.
On June 12, Marc Benioff promoted all the new developments to come in the field of generative artificial intelligence at Salesforce AI Day.
During this exchange at VivaTech, he reminded us of the importance of data anonymization on Internet and cloud-based management software like Salesforce, and emphasized the priority of data confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity. These are indeed key challenges in the light of the technological advances linked to generative artificial intelligence, which is evolving very rapidly, with new versions available every month: “These developments are in everyone’s interest, but not at the expense of trust”, he explains.
Finally, he promotes what some are calling Salesforce’s greatest innovation since its creation, the Data Cloud, an integral part of the Customer 360 platform. It will eventually enable all the platform’s data to be connected, harmonized, and exploited in real time, to enrich the user experience through Salesforce solutions such as Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Tableau, MuleSoft and others.
To find out more, click on the following link: A Conversation with Marc Benioff
It is with great pride that we salute the performance of our client Viva Technologies for this historic edition.
See you May 22-25, 2024, for the next edition of VivaTech!
Article written by Ryan Viehweger, Salesforce Developer at Cloudity.
