Dr. Luc Julia is a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and connected objects. He was Chief Scientific Officer of the Renault Group, where he deployed the world's first Avatar based on LLMs in the iconic R5; Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President for Innovation at Samsung Electronics; led Siri at Apple; served as Chief Technology Officer at Hewlett Packard; and co-founded several startups in Silicon Valley. While pursuing his research at SRI International, he participated in the creation of Nuance Communications, now a world leader in speech recognition.

A Knight of the Legion of Honor, Officer of the National Order of Merit, and member of the French Academy of Technologies, he holds degrees in mathematics and computer science from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris and a PhD in computer science from the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris. He is the author of the best-selling books "Artificial Intelligence Does Not Exist" and "Generative, Not Creative AI", holds dozens of patents and is recognized as one of the 100 most influential French developers in the digital world.

A law graduate and former international lawyer, Vanina Joulin-Batejat moved to the United States in 2007. A committed entrepreneur and intercultural coach, she passionately guides French-speaking expatriates and leading international executives (Airbus, Thales, bioMérieux) toward success in America.

Driven by a genuine love of words, a significant loss in 2023 rekindled her literary calling. Her delicate writing intertwines deeply moving narratives with practical guides to encourage everyone to dare to reinvent themselves.

Founder of the French World Festival in 2026 to promote Francophone culture, she cherishes the profound love she has for her two children.

​

Pia Petersen was born in Denmark. She writes in French and English. She holds a master's degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne.

Her latest book, Dog Fiction, was published by Plon.

She has published thirteen novels, six of which were published by Actes Sud.

She has received several awards: Rotary-PEN International Prize for the French Language, 2024; Booksellers' Choice Award for the novel Paradigma, 2019; Prize for the Promotion of French Language and Literature, French Academy, 2014; Marseilles Crime Fiction Prize for the novel Iouri, 2009; Cino Del Duca Prize, Support for Literary Creation, nominated by the French Academy, 2007.

Charlotte Attry est autrice et journaliste, spécialisée dans les sujets de société et les réalités encore taboues. Avec Le Brasier (Éditions du Rocher, 2026), elle explore l’intimité d’un couple confronté à la mort de son nouveau-né. Elle a également publié plusieurs ouvrages sur les transitions de la vie des femmes : ménopause, syndrome du nid vide et crises conjugales (Bamboo Ed.). Formée aux lettres modernes et au journalisme, elle a travaillé pendant plus de dix ans pour la télévision française, tout en collaborant avec la presse et en étudiant la psychologie. Installée en Californie, elle dirige depuis 2024 l’Alliance Française de Berkeley.

Claire Stride is an expert in cognitive and affective neuroscience, attachment psychology, and neurodiversity. A former medievalist, she now helps leaders, organizations, and individuals better understand their own functioning in order to transform their decisions, relationships, and life paths. A speaker in France and internationally, she is also the author of several books on self-knowledge and relational dynamics. As a painter, she explores themes of memory, transformation, traces, and invisible legacies in her work.

Julie du Chemin est autrice, sexologue universitaire et conférencière, spécialisée dans l’épanouissement amoureux et sexuel. Fondatrice de l’Académie des Arts de l’Amour, elle a signé plus de 12 livres et audios, dont Les 12 lois universelles du bonheur amoureux et sexuel (Robert Laffont) et Épanouie par en septembre 2026 (Le Lion z’Ailé), qui invite chaque femme à réconcilier toutes les parts d’elle-même pour vivre une vie plus consciente et plus puissante. Depuis plus de quinze ans, elle accompagne des milliers de personnes, partout dans le monde. Elle a aussi créé et interprété le seule-en-scène SexyLady à Bruxelles, Paris, San Francisco et Lausanne.

Lucie Angers is a Montreal-based author and traveller who has spent the past two decades teaching languages and living between cultures. From Québec to Costa Rica and beyond, while teaching learners from around the world, she developed a more intuitive, human approach to language learning, rooted in curiosity, emotion, and real life. Inspired by her own experiences navigating unfamiliar places and languages, she created Ella Speaks French - A Bilingual Adventure, a series written as the journal of a young Seattleite discovering Montreal, friendship, and the quiet transformation that happens when another language slowly becomes part of your life.

Nirina Ralantoaritsimba est une autrice franco-malgache et docteure en littérature française et comparée, spécialiste de la littérature de voyage. Elle est aussi enseignante de langue française, littérature et écriture créative en France et ailleurs (États-Unis, Émirats Arabes Unis, Allemagne, Chine). Artiste-pédagogue, elle crée des ateliers multi-artistiques pour tous publics d'établissements scolaires, universitaires et centres culturels. Elle écrit dans différents genres : roman, essai, poésie, théâtre. Artiste transdisciplinaire, elle est aussi scénariste-réalisatrice, comédienne, chanteuse et musicienne.