Dear Shaded Viewers,
For the past ten years, VivaTech has championed access to technology while establishing itself as Europe’s largest startup and technology event. Bringing together talks, exhibitions, business meetings, and demonstrations across fields such as artificial intelligence, connected objects, luxury, mobility, healthcare, culture, and sports, the festival continues to attract innovators from around the world.
From June 17 to June 20, I will be sharing my personal highlights from VivaTech—keynotes, discoveries, and conversations—as a kind of festival diary. This year, nearly 1,200 innovations are expected to be showcased, from reusable spacecraft and humanoid robot parades to AI-generated theater productions, connected contact lenses, and tech explorations.
Selected Talks from Day One:
Opening Ceremony, with Bernard Arnault
Machines that Care: Can Social Robots Redefine Human-Centered Healthcare?
Building the Road to Space, with Jeff Bezos
Brands in the Age of Algorithms: How to Build Affinity in an Artificial Space? (Special mention to Eduardo Barbaro, Chief Digital and Omnichannel Officer at Tiffany & Co)
The Making of Excellence: In Conversation with LVMH, with Olympic and World Champion Leon Marchand
The AI Creative Studio: High-Precision Tools for Next-Level Storytelling
Among today’s highlights was discovering Mirrors, an Italian company developing large-scale interactive experiences for fashion brands. One of their projects, created with Dolce & Gabbana, analyzes your image and recommends a fragrance based on a digital scan. In the following video you can discover which fragrance was selected for me.
Adobe also presented an interactive experience allowing visitors to design their own car. The company even prints a personalized keychain inspired by each participant’s creation on the spot. It was a fun experience, and seeing the output of generative AI in real time is always exciting.
To close the day, I met a Chinese film production company that has developed an AI-powered interactive film. I won’t reveal too much just yet, as I have scheduled a more in-depth meeting with them on Friday (Day Three).
The atmosphere at VivaTech is energetic. Expectations are high, and business opportunities are everywhere. I even had a coffee and a lovely conversation with Vlad Iliukhin, a business-minded Leo based in Paris who works for the Ukrainian brand Bazhane.
I’m especially looking forward to Saturday. As some of you may know, I have been invited to participate in a roundtable, proudly representing ASVOFF’s AI Film category alongside my friend Dr. Gigi Graziosi Casimiro, AI artist Naomi Finel, and film producer Marc Horgues. See you at the Purple Stage at 16:40: https://vivatech.com/sessions/session/b1474c5d-de43-f111-8ef2-6045bd954320
On Saturday, Day Four, I will introduce this year’s AI Films jury on stage. I can’t wait.
Yours digitally,
Pedro
