BIG 2026, Bpifrance Inno Génération, will be held at the Accor Arena, Paris, on 8 October. The one-day event is the 12th edition, according to Bpifrance Création, and is organised by Bpifrance.
BIG is Bpifrance's annual gathering of French entrepreneurs and is presented by the organiser as the largest in Europe. According to Bpifrance, the event drew more than 75,000 registrants in 2025 and runs to more than 1,000 speakers and more than 500 sessions, organised along thematic paths covering artificial intelligence, deeptech, industry, climate, healthcare, international expansion and business transmission. The 2026 theme is "Culot", or nerve, introduced by Bpifrance chief executive Nicolas Dufourcq, and confirmed speakers include Accor chairman and chief executive Sébastien Bazin.
For executives, BIG is the one day in the year when the French entrepreneurial ecosystem, its financiers and the leadership of large corporates share the same building. Chief executives of major groups appear alongside founders, and the programme places investors, corporate leaders and entrepreneurs on the same stages. Investors, corporate development teams and heads of innovation attend to identify partners and targets across the thematic paths, while the international and transmission tracks draw owners weighing expansion abroad or the handover of their businesses.
The 2026 edition falls on a Thursday, and the Accor Arena hosts the whole programme in a single day, which concentrates the networking into a compressed window.
