Gilles Babinet

• Digital Champion at the European Commission & Prolific Speaker & Author on Digitalization and A.I
• An entrepreneur who has changed the French digital industry
• Appointed French Digital Champion by the French minister of digital technologies

Gilles Babinet, the French entrepreneur and startup expert, has founded a number of companies in diverse fields, all concerned with digitalization and AI. He is considered a leading expert in the French digital industry.

“I claim the change of perception of digital technology in France, which I have put back in the center of the debate on competitiveness and employment.” – Gilles Babinet

Amongst the businesses he has created from scratch, Gilles includes a consultancy (Absolut), mobile music (Musiwave), co-creation (Eyeka), online marketing, (Digivonus), Music Publishing (Sawnd), and Social Music Gaming (Mxp4).

Gilles’ interest in business began at the tender age of 24 when he set up Absolut. This consultancy firm specialises in product design and marketing and is a major consultancy group in its particular area of expertise in France. From there, Gilles Babinet became involved in the entertainment mobile market, selling Absolut in 2000, in order to give his full attention to Musiwave.

Five years later and Musiwave was a leading mobile music and entertainment provider in Europe. He sold this company in 2006.

Besides starting and operating a number of businesses successfully throughout his career, the serial entrepreneur is executive Chairman of Captain Dash, a company that gives marketers a dashboard where they can visualize, evaluate, and correlate data from their own ERP as well as external data relevant to them. He was also the first Chairman of France’s first National Digital Council, a position he held in 2011 and 2012.

June 2012 saw Gilles  Babinet appointed French Digital Champion by the French minister of digital technologies at the time, Fleur Pellerin.  He worked in close collaboration with Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner overseeing digital technologies. This led to his appointment as president of the French National Digital Council.

Besides his work in the field of digital technology and all it encapsulates, Gilles is not only a speaker but a prolific author as well. In order for companies to thrive, Gilles believes change with regards to digitalization and AI is inevitable. Guy has also been a guest lecturer at Cambridge University on the future of productivity in relation to AI and digitalization.

“…changing the culture of the company is something that terrorizes everyone, even more so when you question the fundamental principles of your own culture, such as …” – Gilles Babinet

Gilles Babinet – Speaker

As a speaker, Gilles Babinet focusses on the fields of big data, AI, and blockchain, as well as the many other aspects surrounding the field of digital transformation. He is someone with many successful ventures to his name, all of which have focused on the digital space. His passion for his area of expertise shines through, as he not only talks the talk but lives it as well.

Speaking topics

• What is digital transformation?
• How and Why will digital transformation affect companies and individuals
• What are the implications of digital transformation in terms of management and organization
• How to foster disruptive innovation within an organization
• How have digital giants conquered global markets
• How well is Europe managing digitalization compared to the US and China
• The consequences of regulations and public policies when it comes to digitalization
• Digitalization in Africa (AFrica4tech)
• Education and Productivity