SERVICE GUIDE · SCAILOUT TEAM
Will exhibiting at VivaTechget you in front of European customers?
Before VivaTech, Scailout starts by settling who you need to meet.
Teams weighing up VivaTech tend to arrive with the same questions.
Booth or visitor pass, how much it costs, which hall to be in.
We check one thing before any of that.
Who you are going there to meet.
VivaTech is a large tech event in Paris. Big companies and startups exhibit side by side, and it is not confined to one industry.
So there are plenty of companies you could meet.
Attending, though, does not automatically put you in front of the people you need.
For a team entering Europe for the first time, settling who to meet matters more than the participation logistics.
A 3D AI company entering Europe for the first time
The team we worked with at VivaTech 2026 was a 3D AI company.
They were not new to trade shows. They had exhibited several times, including a joint booth with a global sports brand.
Europe, though, was new.
At home they knew which brands to approach. In Paris they had to find that out from scratch.
“We had prepared booths several times, so we felt confident about that. But Europe was new, and we did not know what kind of people we would meet.”
So we started from which companies were attending, and which of those were worth talking to.
We started with 573 companies
We researched 573 companies — VivaTech exhibitors plus companies based in Paris.
From there we narrowed down who was worth contacting and found the right people.
| Stage | Record |
|---|---|
| Exhibitors and local companies researched | 573 |
| LinkedIn connection requests | 291 |
| Accepted | 59 |
| Replied | 4 |
| Meetings | 3 |
We did not contact all 573.
We started from where this team's technology would actually be needed.
Their strength was cutting the time between design and production. So alongside fashion we looked at jewellery and eyewear, where design time turns directly into cost.
Then we picked the companies and the people to contact.
Finding the right person mattered more than the company
A list of company names stalls at the point where you actually have to reach out.
Within the same company, who you contact changes the conversation.
So we found the person while selecting the company.
Those were the people the 291 LinkedIn connection requests went to.
59 accepted, 4 replied, and 3 of those turned into meetings on site.
One of the people they met had served as the Korea head of a global luxury group.
On the floor the team focused on the meetings already booked. They did not have to run the booth and look for new contacts at the same time.
Three meetings, one of which we did not take further
One of the three teams they met in Paris was a Taiwanese AI fitting startup.
The initial reason to meet was the technical overlap.
In conversation it turned out the data was applied differently, and at this stage it was not a fit. So no follow-up meeting was booked.
An AI eyewear brand went the other way, through to a second meeting.
Its founder had moved from architecture into product design, and understood the problem of cutting design time straight away.
The three meetings did not all go the same direction.
One was met again; one was closed out at the first conversation.
“We met three teams in a market we had never entered before, and it did not feel disappointing. One of them went all the way to a second meeting.”
That difference only becomes clear once you actually meet.
Some teams do fit VivaTech well
This team's technology was not tied to a single industry.
It applied to fashion, jewellery and eyewear, and Europe was new to them.
VivaTech, where companies from many industries gather in one place, suited that.
If who you need to meet is very specific, another event may fit better.
That applies when you only need buyers from one industry, or when explaining the product takes a long technical conversation.
In that case you do not have to take a booth at all.
You can attend as a visitor and book meetings separately, or look at other events running in the same period.
A show in Paris does not mean only French companies
The European markets we have run the most projects in are Spain, the Netherlands, France and Germany.
The city a show is held in is not always the market you want to reach.
If the event is in Paris but you want to meet German companies, we check first whether those companies are attending.
The venue can be Paris while the target market is Germany.
Whether VivaTech fits starts with the exhibitor list
You do not need to have settled on a show first.
The country or market you want to enter, the type of customer you want to meet, and your product material are enough.
If you already have candidate shows, we can look at those too.
We check how many companies on the exhibitor list are genuinely worth talking to.
What we take on before and after a show is set out on our exhibitions page.
That is what tells you whether VivaTech fits your team.
It's your turn
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