Europe's largest technology show, 10th anniversary edition: around 180,000 participants, 15,000 startups, 4,000 investors and over 450 speakers across 60+ national pavilions, gathered at Pavilion 7 of Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from 17 to 20 June 2026, with a free public takeover of the Champs-Élysées on 14 June.
VivaTech (Viva Technology) is the largest technology event in Europe by attendance, founded in 2016 on the joint initiative of Publicis Groupe and the Les Echos-Le Parisien media group. Since the summer of 2025, Publicis has sold its stake to Maurice Levy, who now co-owns the event with Les Echos-Le Parisien. Held each June at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, it brings together global corporations, startups, investors, policymakers and the general public around technology and innovation. In ten years it has grown from 45,000 visitors at its 2016 debut to around 180,000 participants in 2025, drawn from more than 170 countries.
The 10th edition, from 17 to 20 June 2026, marks a change of scale. The show moves entirely into Pavilion 7, the largest building on the Porte de Versailles site at 70,163 square metres over three levels, giving roughly 30 percent more exhibition space. The edition introduces a new main stage called the Theater, names Germany as Country of the Year, and launches the inaugural VivaTech Bloomberg Awards. It is four events in one building: a trade exhibition, a startup competition, an investment marketplace, a high-level political stage and a public festival.
VivaTech 2026 runs across two audiences and two timeframes. The days from 17 to 19 June are reserved for professionals: chief executives, technology and information officers, investors, startup founders and institutional decision-makers. Saturday 20 June is the VivaTech Festival, open to the general public, with programming oriented toward 18 to 35 year-olds, the creator economy, career coaching and a hackathon. Ahead of the show, a free public day on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées on 14 June opens the technology week to passers-by before the trade floor takes over at Porte de Versailles.
The headline figures for 2026, as stated by the organiser, are around 180,000 participants, 15,000 startups, more than 4,000 investors, over 4,200 large organisations, more than 450 speakers, over 1,500 product demonstrations and 60+ national pavilions. The move to a single vertical building over three floors, with doubled seating capacity on the main stages, is the structural story of the anniversary edition.
The programme is organised around four central axes, each running across keynotes, panels, demonstrations and startup competitions:
Around these four axes, the broader programme also covers technological sovereignty, ethics, health and longevity, and the creative industries.
The 2026 edition is built around a set of distinct stages and structured formats, each with a different function:
A co-located highlight in 2026 is the Nvidia GTC Paris keynote by founder and chief executive Jensen Huang, which anchors the artificial-intelligence programme around AI factories, sovereign AI and robotics.
The 2026 edition lists more than 450 speakers. Confirmed names span the AI frontier, global corporates and heads of state:
The Germany Country of the Year delegation adds senior German corporate leadership to the roster. Across its history, VivaTech has hosted Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Marc Benioff, Jack Ma, Dario Amodei and, on the political side, French President Emmanuel Macron in several editions. The full 2026 line-up continues to be updated, and the organiser typically holds back a surprise speaker until close to the event.
The startup track is the structural core of VivaTech, designed to connect emerging companies with corporates and capital rather than to showcase them in isolation. More than 30 Startup Challenges run each year: open-innovation competitions sponsored by large companies seeking solutions to defined business problems, producing over 100 winning startups across the edition. For the 10th anniversary, TechCrunch has partnered with VivaTech to select the most promising companies for the VivaTech Innovation of the Year award, whose winner pitches live on stage and secures a place in the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200. With 15,000 startups present, the floor functions as a working marketplace for partnerships, pilots and funding.
New for 2026, the VivaTech Bloomberg Awards are an inaugural global technology awards programme created jointly by VivaTech and Bloomberg to recognise leadership, innovation and impact across the technology sector. The ceremony takes place on 18 June during the show, a gala that adds a recognition layer to the anniversary edition alongside the long-running startup competitions.
VivaTech operates a structured investment marketplace alongside the exhibition. More than 4,000 investors, including venture funds, family offices and corporate venturers, attend. The Investors Office Hours scheme lets founders book meeting slots with funds in advance, and the broader B2B matchmaking system supports pre-scheduled appointments through profile creation and an official event app. For investors the value is concentration: early-stage to growth-stage companies, corporate partners and co-investors in the same building over a compressed three-day window.
Germany is the 2026 Country of the Year, a designation that has become a marker of European technological sovereignty. Germany fields the largest national delegation in the show's history: an 800 square-metre stand, around 200 startups and companies, and the participation of 14 Länder and 12 governmental entities, with senior German corporate leaders among the confirmed speakers. The choice follows Japan, which held the Country of the Year title at the 2024 edition, and underlines the show's role in the wider European debate on industrial and digital strategy.
Beyond the exhibition, VivaTech functions as a stage for technology diplomacy. National pavilions, more than 60 in 2026, turn the floor into a meeting point for state-backed delegations, and the political programme regularly features European commissioners, national ministers and heads of government. The 2026 edition carries the India AI Country Partner programme and the announced presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Theater stage. The pattern is long-standing: in 2017 President Emmanuel Macron used the VivaTech keynote to announce a 10 billion euro innovation fund, and in 2018 a 900 million euro programme to invest in African startups. The Country of the Year format extends the same logic to bilateral technology relationships.
VivaTech is unusual among senior technology events in opening to the general public. The VivaTech Festival on 20 June turns the final day over to a broad audience, with programming for 18 to 35 year-olds, the creator economy, career coaching and a hackathon. Three days earlier, on 14 June, a free open-air public day on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées opens the technology week to passers-by across themed immersive spaces, before the professional show begins at Porte de Versailles. The Champs-Élysées day is documented separately in this index as a distinct side event.
VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos as a catalyst for the French and European technology scene. Its growth has been steady and steep:
The 2025 change in ownership, with Maurice Levy buying Publicis's stake to co-own the show with Les Echos-Le Parisien, sets the governance for the next decade.
This breadth, senior corporates and early-stage founders, capital and policy, professionals and the public, in a single edition, is what separates VivaTech from a conventional trade show.
VivaTech is the only European technology event that combines an exhibition, a startup competition, an investment marketplace, a high-level political stage and a public festival in one edition. Its professional days from Wednesday to Friday, followed by a public Festival on Saturday, let it reach very different audiences. No European equivalent concentrates as many exclusive global announcements over four days, and on attendance it is the largest event of the circuit, ahead of Web Summit in Lisbon and Slush in Helsinki.
Both, and the structure is built to connect them. The 30+ Startup Challenges are competitions sponsored by corporates seeking solutions to real business problems, and the Investors Office Hours connect founders with funds. In 2026, 15,000 startups participate alongside more than 4,200 large organisations.
The designation comes as European technological sovereignty has become a central issue. Germany deploys the largest national delegation in the show's history, around 200 startups and companies across an 800 square-metre stand, with 14 Länder and 12 governmental entities and senior German corporate leaders among the confirmed speakers.
It is not designed for: developers or engineers seeking hands-on technical training or code workshops, since it is not a developer conference; private-equity professionals seeking only late-stage deal flow, since the startups are mostly early-stage to growth; academic researchers presenting peer-reviewed work, since it is not an academic forum; and unaccredited journalists seeking general observation access, since press accreditation is a separate formal process.
Pavilion 7, opened in 2018, is the largest building at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, with 70,163 square metres over three levels, at 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris. It is served by metro line 12 (Porte de Versailles) and tram lines T2 and T3a. For the 10th edition, VivaTech moves entirely into this pavilion, allowing roughly 30 percent more exhibition space and a vertical layout over three floors, with the new Theater stage at the top. Concentrating the whole show in one building, rather than spreading it across several halls, is a deliberate change for the anniversary year.
VivaTech is owned equally by Groupe Les Echos-Le Parisien and Maurice Levy, who bought Publicis Groupe's stake in the summer of 2025. Maurice Levy, co-founder of the event, serves as co-president alongside Michèle Benbunan, co-president and managing director of the LVMH press division. François Bitouzet is managing director of the event. VivaTech was co-founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Les Echos-Le Parisien to act as a catalyst for the French and European technology scene, and the media-group ownership keeps it closely tied to the French business press.
Europe's largest tech show and the main arena where the continent's industrial AI strategy is negotiated in public, now an instrument of tech diplomacy as much as a trade fair.
Professional passes for the 2026 edition range from 350 EUR for a startup pass to 830 EUR for an investor pass, with a 650 EUR attendee pass and a 50 EUR student pass; the public Festival on 20 June is 20 EUR. The Super Early Bird and Early Bird phases are closed, and registration is in the Regular phase. Professional passes are bought through the official ticketing page, public Festival tickets through the dedicated Festival ticketing, and press access through a separate accreditation process.
VivaTech runs a B2B matchmaking system with profile creation and advance scheduling, supported by an official mobile app for navigation and meetings. The Investors Office Hours let founders book slots with funds before the show, the Connection Hub hosts structured appointments on site, and session replays are available afterwards. For most professional attendees, the scheduled meetings and the Startup Challenges, rather than the open exhibition floor, are the primary product.
Professional passes are bought through the official ticketing page at vivatech.com/get-your-pass, and public Festival tickets through the dedicated Festival ticketing. Press access is handled through a separate accreditation process.
The days from 17 to 19 June are reserved for professionals, while 20 June is the public Festival oriented toward 18 to 35 year-olds, the creator economy and a hackathon.
Pavilion 7 is at 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris, served by metro line 12 at Porte de Versailles and tram lines T2 and T3a. The 14 June public day is held separately on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
VivaTech anchors a dense week of independent side events across Paris: founder breakfasts, investor dinners, rooftop mixers, themed receptions and satellite summits organised around the main show. This index tracks them as a dedicated cluster, including the official free public day on the Champs-Élysées, the Hong Kong Tech Pavilion, the Blockchain and Web3 side event and others. They are listed together on the VivaTech Side Events page.
| Official website | https://vivatech.com/ |
| 2026 programme | https://vivatech.com/sessions |
| 2026 speakers | https://vivatech.com/speakers |
| Professional registration | https://vivatech.com/get-your-pass |
| Public Festival | https://festival.vivatech.com/ |
| Startup Challenges | https://vivatech.com/challenges |
| VivaTech Bloomberg Awards | https://challenges-awards.vivatech.com/ |
| Side events vertical | https://eventsindex.org/vivatech-side-events.html |