The Accor Arena in Paris will be, this Thursday, October 6, The place to be for all entrepreneurs and business leaders. Bpifrance is organizing the eighth edition of the BIG Inno Génération there, “the largest business gathering in Europe”, bringing together start-ups, SMEs and large companies from all sectors.
“BIG is the representation of all of French entrepreneurial diversity,” sums up Patrice Begay, executive director of Bpifrance in charge of communication. On the program, no less than 500 conferences or workshops around the major challenges of tomorrow. Nearly a thousand speakers including 150 Top speakers will take the floor.
Last year, this gathering attracted more than 62,000 visitors, for its physical return to Bercy after a remote 2020 edition. It had also enabled more than 16,000 connections. While the conferences posted online have accumulated more than 20 million views.
Niel, Tavares, Basch… the stars will be there!
BIG is organized around different spaces, which constitute as many routes adapted to the needs of each one. All the communities of entrepreneurs are represented there: from French Tech to the Coq vert dedicated to ecology, via French Lab and France Care, which brings together health players.
The event highlights various personalities from the economic, associative, sporting and artistic worlds who share their experience there. Emblematic business leaders such as Xavier Niel, founder of the Illiad telecom group, or Carlos Tavares, the general manager of the Stellantis automobile group; but also founders of successful start-ups like Nicolas Julia, head of the French unicorn Sorare, or the co-founder of Too Good To Go, Lucie Basch.
Inspiration also comes from more distant universes. This year BIG will welcome photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand, founder of the environmental foundation Good Planet, fencing champion Enzo Lefort, and stylist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, is also announced, as in previous editions. “I think he appreciates the contact with the entrepreneurial world and it’s reciprocal,” says Paul-François Fournier, also a member of the Bpifrance executive committee in charge of innovation.
Innovation as a guideline
BIG 2022 is placed under the sign of metamorphosis. “The successive crises that we experience lead us to metamorphose, more than transform ourselves. This is an opportunity that we must seize,” continues Paul-François Fournier. An echo of the health crisis but also of climate change and the arrival of Web3 (metatarsus, immersion, etc.). Although the theme was chosen long before the start of the war in Ukraine, it takes on even more meaning in the face of the current energy crisis.
This gathering is also an opportunity for the public investment bank to present the innovations it finances within the framework of France 2030. Last year, 4.4 billion euros in financing were earmarked for innovation with the aim of sustainably transforming the key sectors of the French economy. “All the major trends that we had started to put in place are now growing: in digitization, health, Green tech or even in terms of sovereignty,” says Paul-François Fournier with satisfaction.
Finally, since in “metamorphose” there is “dare”, BIG is also the place for those who wish to embark on business creation. In 2021, nearly a million companies have been created in France. “On average, 75% of businesses created are still in existence after one year. At Bpifrance, this rate rises to 90%,” emphasizes Patrice Begay.
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