Big success for their first hybrid event, with inwink
“Holding this fifth edition in a hybrid format allowed us to bring together the best of both worlds: we were able to offer an in-person event enriched with a digital platform that brings together an even larger community of innovators. In-person and Online complement each other. Thanks to inwink we were able to offer attendees a unique and very innovative online experience.”
Julie Ranty, VivaTech General Manager
In just five years, VivaTech has become the biggest startup and tech event in Europe and is recognized worldwide as a powerful catalyst for business transformation, startup growth and innovation for the common good.
Every year, VivaTech brings together in Paris the world’s top business leaders, startups, investors, researchers and thinkers for a unique experience combining inspiration, networking and a showcase for innovation.
As of 2021, VivaTech has been enriched with a digital platform, to create the first ever hybrid edition of the event. The in-person event was held in Paris, with over 840 on-site exhibitors, while the innovative digital experience was held online on the inwink platform.
1) Offer a highly developed online interactivity
2) Leverage digital format to make real-life interventions accessible to a much wider audience
3) Offer an exceptional digital experience in keeping with the high-quality level of the VivaTech brand
A key point to the success of this digital edition of VivaTech was the many opportunitites for interaction between participants.
Throughout the event, participants were able to join online networking rooms held by partner companies of the event to freely exchange with other people present simultaneously in these rooms.
Thanks to the inwink matching algorithm, each participant had access to a list of other participants recommended to them. This list was sorted for each participant according to a compatibility score calculated between each pair of participants, based on common interests and needs.
This makes 1to1 networking (via chat, contact sharing, or audio or video calls- all available on the platform) relevant to each attendee.
Participants were also able to take part in speed meetings, a series of brief encounters between two participants matched at random.
These random business meetings via video conferencing add “spice” to business networking and gamify the experience.
All conferences and physical interventions were broadcasted live and accessible anywhere in the world at any time on 3 simultaneous stages.
Participants had the opportunity to react live in a chat room, moderated by the organizing teams.
This broadcasting format additionally opens the door to a possibility that simply does not exist in physical form: replay. All interventions were made available in replay for the participants who could not watch them live.
The experience of the participants was very well thought out by the organizing teams so that they would be won over during the 4-day event.
To name an example, we can mention the implementation of a Live page so that participants can find their way around the event without hesitation, or the creation of a “Surprise Me” section in the menu to lead participants to discover serendipity in accessing the immersive content of VivaTech.
VivaTech is an event that brings together thousands of participants simultaneously. It was therefore essential for the organizing team to rely on a very robust solution, ensuring that the platform would remain available at all times.
For this, inwink was able to guarantee availability and elasticity during the 4 days of the even thanks to its technical architecture hosted in the cloud.
The hybrid approach greatly broadened the scope of the event, both for participants and speakers.
In terms of participants, this edition of VivaTech brought together 140,000 visitors, including 26,000 physical visitors and 114,000 digital visitors. These participants were able to connect from 149 countries in real time.
On the speakers’ side, 400 speakers from all over the world were able to speak at this edition of VivaTech.
Last but not least, thanks to replay, the scope of the interventions is also extended in time! The content was indeed made available beyond the initial date of the event allowing it to continue to shine long after the face-to-face interventions are over.
