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From VivaTech to Pollen: Julie Ranty’s Journey of Innovation and Education

The Power of Ambition in Scaling VivaTech

Julie Ranty emphasizes the importance of ambition in scaling Viva Technology from its inception. “We were reaching for the stars right from the beginning,” she said, reflecting on the initial goal to make VivaTech a global event. This ambition attracted top-tier speakers, companies, and innovations, helping to establish VivaTech as the largest European Tech event. Starting with 40,000 attendees in 2016, Viva Technology now hosts over 150,000 participants.

Embracing AI and Internationalization

One of the crucial strategies for VivaTech’s success was making it an international event. Julie highlighted, “Tech is a very global ecosystem,” which necessitated attracting international investors and participants. She also discussed how AI is becoming a driving force in the French Tech ecosystem, thanks to initiatives like Station F and policies from French President Emmanuel Macron. This global and AI-focused approach significantly contributed to VivaTech’s rapid growth.

Transition from Event Management to Founding Pollen

After seven years of leading VivaTech, Julie decided to start her own venture. “I wanted to start my own company and go on the other side of the fence,” she explains. This transition was driven by her passion for education and helping people understand and adapt to the rapidly changing world. Pollen, her new company, focuses on providing live, cohort-based training to ensure impactful learning experiences.

Importance of Continuous Learning and Soft Skills

Julie underscores the importance of continuous learning, especially in the fast-evolving tech industry. “Skills have a very short lifespan now,” she notes, emphasizing that ongoing education is crucial. Pollen offers courses in both hard skills, like AI and sales methodologies, and essential soft skills. “Empathy, critical thinking, and creativity are crucial to differentiate yourself from machines,” she says, highlighting the increasing relevance of these skills.

Building a B2B-Focused Education Platform

Pollen’s unique approach targets companies, offering them the opportunity to distribute learning credits to their employees as a perk. This B2B model differentiates Pollen from other education platforms. As Julie explains, “we co-create trainings with our partners to match their business goals.” By focusing on the needs of both startups and large corporations, Pollen ensures that its training programs are relevant, actionable, and highly impactful.

Julie’s journey from managing a leading Tech event to founding an innovative education platform showcases her visionary leadership and commitment to continuous learning. As she continues to develop Pollen, it’s clear that her contributions to the tech and education sectors will remain significant.

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Events Startup

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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