iExec at France Digitale Day 2017
We report briefly about FDDAY’2017 organized by France Digitale. France Digitale is an important association organizing the startup ecosystem. Half the members are VCs and half entrepreneurs. It represents a united ecosystem speaking with one voice to authorities. This edition was a special one in the sense that France Digital was celebrating its fifth birthday.
On Monday evening, speakers, French Tech representatives and some VIPs were invited at Hotel Matignon, which is the French Prime Minister residency. We had talks from several key figures of the digital world in France, including Mounir Mahjoubi, Secretary of State in charge of Digital Affairs, Fredéric Mazzella (CEO of Blablacar), and many more. French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a global investment fund of 57 billion euros, which includes the renewal of the “PIA” (Plan d’Investissement d’Avenir) 13 billion euros. These are excellent news as the PM explicitely mentioned AI and blockchain as being hot topics for the next PIA. Expect many ambitious blockchain projects to flourish in the next couple of years in France.
The day after was organized by the France Digitale un-conference Day. The conference happened in the magic and beautiful Museum of Circus Arts. 3000 attendees gathered to listen to the talks, socialize and also party — with Synapson.
The conference had a great program mixing high profile figures giving talks about various social aspects, executives of French unicorns and some technical talks. We had the chance to share the stage with Cedric Villani (Fields medal), Thierry Petit (CEO of Showroomprivé), Pierre-Ambroise Bosse (800m World Champion), Olivier Mathiot (CEO of Priceminister), Quentin Sannie (CEO of Devialet), and so many more! You can see the full list here.
This year was the first time that the ICO phenomenon was discussed at such a level in France, with a full session happening on the main stage.
Gilles Fedak gave a keynote speech about ICO. The goal was to share our experience of running a successful ICO, but also educate people about cryptoeconomics. At this occasion, we airdroped a handful of RLC to 600 participants who registered to the RLC giveaway page.
Just before Gilles’ speech, Richard Caetano, CEO of Stratumn, explained everyone how blockchains work. Gilles’ speech about the first French company funded by ICO was followed by a debate with Nicolas Debock and Philippe Rodriguez.
Fundraising in crypto is still very new for conventional investors, especially in France. We really want to thank the France Digitale Day organizers for such a great event and give us the opportunity to share our passion for decentralized economy.
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