--- type: verticale slug: vivatech-side-events title: "VivaTech Side Events" canonical_url: "https://eventsindex.org/vivatech-side-events.html" description: "The 2026 map of side events around VivaTech in Paris, 14 to 20 June: breakfasts, dinners, receptions, summits, sport meetups and parties that carry the week's relational value off the show floor." hero_tagline: "Off the show floor: the curated 2026 circuit of VivaTech week in Paris." events: - slug: vivatech-champs-elysees - slug: diana-demo-days-opening-reception - slug: next-gen-cybersecurity-techmeeting - slug: ai-climate-breakfast - slug: built-to-scale-deeptech-ctos - slug: scaling-revenue - slug: belgium-beer-night - slug: ukraine-tech-night-summit - slug: the-symposium-paris - slug: vivatech-mobility-side-event - slug: master-networking-bits-and-pretzels - slug: innovation-manager-dinner - slug: vivatech-founders-breakfast - slug: financing-deep-clean-industrial-innovation - slug: venture-client-summit-vivatech - slug: la-french-tech-in-europe - slug: junior-impact-vc-lateral - slug: one-univers-ai-energy - slug: soiree-du-nord-vin-ventures - slug: where-europe-scales - slug: climate-tech-drinks-vivatech - slug: startup-germany-night - slug: soiree-innovation-metropolitaine - slug: tech-run-talk-longevity-health - slug: vc-poker-night - slug: underdog-breakfast - slug: sustainability-exec-summit - slug: invite-only-vc-lunch-start2-ovhcloud - slug: capgemini-side-event-resilience - slug: hivenet-tii-padel-night - slug: franco-german-tech-night - slug: wind-pool-party - slug: vivatech-ecosystem-mixer - slug: no-boring-tech-talks-paris - slug: casual-vc-drinks - slug: ecai-vip-breakfast - slug: hack-the-worlds - slug: weroad-networking-event - slug: hong-kong-tech-pavilion-vivatech - slug: blockchain-web3-vivatech-side-event - slug: brazil-innovation-party - slug: tech-run-talk-community-run last_verified: "2026-06-11" language: "en" schema_version: "v6.0" --- # VivaTech Side Events > *The 2026 map of the events around VivaTech in Paris, from 14 to 20 June. Off the show floor, in the breakfasts, dinners, receptions, runs and parties, is where you get seen, where the real conversations start, and where the relationships of the year ahead are made.* VivaTech fills the halls of Porte de Versailles with more than 180,000 people, but the week's most valuable moments rarely happen on a stand. They happen at a breakfast table, in a private dining room, on a rooftop or during a morning run along the Seine. The side events are where you get seen by the people who matter, where a cold contact becomes a warm one, and where the conversations that later turn into deals, hires and partnerships actually begin. ## Where the VivaTech week actually happens This is the part of the week that no badge guarantees. The keynotes and the show floor produce visibility and announcements; the side events produce trust. Across a few days of curated dinners and open drinks, founders meet the investors who will back them, operators meet their next team, and people who only knew each other online become friends. Much of what looks, a year later, like a funding round or a career move started as a handshake at one of these gatherings. That is why the circuit matters, and why access to it has become a resource of its own. The most sought-after rooms are invitation-only or approval-based, and they fill weeks in advance. Knowing which breakfast, which dinner and which party is worth your evening is, in practice, half the value of the week. Being in the room is the point. This index maps that circuit. There are more than forty VivaTech side events, and these are the rooms you need to be in: from invitation-only VC dinners to a thousand-strong national night and a closing run along the Seine. We publish a dedicated fiche for thirty-nine of them, after resolving two duplicate listings, and every record links back to the [VivaTech parent fiche](https://eventsindex.org/events/viva-technology.html), so you can plan your week days in advance and decide where to show up. ## How the VivaTech side-event week is structured The week has a clear rhythm. The eve of the show and the first business days concentrate the investor breakfasts, sector roundtables and national receptions; the evenings fill with dinners, cocktails and parties; sport-based meetups and an open community run bracket the days. **Monday 15 and Tuesday 16 June** open the circuit before the show. Defence and dual-use deeptech start the week with NATO DIANA's demo days, followed on Tuesday by sector mornings on cybersecurity, AI and climate, deeptech team scaling and revenue, then a long run of evening receptions: Belgian, Ukrainian and corporate-VC formats, a mobility gathering and the first community drinks. **Wednesday 17 June**, the first business day, is the densest. Founder breakfasts and climate-financing roundtables give way to venture-client summits, the pan-European French Tech evening, premium invitation-only receptions, national nights and the most identified VC fixtures of the week. **Thursday 18 June** carries the inclusion breakfasts, the executive sustainability summit, corporate sessions, the bilateral Franco-German night, and the largest cluster of evening mixers, dinners and parties. **Friday 19 and Saturday 20 June** wind the week down, with a VIP AI-governance breakfast, a student hackathon, open networking, a Franco-Brazilian party, and a closing community run along the Seine. ## The circuit, category by category More than forty side events crowd the week, and they are not interchangeable. They sort into six families, and knowing which is which is how you spend a finite number of mornings and evenings well. ### The coveted VC rooms The most identified fixtures of the Paris venture scene cluster on Wednesday. [VC Poker Night](https://eventsindex.org/events/vc-poker-night.html), run by Daphni, is the single most recognised gathering of the week and is fully booked weeks before the show opens. [Where Europe Scales](https://eventsindex.org/events/where-europe-scales.html), hosted by XAnge and PSG Equity, is the invitation-only format that best captures the rise of premium evenings around the show, and [The Symposium: Paris](https://eventsindex.org/events/the-symposium-paris.html), convened by Edda with White & Case and Cathay Innovation, opens the week with a corporate-VC dinner. The informal end of the same world runs through [Casual VC Drinks](https://eventsindex.org/events/casual-vc-drinks.html) from Fund F, Racine2 and Breega, and the [Invite-Only VC Lunch](https://eventsindex.org/events/invite-only-vc-lunch-start2-ovhcloud.html) pairing accelerator Start2 Group with sovereign-cloud provider OVHcloud. ### National nights and economic diplomacy Germany's year as Country of the Year anchors this family. [Startup Germany Night](https://eventsindex.org/events/startup-germany-night.html), run under the federal BMWK programme, is the largest national gathering of the week with a stated thousand guests, and the bilateral [Franco-German Tech Night](https://eventsindex.org/events/franco-german-tech-night.html) is its diplomatic set piece. Around them, [La French Tech in Europe](https://eventsindex.org/events/la-french-tech-in-europe.html) convenes the thirty French Tech communities of the continent, [Ukraine Tech Night](https://eventsindex.org/events/ukraine-tech-night-summit.html) draws some two hundred to the Franco-Ukrainian tech axis, and the [Belgium Beer Night](https://eventsindex.org/events/belgium-beer-night.html), the Franco-Brazilian [Brazil Innovation Party](https://eventsindex.org/events/brazil-innovation-party.html) and the Greater Paris [Soiree de l'Innovation Metropolitaine](https://eventsindex.org/events/soiree-innovation-metropolitaine.html) round out the flags on show. ### Sector evenings: the verticalisation of the week The clearest pattern of 2026 is investor evenings organised by vertical rather than as generalist mixers. [Climate Tech Drinks](https://eventsindex.org/events/climate-tech-drinks-vivatech.html) brings together Lightrock, SE Ventures, Mirova and World Fund behind closed doors; [One Univers Paris: AI x Energy](https://eventsindex.org/events/one-univers-ai-energy.html) takes the AI-and-energy intersection; the [VivaTech Mobility Side Event](https://eventsindex.org/events/vivatech-mobility-side-event.html) is run by EIT Urban Mobility with Moove Lab; [Financing Deep & Clean Industrial Innovation](https://eventsindex.org/events/financing-deep-clean-industrial-innovation.html) gathers Cleantech France, Supernova and RAISE Sherpas on the clean-industrial financing gap; the [AI & Climate BreakFast](https://eventsindex.org/events/ai-climate-breakfast.html) is hosted by Norton Rose Fulbright and Bombellii Ventures; and the [Next-Gen Cybersecurity TechMeeting](https://eventsindex.org/events/next-gen-cybersecurity-techmeeting.html) runs under Choose Paris Region with the Systematic cluster. ### Founder and operator mornings A run of working breakfasts and practitioner sessions targets people building, not just funding. The [VivaTech Founders Breakfast](https://eventsindex.org/events/vivatech-founders-breakfast.html) from Cathay Innovation and Founders Future is the founders' warm-up to day one; the [Underdog Breakfast](https://eventsindex.org/events/underdog-breakfast.html), led by identity.vc with La French Tech London, Out in Tech and others, is the inclusion fixture of the week. [Built to Scale](https://eventsindex.org/events/built-to-scale-deeptech-ctos.html) (PC'UP Incubateur ESPCI and RAISE Sherpas) and [Scaling Revenue](https://eventsindex.org/events/scaling-revenue.html) (the ESSEC Leading@Scale Chair with France Digitale) are operator clinics, while the [Innovation Manager Dinner](https://eventsindex.org/events/innovation-manager-dinner.html) gathers corporate innovation leads. Two stand out for their weight: the [Venture Client Summit: VivaTech Edition](https://eventsindex.org/events/venture-client-summit-vivatech.html), France's reference slot on venture clienting at around 140 guests, and the [European Centre for AI Excellence VIP Breakfast](https://eventsindex.org/events/ecai-vip-breakfast.html), the AI-governance breakfast run jointly by the World Economic Forum and VivaTech. ### Corporate and institutional set pieces VivaTech's own [Sustainability Exec Summit](https://eventsindex.org/events/sustainability-exec-summit.html), supported by Capgemini and Salesforce, brings roughly three hundred executives together off the main stage, and Gold partner Capgemini hosts its own [side event on resilience and business value](https://eventsindex.org/events/capgemini-side-event-resilience.html). The week opens, before the show floor does, with the [NATO DIANA International Demo Days Opening Reception](https://eventsindex.org/events/diana-demo-days-opening-reception.html), the defence and dual-use deeptech note of the year. ### The social circuit: parties, sport and open rooms Not every room is gated. [Wind's Pool Party](https://eventsindex.org/events/wind-pool-party.html), from Wind Capital, is the decompression party of the week; the [Hivenet x TII Padel Night](https://eventsindex.org/events/hivenet-tii-padel-night.html) pairs sport with networking; and the [Tech Run & Talk](https://eventsindex.org/events/tech-run-talk-longevity-health.html) series from Pitch in Motion brackets the week, opening on longevity and health and closing with a [community run along the Seine](https://eventsindex.org/events/tech-run-talk-community-run.html). For open, no-agenda rooms there is the [VivaTech Ecosystem Mixer](https://eventsindex.org/events/vivatech-ecosystem-mixer.html) on a Plug and Play and Hoxton Ventures rooftop, the [Master Networking drinks](https://eventsindex.org/events/master-networking-bits-and-pretzels.html) from the Bits & Pretzels community, the candid [No Boring Tech Talks](https://eventsindex.org/events/no-boring-tech-talks-paris.html) evening from Over Ventures, the deliberately open [WeRoad networking event](https://eventsindex.org/events/weroad-networking-event.html), the [Soiree du Nord: Vin & Ventures](https://eventsindex.org/events/soiree-du-nord-vin-ventures.html), and the relaunch evening of [Lateral, formerly Junior Impact VC](https://eventsindex.org/events/junior-impact-vc-lateral.html). Students get their own marquee moment: [Hack the World(s)](https://eventsindex.org/events/hack-the-worlds.html), the World Models hackathon run by the PR[AI]RIE AI Cluster under the patronage of Yann LeCun. ## What the circuit reveals about VivaTech 2026 Two patterns stand out across the 2026 side events. The first is verticalisation: investor evenings increasingly organise by sector, with dedicated climate, mobility, cybersecurity and AI-energy formats rather than generalist mixers. The second is curation: a growing share of the most sought-after gatherings are invitation-only or approval-based, making access to the right room a resource in itself. Germany's role as Country of the Year is visible across the week, from the Startup Germany Night to the bilateral Franco-German Tech Night, both run under the German national programme. Alongside these, open formats, from horizontal networking drinks to a community run, keep part of the week accessible to newcomers. ## Why go to the VivaTech side events? The show floor gives you visibility; the side events give you everything that actually compounds afterwards. In practice, this is where: - the conversations are more intimate and more direct than anything possible on a crowded stand; - you build the network that carries the rest of your year; - you can pitch without friction, because everyone in the room came to talk business; - you meet the future key people, the next round's investors, your next hire or co-founder, before they are obvious to everyone else; - the journalists are always present, so this is where coverage and word of mouth start; - deals, hires and partnerships begin, often off the record, long before they are announced; - access is levelled, with a first-time founder and a fund partner sharing the same dinner table or the same morning run. ## How do you actually get invited? **The room is invitation-only. How do I get in?** Most gated events run on one of three mechanisms: approval-based registration, a direct invitation from the host, or a warm introduction. Start with the listing itself, since plenty of events labelled invitation-only still carry an apply button or an organiser contact. When you write, keep it to a few lines: who you are, what you build, and why this particular room is the right one for you. A specific, well-judged message beats a generic request, and asking early matters because the best rooms fill weeks before the show. **No reply, and no public listing. Now what?** Find someone who knows someone. The fastest route into a closed dinner is a warm introduction from a confirmed attendee, a portfolio founder of one of the hosting funds, or a sponsor. Look at who is organising and who is backing the evening, then ask a mutual contact to forward your name. An introduction from inside the room is worth more than any cold application. **Can I just show up at the door?** For the open formats, the mixers, the runs and the parties, often yes, and turning up is the point. For gated dinners and lunches, presenting yourself politely at the door late in the evening occasionally works when no-shows free up seats, but treat it as a long shot rather than a plan, and stay gracious if you are turned away. The people running these rooms remember who was easy to deal with, and that goodwill is what gets you the invitation next year. ## Methodology and data standards Each event record is built from primary source verification, with organiser pages, official listings and named press coverage. Where information is not publicly available, the field is left as not disclosed rather than estimated. Self-reported figures, such as attendance or capacity, are flagged as organiser-stated. Two listings from the source corpus were resolved as duplicates and are not published as separate fiches: a second Founders Future breakfast that matches the 17 June VivaTech Founders Breakfast, and a separate HEC Paris Venture Client Summit that matches the 17 June Venture Client Summit. Records carry a last-verified date and are due for review after the event, when final attendance and any last-minute changes can be confirmed.