{"id":9872,"date":"2013-02-27T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T08:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=9872"},"modified":"2013-02-27T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T08:29:07","slug":"the-mobile-world-congress-french-pavillion-shows-the-world-what-france-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2013\/02\/the-mobile-world-congress-french-pavillion-shows-the-world-what-france-can-do\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mobile World Congress French Pavillion shows the world what France can do in Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MWCSmack dab in the middle of the monstrous Mobile World Congress’ Hall 5, sits France’s French Pavillion. As with other big, developed markets, Ubifrance (for the 7th consecutive year) works to put some of France’s most interesting mobile companies on display and organizes business meetings for them with potential partners in other markets. \u00a0Many of these are startups and PMEs, so this offers them a great opportunity to expand their visibility with an international audience.<\/p>\n

Of course none of this is free, costing from 2.7k\u20ac for startups to 3.6k\u20ac or 6.4k\u20ac (post-subsidy of course) for more established firms. \u00a0But, with the sheer volume of people who go through MWC each year (67k by last count and probably more this year with the colassal new venue) it’s probably not a bad deal. As mentioned in our\u00a0MWC article<\/a>\u00a0on Monday, there were approximately 130 companies participating this year (either with or without a dedicated booth), making France the country with the biggest national pavilion. \u00a0Here’s\u00a0the list<\/a>\u00a0again from Ubifrance with all the companies participating there. Some of these we’ve written about and, as such, are well known Rude Baguette readers, including\u00a0Adictiz<\/a>,\u00a0Bulkypix<\/a>,\u00a0DXO Labs<\/a>,\u00a0Recommerce Solutions<\/a>, and\u00a0Appsfire<\/a>. \u00a0However as MWC proves each year, there are many more great French startups and PMEs to discover.<\/p>\n

A few insights from my first stroll through the French Pavillion:<\/p>\n

Who says the French can’t pitch?<\/h2>\n

As there are so many companies to talk to at MWC and there’s never enough time, I didn’t really have very much time to speak to as many companies as I would have liked since arriving. \u00a0Only having about 30 mins today to meet, chat, get a demo from and ‘interview’ 4 companies in this time, I was impressed that they were able to pitch me their business in such a clear and succinct way. Although conventional wisdom is that French entrepreneurs tend to struggle with this, I’m willing to bet that all the emphasis in France on this issue in recent years has moved the needle on this. Of course I only got the chance to see a handful today, so we’ll see what the next two days bring.<\/p>\n

Security, healthcare, and connected city solutions on the rise<\/h2>\n

Although this is not at all a scientifically based analysis, there do seem to be more of these types of products and services on offer. \u00a0From\u00a0parentsaround.com<\/a>\u00a0who \u00a0that help parents secure their children’s use of devices\u00a0to\u00a0neosesame<\/a>\u00a0who offer a backend-as-a-service solution for e-health and well-being as well as digital homes and smart cities to\u00a0Withings<\/a>\u00a0who make health \/ well-being devices and apps, French companies are definitely delivering some interesting innovation in these areas.<\/p>\n

Yes there’s stuff going on outside of the Paris Region<\/h2>\n

\"photo<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’ve covered many startups outside of the Paris region, including\u00a0BIME<\/a>,\u00a0Clevercloud<\/a>,\u00a0Appcooker<\/a>,\u00a0Storific<\/a>, as well as\u00a0100 startup strong incubator Euratechnologie<\/a>s. \u00a0However, we always want to discover and cover more. \u00a0By adding a regional element to the exhibition, it helps to highlight companies that may otherwise get lost in the shuffle. \u00a0Sure the good chuck of France’s tech and startup activity is in Ile-de-France, but it doesn’t mean that there’s not some real gems to be discovered in ‘la province’.<\/p>\n

A good guide makes a world of difference\u00a0\"MWC<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of may favorite little tools was the French Pavillion guide, which is also integrated within the MWC app (even better), and has a very nice succinct description about each company. \u00a0This may seem elementary, but when you’re short on time, which we media folk often are, and trying to sift through which 100+ companies to talk to, this is a BIG help. It’s also a great source to take away and reference when you want info on a particular company. \u00a0As much as France can replicate this type of thing for all international events it participates in, the better.<\/p>\n

Maybe a bit more ‘flash’ next year?<\/h2>\n

When going through the halls of the Congress, there are so many companies, booths and people, that eventually you kind of start to daze over. \u00a0So, it’s always helpful to have a booth or demo area that breaks you out your slumber. \u00a0While the French Pavillion certainly had no shortage of high quality companies, we all know that marketing and promotion are integral to getting your brand, product or service noticed. So maybe they might want to consider adding a bit more French flair and swag next year. \u00a0French music – Gainsbourg, Claude Fran\u00e7ois? \u00a0Champagne – ok a bit too much during the times of austerity…Petit Chablis? \u00a0Petits fours? \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We’re always saying that even with it’s myriad of business development agencies, France needs to do a better job of promoting around the world \u00a0the great innovation and tech businesses that France has to offer. \u00a0Conferences obviously are just once piece of this effort, but what I saw at this year’s MWC was a solid effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smack dab in the middle of the monstrous Mobile World Congress’ Hall 5, sits France’s French Pavillion. As with other big, developed markets, Ubifrance (for the 7th consecutive year) works to put some of France’s most interesting mobile companies on display and organizes business meetings for them with potential partners in other markets. \u00a0Many of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":64798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10564],"tags":[4315,3374,1250,3146,1014],"class_list":["post-9872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech-2","tag-adictiz","tag-appsfire","tag-mobile-2","tag-mobile-world-congress","tag-withings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}