Published by Neil ThompsonDestination of the month - PARIS!
As part of our Destination of the Month focus on Paris, Dw's Group Guru, Diane Thompson caught up with Chao Wang, International Business Development Manager for Viparis
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DT: Hi Chao, tell us a little bit about your role at Viparis?
CW: I’m in charge of International Corporate event Business Development at Mounira Pichori’s team. My role is to promote Paris as a destination, so before clients can come to our venues, they have to choose Paris as a destination so we work closely with Paris Convention Bureau and tourism bureau.We are then promoting our 12 major event venues throughout the greater Paris region for client events from gala dinners to tradeshows. I love people and culture and enjoy delivering memorable events.
DT: Viparis host some of the biggest events in Paris, tell us about some of the exciting projects you have been involved with or currently working on?
CW: Viparis is hosting more than 800 events with 10 million visitors per year across our 12 venues. Each location is unique and inspiring, in the heart of Paris. Viparis’s mission is to provide a unique business and networking platform that is connecting people with unique knowledge, skills and resourcesOur events are very diverse, we hosted large scientific medical congress such as the ESMO Congress ( Europe society for medical oncology) & IAC ( international Astronautical congress) Paris International Agricultural Show (one of the largest tradeshow post pandemic) Twitch CON Event, Microsoft ignite the tour & AWS conference, Ferrari Car Launching Event & Fashion shows. An interesting one was the RM Sotheby’s car auction event at our venue at Louvre museum, this was a British client bringing more than 80 vintage cars into the venue. We are also co-hosting some of the Olympic competitions such as handball, badminton and weight lifting alongside some of the Paralympic competitions too, so we have set up a special task force for this.
DT: As a leader in business tourism do you want to tell us a little bit about the 12 major event venues which Viparis operate in the Greater Paris region?
CW: We manage events from 300 up to several thousand attendees so our event venues are categorised into three different types.We have the Conference Centers ; Palais des Congrès de Paris ; Palais des Congrès d’Issy which is in the south part of Paris; Paris Convention Center; the CNIT Forest which is located in the business district of Paris and we also have the very beautiful and historical Carrousel du Louvre.We also have the Exhibition Complexes, four major trade show venues in Paris as we host a lot of trade shows. These are the Porte de Versailles Exhibition centre ; Paris Nord Villepinte and Paris Le Bourget, both of which are located near to CDG airport so very good for international trade shows, and finally the Espace Champerret which is a smaller trade show venue.Then we have the Viparis émotions venues, two places, two experiences, four ways to be transported on a jouney filled with emotion. La Cité de l'Histoire, Jam Capsule, the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild and La Serre.
DT: I love the message of Viparis Emotions! We at The Delegate Wranglers are big believers in creating memories from events, it is totally our vibe, we believe in creating a legacy from events. Do you want to explain a little bit about this?
CW: The experiential and emotional creation within events is becoming more and more important for the event industry. In order to serve our clients better, and as a leader in our industry, we are keen to bring more experiential venues to our portfolio. We are creators of emotions and developed Viparis Emotions department which is a collection of social event venues designed to extend and intensify your Viparis experience.. For example the Jam Capsule creates a 360 degree immersive experience, not only for the exhibitors but also for the local people.
DT: I’ve been reading about how your approach to social and environmental responsibility has evolved. Can you explain the ‘3 pillars’ strategy you have developed at Viparis?
CW: At a time of ecological transition, does the event industry have a role to play? The answer is obviously yes. We know that the event industry is one of the most carbon heavy so we have a lot to do regarding the CSR policy and sustainability inside our venues so we have created a campaign called Better Event 2030 – environment, heritage & heart.Our target is to reduce the carbon emissions by 50% reduction in overall carbon emissions by 2030 before reaching net zero emissions by 2050. 100% of the electricity is certified green, renewable energy and French origin on site. We are reducing food waste, and setting up a vegetarian catering service based on short circuits and local production. We have also formed a partnership with local associations to promote Diversity, Equality & Inclusion .We have also co-founded the French Event Booter to promote event related startup, 30 companies based in the Porte de Versailles Exhibition centre, and we are providing support with some very good success stories from this, with some companies now being major players in the event industry
For more info about Viparis, visit their website: https://www.viparis.com/en
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We have worked closely with Paris je t'aime tourist office and Atout France in partnership with the Paris Region Tourism Board to bring you this content
