Now in its seventh year, Viva Technology is a grand European event, held in Paris, boasting a line-up of distinguished speakers that leaves one marveling at the prospect. The event encapsulates everything that affects society and sparks conversations that cut through the buzz, bringing listeners closer to the heart of technological transformation.
Guest: François Bitouzet, Managing Director at Viva Technology [@VivaTech]
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/fran%C3%A7ois-bitouzet-180a89/
Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast [@RedefiningCyber]
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/sean-martin
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Hosts:
Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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This Episode’s Sponsors
BlackCloak 👉 https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb
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Episode Introduction
In this high-octane episode of the Redefining Society podcast, your host, Marco Ciappelli, sets the stage for a thrilling conversation that orbits the intersection of technology and society. Accompanied by co-founder and friend, Sean Martin, Marco aims to make sense of a rapidly evolving digital world, dissect the upcoming Viva Technology event, and probe deeper into how technology has infiltrated every sphere of human existence.
Now in its seventh year, Viva Technology is a grand European event, held in Paris, boasting a line-up of distinguished speakers that leaves one marveling at the prospect. It is an exciting confluence of thought leaders, innovators, and investors, spanning multiple sectors and categories. The event encapsulates everything that affects society and sparks conversations that cut through the buzz, bringing listeners closer to the heart of technological transformation.
The star guest for this episode is Francoise Bitouzet, the Managing Director of Viva Technology, who provides an insightful overview of the event and discusses its importance in today's society. Marco, Sean, and Francoise's dynamic exchange spotlights the event's evolution, its vision, and its role in shaping societal norms through technology.
This episode is an invitation to the listeners to contemplate the technology permeating their lives. From the devices we can't live without, to the cybersecurity threats we fear, technology is more than just tools and innovations—it's an integral part of our humanity. It's a crucial invitation to reflect on this blend of technology and humanity and to consider how it shapes our day-to-day lives.
The excitement is palpable as the conversation shifts gears and dives deep into the upcoming Viva Technology event's details. The event’s themes, ranging from cybersecurity to Metaverse and communication, are discussed in-depth, setting the scene for what promises to be a thought-provoking and riveting event.
Immerse yourself in this insightful conversation, delve into the world of technology, and explore its societal implications. Be part of this journey of discovery, and don't forget to share it with your network. Remember, each share, comment, and subscription fuels this quest to understand the role of technology in reshaping society.
So, put on your headphones, sit back, and let the thoughts unfurl as you listen to the Redefining Society podcast. Are you ready to redefine society?
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Resources
Viva Technology: https://vivatechnology.com/
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To see and hear more Redefining Society stories on ITSPmagazine, visit:
https://www.itspmagazine.com/redefining-society-podcast
Watch the webcast version on-demand on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllTUoWMGGQHlGVZA575VtGr9
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Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording as errors may exist. At this time we provide it “as it is” and we hope it can be useful for our audience.
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Marco Ciappelli00:51
All right, everybody, welcome to redefining society podcast with me Marco Ciappelli. Today, I have the honor to have my my friend co founder, Sean Martin, because it brought me on, I was tempted not to I'm like, he's gonna, he's gonna ruin it for me, because he's gonna start asking things about cybersecurity. But now, this is actually a sort of a like our coverage, because we're talking about an event that is about to happen really soon in Europe, actually in Paris. So everybody should get excited about that right away. And, and it's, it's the seventh here, if I'm not wrong, that this event happened is called Viva technology. And I have seen the lineup of the speaker, it's I was like, Wow, pretty impressed. So I'm honored to have this conversation,
Sean Martin 01:46
the lineup of sessions and categories of topics. Pretty incredible as well.
Marco Ciappelli01:53
It's touching everything about society, which is what excites me the most. But, of course, it's not just me and Sean, were not going to be there this year in person. So we brought virtually with us Francoise, which is the managing director of Viva technology. And we're going to have an overview of what this event is about what to expect, and what does it mean to have this kind of event in our society nowadays. So Francoise, welcome to the show.
François Bitouzet 02:24
Thank you. And hello, everyone, and thank you for the invitation. It's a it's a great pleasure. And I have to say, it's, it's a great honor to have this discussion with you today.
Marco Ciappelli02:35
Yeah, we're honored. I wonder, Shawn, I'm gonna let you ask the first question. So you don't ask the last one. How about that. But
Sean Martin 02:41
I can guarantee that I always have one more. Yeah, but I, so seven years. Maybe if you can kind of give us a history of the event, what how was it formed? Why was it formed? I mean, it seems pretty impressive now, kind of kind of tell us about the transformation, as well, from beginning to today.
François Bitouzet 03:03
Yes, in fact, we created Viva tech in 2016. And the ID was that there was a lack of event in Europe regarding tech, digital and, and startup, because you guys in the US, you have the CES, that in Europe, we at this moment that there wasn't anything like this. And I think that there was a very important conviction, it was a moment of the digital transformation of companies debts and everything. And I would say societies. And the idea was that, on the one hand, you had corporate companies with the possibility to invest the possibility also to scale up ideas, product, and, but very, with low possibility for disruption. And on the other hand, you add startups with a lot of ideas, a lot of new innovation, but desperately they couldn't find investors, and also markets and everything. So the basic idea of tech is to bring together innovation and business. So this is why we have 1000s of startup, but also the best in class in more than 20 economic fields, but also Tech Tech either. So this is really I would say the seed of of Viva tech, and it was just a small event in 2016. And with Yeah, it had become now we are the biggest event in textured startup in in Europe. I would say that we are very specific, because we are not focused on I would say for instance, telco or cyber automotive Give that we try to bring everybody around the table because there's interesting things happening, for instance, in luxury can find a Nico, in FinTech or L stack. And so this is why we have all these textiles, and all the different stakeholders in tech and digital. And sometimes people ask me what is different between the CES and Viva Tech, I would say that we are kind of b2b ces mixed with a little bit of World Economic Forum in Davos, because we bring also together a lot of sofidel. So we have innovation, we have started, we as business, and we have a lot of conferences with great with greatest minds.
Marco Ciappelli05:47
Wow, it's impressive. And I have to say that this is the right place and glad that we choose to cover here and redefining society, because you said exactly what is at the core of not only this show, but overall the view of ITSPmagazine, which is started as cybersecurity and society, the relationship between the two. And then few years ago, we're like, we can't talk about this without putting technology in general IoT, you know, Metaverse, communication and all of that. And so I love the fact that he's embracing from different perspective, what society and, and the digital transformation really means. So let's dive in into the beautiful lineup of speakers that you have. And then we'll go more in maybe in the startup and in all of that, so some highlights for the audience that you're very excited about for who's going to be on the stage.
François Bitouzet 06:49
Yes. So this year, we have more than 400 speakers at Viva tech coming from more than 100 countries. So it's difficult to talk about everybody, but it's true that we are very, very proud of some big names today. We have just announced the fact that Elon Musk would be speaker at Viva tech. We have also not been here from Salesforce. He will be also with us, as we will talk about artificial intelligence. We have to to win a World reserve reserves. We spoke Metcalfe and Yan Luca from from Mehta. So I think we will have a lot of discussion about artificial intelligence. We also have people like Diana who is the CEO of, of LVMH hands and service back as a CEO of Verizon. A lot of people also from different fields. For instance, this year, we will have a big focus on spot and tech. And for instance, we have Mark Thompson as the sailor, so 360 degree, people coming from all over the world. Just to give you an example, this year, Korea, Republic of Korea is country of the year. So we will have li Yong and she's the Minister of startups. So very exciting. Very, very diverse. And with as many approaches and vision that we will mix and cross all together. And as usual, we will also have credit on my call every day every year it comes at at Agilent tech for for speech and also to discuss with with people and I think it's going to be very, very exciting this year.
Sean Martin 08:40
Wow. So much to so much to chew on there. I didn't even know where to where to go. I think the the the interesting, many interesting parts, but one of the interesting parts about what you just described in terms of who's speaking there, I mean, we have luxury brands and and beverage brands and retailers and technologists and and people from every walk out with Salesforce AI cloud security, or cloud, the cloud company. Technology touches everything. And clearly with all those speakers, you have a nice broad view of different organizations, different sectors coming together to use technology. Is there a common theme that they're all kind of rallying around? Or does each each one have their own their own objective in terms of what they're speaking about?
François Bitouzet 09:34
I think that this year, we will have we have a motto this year its integrity trust, because you know it's a it has been a tough year for for tech for the startup for for big tech companies. There also a lot of concern regarding artificial intelligence. What will happen is it good is it bad and so is intact we trust. We wanted to tell people that Tech and digital is good. There are many things to do. We need more talent, we need more people to get involved and to understand tech, because it's it's the future. Of course, we are not Candida, we know that there can be some issues. Everything is not. It's not it's not a pink and Ateneo for everybody. But I think that also people that will be at the attack this year, they share the same idea that we need tech, we need digital to make the world a little bit better. Of course, tech is not the answer for everything. And I think this is something that we have learned in the past in the past years. But definitely we all consider that if we want to change the way we we use, you know, the way we use the planet, what energy and everything we need to invent, we need to innovate. And tech is the best way at the same time to keep on making business and to improve things for people for society's communities and for the for the planet. So I think the common thread. If you talk about cyber, if you talk about if you put about sport as food and everything, its integrity, just
Marco Ciappelli11:26
it's funny, cuz in cybersecurity, we got zero trust. So it's nice, nice, the nice, positive touch to it now. But
François Bitouzet 11:37
the French version was
Marco Ciappelli11:41
even the name it's viva, right. I mean, that's
François Bitouzet 11:45
because it's bigger tech. And for us, it's important to celebrate tech. So when you come into the tech, of course, many things business, vision, insight, networking, but at the end of the day, there are parties, you can meet people on the sandbank, you can have a dream. There's many, many things happening in Paris, because we want it to be a celebration, it's important to celebrate the innovators.
Marco Ciappelli12:16
Shawn, you wanted an excuse to get on the airplane earlier?
Sean Martin 12:23
I was thinking of heading over this weekend. I don't know. I can picture the sun and, and having a beverage with the legs over the over the bank there. And talking to fellow Tech Tech enthusiast would be a cool way to look at that for sure.
Marco Ciappelli12:41
And that's actually where I want to go, Shawn. So it's it's it's focused on the startup? I mean, you're talking about a lot of things or have large company big speaker but the the core I'm understanding is about of course innovation, what is coming next? Is there a committee and the code of how you you look for the startup to welcome to allow them to be on the stage. If you go and reach out to them? How does it work? How does a startup become part of Viva tech?
François Bitouzet 13:17
In fact, we have, we have a community of more than I would say 70,000 startup from all over the world. And to sell exam, we organize it every year, what we call the startup pitch startup contest. So we put on the table seems for instance, cyber or climatic or femtech, for instance, for for this year. And we asked them to, to apply and to share their their their ideas, their innovation. And if it's a delivery of our expectation, we'd like them, we have also our partners for for instance, the corporate companies, they also will work with us for pitch. And so I make it allows us to have the best data from all over the world. It's a lot of work, because all year long. We identify them we get in touch and in some country, you know you say no, it's it's a it's a it's an event in in Paris about startups and business and innovation. I don't understand what is this etc. But we yeah, we managed to bring everybody in sweats and for instance, this year we have people from from Pakistan, we have people from Brazil, we have people from Ukraine, for instance, very important flowers from Japan, from Africa and we are very proud because this year for the first time we have people from Oceania, so we have New Zealand. We have also invade Canada needs to French territory and price is very important because they are so good at Bluetec that we need to have them Because I can tell you there are so many learnings to get from the experience. And of course, also some startups. I mean, we are an event. So if they want, they can also buy, a place to exhibit. But we are very, very rigorous to make sure that the level of expectation is, is rich. And so this year for instance, we will have 2400 startups exhibiting at Agra tech.
Sean Martin 15:33
That's a few minutes in the exhibit hall for sure. Seeing seeing the things and so what's the overlap? I was looking at the program as well and the the categories of topics I mean, you have AI and energy and climates features sports, I was thrilled to see cybersecurity there web three deep tech food tech, scaling up marketing, advertising, building societies and creators economy with Metaverse and gaming. Those are the categories. How do you how do you pick those? And I guess the other thing, connecting it back to the exhibit hall? Are the conversations and the presentations and the technologies, solutions that businesses and society can absorb straight away? Or do you find that there are parts of solutions, that when they work together, they deliver a bigger offering that the companies and society can benefit from?
François Bitouzet 16:35
Yeah, I think that, of course, the program is well organized between several themes for people to find their way or otherwise, it's to be but I'm not sure it's a very correct to say that, but do you think he's a kind of mess? Because society is a mess. I mean, you see what I mean?
Sean Martin 16:58
I love the honesty here. It's hard to draw lines, as soon as you draw, you want to break,
François Bitouzet 17:04
you are not living in a square and you are just cyber or just constantly with fintech. And it's very important to break to break the silos, and this is what we do. And so this is how it works. I mean, we put pop the website, this is where the event happens every year. You know, it's, it's a huge hole to tell. And I used to say, it's just a box, we put everybody inside, it's 100,000 people, and we check it, we shake it, we send it to see what what will, what will happen. So at the beginning, it was just because we weren't able to prepare anything, it was just, I would say improvisation. But now it's a way of of working. So it's how it works. But definitely we think that everything is linked together. So maybe it's a little bit, I would say it's not very high level. So to say that, but everything is linked. And so it's important to make new connection happening and what you say but society, look at for instance, we talk about cybersecurity, we talk about quantum computing, computing people who say what, what, what is the meaning to put them together. But I mean, tomorrow with quantum computing, cybersecurity will be completely upside down. Because things that are not secure, for instance, your password with 16 letters or numbers tomorrow with quantum computing it it will be completely fucked up. So we have to think everything from from the beginning. And also for instance, we talk about artificial intelligence and blockchain. So what Islam is, but now with artificial intelligence, we generate pictures, you cannot you cannot see if they are true or if they affect and so the solution tomorrow it will be blockchain because the media will be the level and it will be with a blockchain that will tell you yes. It's it's it's a real picture is true Peter, you can you can build it, you can trust it. So, so that's it. So society is, is very diverse. And it's important to be a reflection of this diversity itself. As the beginning it was a complicated improvisation, but now it's a method and I think it it works.
Marco Ciappelli19:37
It's there is a method in the cows right in the madness. There is a method. I like this because it's very much yeah, it's very much driven by passion. That's the feeling I get and I was looking through the the blogs and there is one that is called Viva on your website, Viva tech 2023 Survival Guide. You where you give some tips and you know, like we do this? Every time when we go to like RSA Conference in San Francisco where you know, 40,000 people are there, there's always like you can't possibly see and listen to every keynote. See every exhibitor Hall, if you go to Blackhat DEF CON in Las Vegas, same thing. So usually we do touch on, what are your tips that you're gonna give to someone to come there? What's the Survival Guide? What are the points, especially if somebody comes for the first time?
François Bitouzet 20:36
I think that the only advice is prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, because it's true. If you if you just arrived first morning in Vivatech. I mean, we have, as I said, to 2400 startups, 200. partners, we have 400 speakers. You know, it's like, if you are into entering a library, just saying, oh, I need a book by Yes, you see what I mean? And but I'm joking, but for me, it's my My priority is to make sure that if you come at you that tech, it takes you a lot of time, if especially if you travel, it cost a little bit of of money, if you will be attacked, run out, for instance, working for your company or chasing your clients. So we need a return on investment, and not make purity. My concern every day when I wake up, it's to make sure that everybody that will attend Viva tech will have a return on investment. So this is why we have the Survival Guide. This is why Advantech we have what we call ground somehow it supplies. It's like a beacon for people to ask, we have people who help them, we have weather, we have everything that you can, that you can imagine, just to take your hand and make sure you get the right people who will find the right investors, etc, etc. But at the end of the day, you have to make a little effort. And it's a little bit of preparation that for sure.
Marco Ciappelli22:22
Really, really good advice for sure. It's kind of like, pick, pick the one that you're really passionate because I mean, I want to know everything if I am lucky to do this job because I get to talk one time about the future of finance the future of the metaverse Virtual Reality well, so I can get. But if I was going to come there, we'll have to say, these are really the 510 things I want to do every day. Make the note. And then you know, try not to get distracted from all the blinking lights around there. But also enjoy, right talk to people.
François Bitouzet 23:01
But this is why for instance, this year, we have prepared some something new on the web app, we have what we call, we have 17 Joonas. So the people that we've attack, they are world, for instance, on the cyber or food tech, or I'll stake or fintech. And so we have we have kind of all the exhibitors, sessions, etc. And we have managed to create a journey for each of these theme that allow you to make the most of for instance, health for day in tech, including startups, companies, investors sessions, and I think it's a good way to start to discover our tech, especially for people who are just here for the first time and after you have some, some poor, they have prepared the people they want to meet, they have booked their business room, etc, etc. But first time you come you can use the journey we can ask us and we try to be as informed as possible. Because it's I mean, the satisfaction of the attendees is at the end of the day, what what we are here for.
Sean Martin 24:17
And as we wrap Francoise, I'm wondering if you can share with me some some ideas of who actually attends are they are the engineers? Are they product developers? Are they business leaders, people from cities and government entities looking for technologies to run there? We have a
François Bitouzet 24:37
lot of syllables. 60% Last year, we had 100,000 people and 60% of them were syllables. So CIO CEOs, but also CDOs CTOs. See something old at the trap and we also have We have something very specific antibiotic because it last four days. But in fact, on these three fields days are dedicated to b2b people. And the last day it's on Saturday is the ticket dedicated to General Jones and for all the people, so you have families who have kids, you have seniors, because we consider that tickets for everyone. So everyone has to have access to tech. And it's a great moment. It's very, very exciting.
Sean Martin 25:28
Very cool.
Marco Ciappelli25:29
Well, I'm excited. And if I were gonna say, if anybody needed an excuse to go to queries, I don't think you know, nobody actually means that this could be one and I think I'm really, you know, I'm really starting to make a plan for next year, it's too late this year. But listen, I want to thank you for for your time to for bringing all this passion and, you know, introducing this to our audience. Again, I'm going to just do a quick recap, the event will take place on June 14 15th 16th 17th 2023, of course, that the parties Expo for the recital, and I say to everybody, check the notes, there will be the link to the website is actually a very lively website, I have to say, is really already exciting just to look at that. It's not that the boring, you know, tech looking at you charge GTP checking you checking you out, it's very, it's very lively, very human. And as somebody that supports the integration of technology with society, it makes me happy to look at that. So thank you very much, Francois. Thank you, everybody to listen. Thank you, Shawn, for joining me in this conversation. Always. More, you always make him more alive as well. So I'm very happy for this.
François Bitouzet 26:52
Thank you, thank you for for your invitation. And Shulamit just to say one thing, in addition of the website, you have also sessions you can they are live streamed, and we have what we call the BT news. It's like TV channel for four days, 2020 20 hours a day and you can follow Viva tech. It's a great experience. So so next year, you will be with us. So let's have rendezvous next year. Okay.
Marco Ciappelli27:23
Absolutely. That's a promise. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Francois. Thank you, Shawn.
voiceover27:35
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