The network infrastructure
Viva Technology has become an unmissable event where big companies and startups meet to celebrate innovation. From June 15-17th, some 6,000 startups and 68,000 visitors joined forces in Paris for the second edition of this international event.
The organizers' ambition was to make Viva Technology one of the world's most connected events. In order to do so, they decided to onboard Cisco and Orange, a French internet service provider, to set up a one-of-a-kind infrastructure. A first for such a gigantic trade show in France.
Paris Expo, the exhibition center where VivaTech took place, is a 40,000m2 space, divided into three areas with a 30m high ceiling. To cover the entire area, nearly 230 WiFi terminals were installed, 200 more than last year, to offer a high-quality Internet connection.
This unique infrastructure, designed and deployed by Cisco and Orange, guaranteed optimal network speed and availability throughout the hall. Thus, it was easy for visitors, partners and startups to exchange data and information such as contact details and photos and to test the connected demonstrations.
All participants in the event benefited from a free broadband connection, an important service for the many international visitors (60% of the visitors were international) who thus avoided data roaming fees.
Viva Technology 2017 also boasted more than 250 conferences, 100 hackathons, 100 partner spaces and 1,000 awards. This year, a free app was specially developed to allow visitors to keep up to date.
They were able to find out about conference schedules and to manage their meeting agendas during the event. Notifications were even sent to keep them informed of upcoming keynotes. A robot developed by Recast.ai, a startup specialized in artificial intelligence and supported by Cisco, answered all questions in real time!
To find their way around the event hall, visitors could use an interactive map developed by Mapwize, a startup also supported by Cisco, that specializes in indoor localization. Its operation is facilitated by Cisco CMX localization solutions, as well as by HD WiFi. This map allowed visitors to pinpoint their positions, the perfect way to navigate the event. This facilitated movement and contact between professionals.
All data generated by this infrastructure was made available to startups and developers who participated in the Vivatech Hack, co-hosted by Microsoft, Axa and Cisco, on the theme "Reimagine the Digital Experience of Vivatech Attendees".
Viva Technology 2017 was an environment for exchanges and meetings, with 10 meeting rooms available for visitors. Many of them were equipped with a Cisco Sparkboard, a secure interactive screen with collaborative features, including high-definition video conferencing, file and screen sharing, as well as a whiteboard. Its uniqueness: No cables needed to connect it!
Contacting a colleague abroad to share discoveries, scheduling a business meeting with a client or a partner back home, attending a weekly meeting with their team... the visitor had access to fully secure external communications.
The Viva Technology adventure continues after June 17th. The Cisco CMX solution captured the flow of visitors present at the show via WiFi detection. For the following years, this data will allow organizers to optimize both the resources present in the different zones (reception, catering, etc.), but also the network infrastructure itself.
In an event dedicated to innovation, what is more natural than to illustrate the desire of the organizers to develop the event over the long term than to make the visit of each participant a unique experience that will be constantly improved upon?