The conversations will be familiar in Hall\u00a07 at\u00a0the\u00a0Porte de Versailles,\u00a0where\u00a0delegates\u00a0will gather in June.\u00a0The\u00a0productivity and revenue\u00a0impact of artificial intelligence (where results are mixed), sovereignty and ethics (disputed), sustainability (AI is an energy-suck)\u00a0and cyber-security and defense (vital and not always understood).\u00a0<\/p>\n
There will also be a familiar face cajoling and encouraging, in the background as well as on the main public stages. Maurice L\u00e9vy,\u00a0who led Publicis for thirty years\u00a0and is credited with\u00a0building the group into\u00a0a\u00a0global giant,\u00a0is the man\u00a0who put\u00a0France on the technology map. That it happened at all is\u00a0a\u00a0surprise, given the country\u2019s\u00a0testy relationship with the freewheeling chaos of Silicon Valley\u00a0and \u201cmove fast and break things\u201d attitudes.\u00a0There was once talk\u00a0of a civilizing \u201cFrench internet\u201d\u00a0to keep the barbarians at arm\u2019s length.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea\u00a0[for\u00a0VivaTech]\u00a0started a long, long time ago,\u201d L\u00e9vy tells me.\u00a0\u201cIn fact, it started at the turn of the millennium. That is when I started to think about this. We\u00a0were seeing how buoyant\u00a0the ecosystem of startups in some countries\u00a0was. And I thought that what we needed [was] to have something working like a lighthouse, in order that all the people\u00a0could\u00a0turn their eyes to Paris, to France, and say\u00a0there is room for\u00a0the\u00a0entrepreneur, there is room for ideas, and we will do something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2011,\u00a0the then-president,\u00a0Nicolas Sarkozy,\u00a0invited L\u00e9vy\u00a0to \u201cbring together\u201d some people in\u00a0the\u00a0technology\u00a0sector\u00a0and host a summit\u00a0in France\u00a0alongside that year\u2019s G8\u00a0meeting of world leaders.\u00a0This was L\u00e9vy\u2019s chance.\u00a0Six weeks later,\u00a0he had indeed\u00a0\u201cbrought together\u00a0a few people\u201d\u00a0in tech,\u00a0including\u00a0Eric Schmidt\u00a0(then\u00a0executive chair of\u00a0Google),\u00a0John Donahoe (CEO of\u00a0eBay),\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0(Facebook), Jeff Bezos\u00a0(Amazon),\u00a0Sheryl Sandberg (chief operating officer at Facebook),\u00a0Paul Jacobs (CEO\u00a0of\u00a0Qualcomm)\u00a0and Jimmy Wales\u00a0(founder\u00a0of\u00a0Wikipedia).\u00a0The leading brains in the technology world produced a report\u00a0on the battle\u00a0over internet\u00a0regulation\u00a0(the tech leaders were not keen),\u00a0which was presented to the G8 leadership, including\u00a0President\u00a0Barack Obama, the\u00a0German Chancellor,\u00a0Angela Merkel,\u00a0and\u00a0the British Prime Minister,\u00a0David Cameron.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll the people\u00a0could\u00a0turn their eyes to Paris, to France, and say\u00a0there is room for\u00a0the\u00a0entrepreneur, there is room for ideas, and we will do something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Maurice L\u00e9vy,\u00a0who led Publicis for thirty years<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The event and report were\u00a0so successful, President Obama asked L\u00e9vy\u00a0for a repeat\u00a0moment\u00a0in\u00a0America the following year.\u00a0L\u00e9vy was unsure\u2013fearing that\u00a0the\u00a0White House\u2019s\u00a0desire\u00a0for\u00a0control would cramp the\u00a0innovative\u00a0success\u00a0of 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight after the meeting, we had a short break, and Obama asked me to organize the same in the U.S.,\u201d L\u00e9vy said.\u00a0\u201cAnd I told him:\u00a0\u2018Mr.\u00a0President, you are asking me something that you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want me to do, because if we are to do it, and if I am to do it, I would like to have total freedom. And what you would like is that the head of communications\u00a0will be\u00a0leading\u00a0and this is not how it works. You will not get\u00a0the freedom\u00a0of speech if it is led by\u00a0an\u00a0institution or the government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When the President\u2019s communications team followed up\u00a0in the way he feared, he politely declined.\u00a0<\/p>\n 242<\/p>\n Publicis Groupe ranking on Fortune 500 Europe<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cThis\u00a0is\u00a0what I told President Obama\u2013it\u2019s\u00a0not going to work,\u201d he said to the communications team.\u00a0\u201cWhat you want is an agenda and\u00a0almost a\u00a0result before the meeting\u00a0has taken\u00a0place. The only way to get those people sitting around the table is to let them have total freedom to speak.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n America\u00a0may\u00a0not\u00a0have\u00a0worked\u00a0out, but the kernel of an idea\u2013a Europe-based technology conference\u2013was\u00a0planted.\u00a0It would take another four years, and a conversation about something completely different, for the seed to sprout.\u00a0Publicis was\u00a0looking for ideas to celebrate\u00a0its\u00a090th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary, and L\u00e9vy wanted to be innovative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe brought some creative people around the table,\u00a0some\u00a0event people,\u201d L\u00e9vy said.\u00a0\u201cAnd I\u00a0said,\u00a0listen, I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want the coffee table book. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want a short\u00a0film\u00a0\u2018telling the story\u2019.\u00a0I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want a celebration in black-tie at the\u00a0Op\u00e9ra de Paris. I want something original.\u00a0And one voice in the room\u00a0said: \u2018Why not, as it is our 90th anniversary and you are very much embedded in the internet world, why\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0we\u00a0find\u00a090 startups?\u2019\u00a0I\u00a0said: \u2018That\u2019s\u00a0an idea\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n VivaTech<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n A competition was launched\u00a0to find the\u00a0candidates, and 6,500 applications rolled in.\u00a0L\u00e9vy decided to invite them all, spoke to the French financial newspaper, Les\u00a0Echos,\u00a0which is owned by LVMH, and then to Bernard\u00a0Arnault, LVMH\u2019s CEO. A decision was taken to\u00a0create a tech conference in France.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe did the event without a plan, without a budget, without knowing what we will be spending,\u201d L\u00e9vy remembers, laughing. \u201cAnd the first year was a tremendous success, with close to 45,000 visitors. Everyone came.\u00a0Obviously,\u00a0I had to call a lot of people myself and\u00a0insist\u00a0that they come. And year on year we have beaten\u00a0our\u00a0record\u00a0year\u00a0and\u00a0we got the most important people\u00a0on\u00a0the internet planet and the Chinese came. It\u00a0was\u00a0a success that I had not\u00a0anticipated.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Levy says that\u00a0VivaTech\u00a0brings\u00a0together\u00a0the\u00a0entrepreneurialism and start-up culture of WebSummit and the authority of the World Economic Forum at Davos,\u00a0where global business leaders and politicians meet.\u00a0Last year, President Macron took to the stage with Jensen Huang, founder of Nvidia. Other prominent attendees\u00a0included\u00a0Joseph\u00a0Tsai,\u00a0co-founder and\u00a0chair of Alibaba,\u00a0Maya Rogers, CEO of Tetris, and Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis was something which was not even debatable, because the tech world is a world where we speak English, we don\u2019t speak any other language.\u201d<\/p>\n Maurice L\u00e9vy on why the conference is in English<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n Turning to this year\u2019s themes, Levy\u00a0sees\u00a0two\u00a0particular\u00a0highlights\u2013AI adoption and digital sovereignty. Last\u00a0year, a report from MIT revealed that only 5% of AI pilot\u00a0programs\u00a0achieve significant and positive revenue results.\u00a0\u201cWe have an issue\u2013and we should make no mistake\u2013and\u00a0it\u00a0is that\u00a0although\u00a0a lot of companies\u00a0say: \u2018Okay, we are moving into AI\u2019,\u00a0the reality\u00a0is\u00a0that they have not done a lot.\u00a0You have this report from MIT,\u00a0which shows that 95% have failed. Why?\u00a0Simply because implementing AI demands that\u00a0you transform the company,\u00a0the way it works, and you transform the people, meaning that you have to train them in a certain way.\u00a0It is necessary to rewire the people the way they\u00a0think,\u00a0they work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u00a0is\u00a0a French phrase L\u00e9vy likes, \u201cvoir plus grand\u201d,\u00a0roughly translated\u00a0as \u201clook for bigger possibilities\u201d,\u00a0or more simply, \u201cdream bigger\u201d.\u00a0He would like companies to remember the phrase\u00a0when it comes to AI transformation. Which, talking of language, brings me to another point.\u00a0VivaTech, proudly hosted\u00a0in\u00a0the capital of France, takes place\u00a0wholly in\u00a0English. I ask L\u00e9vy whether his pride had been a little bruised by such a \u201cfact of\u00a0digital\u00a0life\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had to make it in English. And there was no question about that,\u201d L\u00e9vy says. \u201cThis was something which was not even debatable, because the tech world is a world where we speak English, we don\u2019t speak any other language.\u201d Explaining\u00a0that to\u00a0the\u00a0Pr\u00e9sident\u00a0de la R\u00e9publique\u00a0<\/em>was not the easiest, one assumes,\u00a0conversation the organizers of\u00a0VivaTech\u00a0had to undertake.\u00a0But,\u00a0relax, the Saturday of the conference\u00a0this year\u00a0is\u00a0all in French. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0dedicated to the\u00a0general public, so you see families coming to\u00a0VivaTech\u00a0and all the events are in French.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Alongside\u00a0the debate\u00a0over\u00a0AI adoption,\u00a0there is the issue of regulation and digital sovereignty. \u201cGlobalization is dead,\u201d L\u00e9vy\u00a0argues, so waiting for the world\u2019s \u201crules-based order\u201d to kick in will be a forlorn one.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be almost impossible to create common\u00a0regulation,\u201d he says. \u201cThe ones who are the most inclined to do\u00a0regulation\u00a0is Europe. The problem is that by doing so, we are putting some limits to what we can do at a time where\u00a0others\u00a0are moving\u00a0very fast\u00a0on\u00a0innovation without any constraint, and they are putting more distance and\u00a0being competitive will be\u00a0more difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYes,\u00a0I believe that there will be\u00a0exaggeration\u00a0[by AI products]. I believe there will be people who will break the laws,\u00a0but I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0believe that there will be much more in that area than\u00a0there is in\u00a0real\u00a0life. You have drug dealers,\u00a0you\u00a0have\u00a0murderers, you\u00a0have\u00a0cheaters. You have lots of bad people on earth, even\u00a0in\u00a0government,\u00a0there\u00a0are bad people and\u00a0bad\u00a0government.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have, therefore, to\u00a0maybe not\u00a0go for regulation, but go fast for innovation, in order that at least in that race, there is equal weight. Today\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not equal\u00a0weight. You have huge advances in the U.S., a big advance in China, and we are\u00a0lagging behind.\u00a0So\u00a0we have to fill the gap before thinking about regulating, even if, by doing so, we have to pay the price of some exaggeration.\u00a0Otherwise,\u00a0we will be subservient and there will be such a dependency towards\u00a0either the U.S. or China that we will be second-tier, second-class countries, and lose\u00a0the chance of growing in that world of the future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Few would hazard a guess\u00a0at what\u00a0the world of\u00a0technology will look like when\u00a0VivaTech\u00a0celebrates its 20th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday. Artificial general intelligence may be with us.\u00a0Some of the present hyper-scalers may have collapsed and burned, leaving investors bereft.\u00a0Agentic AI may have, indeed, \u201csolved disease.\u201d L\u00e9vy\u00a0will\u00a0hope that whatever happens,\u00a0VivaTech\u00a0will still be going strong\u2013Europe\u2019s dog in the\u00a0fight for the technological future.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Publicis #Maurice #L\u00e9vy #reveals #plan #launch #VivaTech #Europes #biggest #tech #conference<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VivaTech\u00a0in Paris is ten years old. In 2016, 45,000 attended the first event. This year,\u00a0at least 180,000 delegates will make the trip to the French capital.\u00a0One highlight will be a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10619,54,1726,3256,5534,5645,5545,543,5546,10622,154,10621,10620,764,602,10623],"class_list":["post-8508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-barack-obama","tag-biggest","tag-conference","tag-europes","tag-france","tag-launch","tag-letter-from-london","tag-levy","tag-londonarticles","tag-maurice","tag-plan","tag-publicis","tag-publicis-groupe","tag-reveals","tag-tech","tag-vivatech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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