VivaTech is the number 1 Tech & Start-up event in Europe. In June 2022, several NEOMA students and graduates had the opportunity to discover this major French forum dedicated to digital technology.

The team at Expat Facilities, a start-up currently incubated in the school’s Startup Lab, travelled to the event. Here’s an interview with Maxence, Dylan, Thibault, Jade, all four of whom are in the Global BBA at NEOMA.

Having visitors and exhibitors learn about Expat Facilities

Expat Facilities is a platform that brings together all the services that students need to go abroad (visa creation, housing searches, transport, student contact at the destination, etc.).

“At the VivaTech event, we could reach two targets: the student or parents who listened to an explanation of the concept and received a fly, and the companies that could potentially become partners,” Maxence Chalaux, co-founder of the start-up, said.

An incredible opportunity to expand the network

“The big forums have the advantage of enabling us to meet people more easily, Maxence Chalaux said. “We can pitch to them directly and we immediately see if it’s attractive, if there are possible synergies, if there is a way to develop business. People are very open. Without an opportunity like that, you have to seek out contacts by email or through LinkedIn, and it’s much more difficult to find the right contact.”

Potential partners? The students left with different contacts and scheduled meetings for connecting with partners to expand the internship and professional experience offers for students like Jobfirst or the French employment centre; partners for developing their transport service like G7; partners for expanding abroad like Business France; and of course, players in the tech sector that “will help you increase your performance.”

Everyone was there! Even the giants: Instagram, Snapchat, Apple, Doctolib, Wikipedia, LinkedIn… And even Mark Zuckerberg.

Billionaires, drones, innovations… their highlights

“The most striking thing for me was to be able to attend a talk between two billionaires: Changpeng Zhao, found of Binance, and Vitalik Buterin, from the Ethereum platform, at a conference on cryptocurrency. It’s the first time that you could listen to their point of view, other than on a YouTube interview,” Maxence said.

“I was very impressed by the number of start-ups that are focused on the environment and sustainable development. It was great to see that they are applying artificial intelligence to help the environment,” Thibault said.

“The drones were developed in an incredible way. Everything that was considered futuristic is now becoming a reality. We’re currently crossing a technological threshold. It’s what you can see at VivaTech, and that’s super interesting,” Jade said.

“I’m interested in the automotive sector, and at the forum, I could see completely automated car projects. In a few years, we won’t need to know how to drive anymore. The technological develops that we can see here are impressive,” Dylan said.