La French Touch Conference [1] [2] is an itinerant business event for entrepreneurs, investors, corporates, and members of the creative industries. It aims to promote French entrepreneurship abroad, [3] [4] and was founded in 2014 by French entrepreneurs Gaël Duval & Cédric Giorgi. [5] [6] A total of seven editions were organized in Paris, [5] San Francisco, [7] and New York City. [8] [9] Some of the past speakers hosted at the events include Yann LeCun, [10] Eric Hippeau, [10] Rachel Haot, [11] Alexandre Mars, [10] the writer Harlan Coben, [12] [13] the French designer Ora-Ito [14] [15] and the pastry chef Dominique Ansel. [16]
La French Touch Conference has been supported by the French government and the city of New York during its previous events, having hosted:
In June 2016, La French Touch Conference launched a start-up competition which took place aboard an airplane, called "Pitch in the Plane". [19] [20] Two editions have been organized on Paris-New York commercial flights. The start-ups SkyLights and Mapwize won the competitions in 2016 [21] and 2017 [22] respectively. Among the jury members: VentureBeat European Correspondent Chris O’Brien, [19] Géraldine Le Meur, [23] Olivier Mathiot [24] [25] and Paul-François Fournier [24]