What’s the essence of this year’s VivaTech?
Four days. Three full floors of France’s largest exhibition space, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. And one clear takeaway. The real protagonist this year was data.
Here are a few closing observations from Łukasz Puzder, who represented MakoLab at the event.
Start-ups were everywhere. The 2026 edition leaned heavily and more visibly than before into early-stage companies. The geographic diversity was also striking, with one entire floor devoted exclusively to French and Francophone offerings, encompassing France and beyond.
What was notably absent? A single defining theme or major announcement that dominated conversation across the space. There was no headline moment that had everyone talking. In effect, the signal, too, was diverse and pointed consistently in one direction. Data. Data quality, data governance and data independence came up everywhere, regardless of industry or region.
In numbers, for MakoLab, the four days translated into:
- 2 group meetings;
- 15 one-to-one meetings;
- 25 booths visited.
It’s that kind of density that makes VivaTech worth the trip; not so much the keynotes as the conversations they lead to.
We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to talk AI, data and enterprise integration with us in Paris. See you next year if not before!
Our participation in VivaTech 2026 took place as part of the trade mission to the event organised by the Marshal of Łódź Voivodeship’s Office as part of the ‘InterEuropa – internationalisation of business activities of enterprises from Łódź Voivodeship through participation in trade fair events and expansion into European markets’ project, which is co-financed under the European Funds for Łódź 2021–2027 programme.
Miron Niewiadomski
Communications Manager
