How to work VivaTech: the founder’s playbook
VivaTech is Europe's corporate innovation marketplace, not an investor conference - here is how founders should work its 180,000-visitor scale for enterprise pipeline.
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VivaTech is Europe’s corporate innovation marketplace wearing a startup festival’s clothes: founders who treat it as a pipeline-and-partnership event aimed at enterprise buyers do well, and founders who arrive expecting an investor conference mostly do not.
The next edition, VivaTech 2027, is listed for 16-19 June 2027 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, per Switzerland Global Enterprise’s pavilion listing (checked August 2026) – confirm on vivatechnology.com before booking, as the organiser’s own page was unavailable to us at time of writing. This guide covers what the event actually is, who it works for, and how to run the four days.
What VivaTech actually is
The published figures from the June 2025 edition: 180,000 visitors – a record for the event – from 171 nationalities, 14,000 startups and 3,600+ investors. Two observations follow. First, this is the largest startup event in Europe by headline attendance, bigger than Web Summit’s 71,386 (November 2025, published figures). Second, the investor density is thin: roughly one investor per 50 visitors, computed from published figures, against approximately one per four at Slush (13,000 attendees, 3,300 investors, November 2025). If capital is your one job, VivaTech is the wrong tool, and no amount of hustle changes the denominator.
What the headline numbers hide is who those visitors are. VivaTech grew out of the French corporate establishment – it was co-founded by Publicis and Les Échos – and its floor is organised substantially around large-company pavilions: banks, luxury groups, telecoms, energy, transport, retail. The people staffing those pavilions are innovation teams, procurement-adjacent scouts and business-unit leaders. In the Sesamers five-jobs framework (pipeline, capital, brand, intel, community), VivaTech is a pipeline and partnership event first, a brand event second, and a capital event a distant third.
Why it’s the corporate event
The distinctive asset at VivaTech is concentrated access to European enterprise buyers who are, for one week, explicitly mandated to talk to startups. A CAC 40 innovation director who ignores cold email all year staffs a stand in June. Corporate pavilions run their own startup challenges, pitch corners and open-innovation programmes, and many of the startups exhibiting are there on a corporate or national pavilion’s ticket rather than their own budget – which materially changes the cost equation if you can win one of those slots.
The honest caveat: corporate innovation interest is not the same as corporate revenue. Innovation teams are paid to meet startups; procurement is paid to say no slowly. A great VivaTech gives you warm entry points into named business units – it does not give you contracts. Score it accordingly: at day 90 you should see qualified follow-up meetings inside the corporate; at day 270 you should see a paid pilot or a dead deal you can stop chasing. The Sesamers method scores every event at both marks, precisely because corporate pipelines flatter early and disappoint late.
Formats: labs, booths and pavilions
Startups show up at VivaTech in three main ways. Smallest is the startup lab or pod format – a metre of counter, a screen, shared infrastructure – usually bought through a partner, a region or a corporate challenge. Next are standalone startup booths, and above that, space inside a national or corporate pavilion, where the pavilion’s own traffic and programming do some of the work for you. Exhibitor pricing is not published; it depends on format and channel, so the practical move is to ask for quotes early and to apply to pavilion programmes, which are routinely the cheapest route in.
Whatever the format, the exhibitor economics rule of thumb applies: floor space historically runs about 40.5% of an exhibitor’s direct spend (CEIR), so budget roughly 2.5× the stand cost once build, travel, hotels and staffing are counted. A pod that looks cheap is not the whole bill.
Pro days vs public days
VivaTech’s structure matters more than most events’: the opening days are professional days, and the final stretch – the Saturday in recent editions – opens to the general public. The 180,000 headline figure includes that public crowd. For a founder, the working event is the pro days: that is when corporate delegations, investors and press are on the floor. The public day is a brand-and-recruiting day at best; do not schedule pipeline meetings into it, and if you are staffing a booth, plan for a very different footfall – students, families, curious Parisians – and decide in advance whether that audience is worth your team’s Saturday.
Working corporate innovation teams
The pre-work is the event. Corporate pavilion line-ups are announced weeks ahead; build a target list of the fifteen corporates whose business units could actually buy from you, find the innovation leads on LinkedIn or via the event app, and request meetings before diaries fill. On the day, the qualifying question matters more than the pitch: ask who owns the budget for the problem you solve, and whether the team you are talking to can carry you to that owner. A warm conversation with a scout who cannot route you anywhere is intel, not pipeline – pleasant, but count it honestly when you compute cost per meaningful conversation.
- Book meetings with named business units, not “the innovation team” in the abstract.
- Enter corporate challenges early – winning one often includes exhibition space and executive attention.
- Bring a one-page pilot proposal, not a deck: corporates respond to a scoped ask with a price on it.
- Log every conversation the same evening; pavilion staff rotate and business cards evaporate.
Paris in June: logistics
Porte de Versailles sits on the southern edge of Paris, well served by tram and metro but a slow ride from the north and east of the city at rush hour. June is high season: hotels near the venue and in central Paris price up during the event week, so book as soon as your attendance is decided. The venue is a multi-hall fairground – closer in feel to a tradeshow than a conference campus – and crossing it at peak flow takes real time, so cluster meetings by hall. Evening side events spread across the city; the Sesamers side-event thesis (the most valuable room is outside the venue) holds in Paris as it does everywhere, and the dinners are where the corporate conversations get honest.
When VivaTech beats Web Summit and Slush – and when it doesn’t
Choose by job. If the job is enterprise pipeline in Europe – especially French and Southern European corporates – VivaTech is the strongest single week on the calendar, and neither Web Summit nor Slush concentrates buyers the same way. If the job is capital, Slush’s investor density (roughly one per four attendees, computed from published figures) makes Helsinki the better buy, and even Web Summit’s 1,857 investors (November 2025) beat VivaTech’s ratio in practice once you account for how much of VivaTech’s floor is corporate. If the job is brand at global scale, Web Summit’s press gravity is stronger; see our Web Summit playbook and the direct comparison in Web Summit vs Slush. And if you sell to consumers, VivaTech’s public day is one of the few places in Europe where a startup can put product in front of tens of thousands of civilians without buying media.
Frequently asked questions
Is VivaTech good for fundraising?
Not as a primary channel. There were 3,600+ investors at the June 2025 edition (published figures), but at roughly one investor per 50 visitors (our computation) you will spend most of your time around corporates and crowds. Investors who attend tend to schedule privately – reach them before the event or at side events, not on the floor.
Should I exhibit or just walk VivaTech?
Walk it first if you can. A badge plus a pre-booked meeting list tests whether your buyers are actually there, for a fraction of exhibiting cost. Exhibit when a pavilion or challenge subsidises the space, or when you have evidence that the corporates you target staff the event with people who can route you to budget.
What is the difference between pro days and public days?
Pro days (the opening days) are restricted to professional ticket holders – corporates, investors, press – and are when business happens. The final day opens to the general public and the character changes completely. Schedule pipeline work into pro days; treat the public day as brand exposure or a day off.
When is the next VivaTech?
VivaTech 2027 is listed for 16-19 June 2027 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles (per Switzerland Global Enterprise’s pavilion listing, checked August 2026). Confirm on vivatechnology.com before committing budget.
Keep going
This is one spoke of our events playbook. The pillar on startup events holds the full method – the five jobs, walk/exhibit/speak modes, and day-90/day-270 scoring. Pair this guide with our Web Summit playbook to see the two mega-events side by side, startup events in Paris to build a fuller French calendar, and the real cost of exhibiting before you sign for any stand. For the shortlist across the year, see events worth your badge.
