Mission launch in California between Los Angeles et San Francisco

A variety of meetings with major accounts and start-ups

Provence Promotion, the economic attraction agency of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metro area in the south of France, has just launched a prospecting and influence mission in North America. In partnership with Business France and Euroméditerranée, arrangements have been made for the agency to visit the headquarters of digital giants currently preparing to invest in France and to make film and media producers aware of the future development of Provence Studios and the Belle de Mai Media Center.

This mission is also an opportunity to present the potential of Aix-Marseille-Provence as a testing ground for innovation for disruptors from Provencal to California through the Massilia Mundi network, who will gather in Los Angeles as part of an event put on by Provence Promotion. Throughout the meetings, Provence Promotion will promote partnership opportunities in Provence within its technology ecosystem (gas pedals, fablabs, manufacturers, etc.).

The mission is taking place in Los Angeles and San Francisco between October 24th to 28th to follow up on projects under discussion with major accounts and to contact new startups and entrepreneurs.

In the South of France, several sites and facilities are dedicated to hosting innovators with the support of French manufacturers and local authorities.

This offer is one of the spearheads of Provence Promotion's efforts to attract disruptors, start-ups focused on breakthrough innovation, and more efficient products or services meeting the needs of new and emerging markets.

Aix-Marseille, a territory for innovative collaboration

Provence Promotion is starting its mission in San Francisco by focusing on the Smart City by highlighting the region's expertise in the fields of digital technology, energy, supply chain and transportation.

Three major sites are hosting the industrial pilots in Aix-Marseille:

• Euroméditerranée in Marseille. As part of one of the largest urban renewal projects in Europe, Euroméditerranée encourages innovative and sustainable applications in the heart of the city, such as the Thassalia seawater plant, which uses marine geothermal energy to heat and cool buildings.

• Piicto in Fos-sur-Mer. The CabanTonkin industrial and innovation platform located at the Port of Marseille-Fos is a space dedicated to industrial innovation and circular ecology. Several demonstrators, such as Jupiter 1000, are being developed there to implement new energy solutions.
   
• thecamp in Aix-en-Provence. This emblematic open innovation site faces the famous Sainte-Victoire Mountain, where individuals, local authorities, companies and associations are helping to change the world to make it more human and sustainable. Teams unite around innovative projects to bring out the responsible nuggets of tomorrow.

An event at Plug and Play in Silicon Valley

As part of Aix-Marseille's economic influence program, American innovators are helping develop Provence's business image abroad. Provence Promotion is organizing an event on October 25th with Plug and Play, the largest start-up incubator and accelerator in the United States, with numerous locations around the world.

The event will be opened by Saeed Amidi, who founded Plug and Play in 2006 and is also one of the founding fathers of venture capital. Roughly eighty registered innovators will attend and be able to draw inspiration from examples of projects supported by CMA CGM and EDF, which are both developing cutting edge technology in Provence.

The Californian start-up Bovlabs, one of the world's top three micro-grid companies, will explain the success of its Solar Camp demonstrator at the Aix-TGV station, a full-scale test to prove its technology in Europe.

Accelerator structures in Aix-Marseille welcome cohorts of leaders several times a year who benefit from a wide range of expertise in artificial intelligence and big data. ZEBOX accelerator will speak during the conference and present its strategy for innovations in the port, transport, and supply chain sectors.

It will also be an opportunity to discover the SmartPort initiative undertaken by several local players, including the Port of Marseille Fos, local authorities, the University of Aix-Marseille, and industrial companies (CMA CGM, EDF, Veolia, Interxion, etc.).

Aix-Marseille is a European showcase for American innovators

Aix-Marseille's position as the crossroads of Europe is attractive to companies, particularly foreign ones, that wish to address European and African markets. France offers several advantages, such as the Research Tax Credit for the development of scientific and technological research. In the cleantech fields (agritech, fintech and medtech), Aix-Marseille is attracting a growing number of funds and investments supported by BPI France, the French public investment bank.

Another highlight which will allow Provence Promotion to spread the messages of Aix-Marseille’s potential further, will be the meeting with the ambassadors of the Massilia Mundi network in Los Angeles on October 27th. Entrepreneurs and managers of Marseille origin currently working in Los Angeles will be brought together to help promote Provence as an economic destination to their business contacts.

Finally, it is also in Los Angeles that Provence Promotion, in partnership with Business France, plans to make several contacts with companies in creative industries, as Aix-Marseille has several assets: talent, filming locations, and infrastructure, coupled with one of the most developed internet connectivity hubs in the world (7th place in the world with 15 undersea cables and state-of-the-art datacenters).