In the hall of the Maison de la radio, in the heart of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, Christian slips between groups of spectators to collect his entry ticket for the auditorium. On this Wednesday, October 18, this Parisian came to attend the major conference organized by L’Express to mark the magazine’s 70th anniversary. “I have been a subscriber since 1989, and before that, my father himself had been a subscriber since 1970. It’s a special event, it’s important for me to be there,” confides this loyal reader, delighted to discover, at the same time, the faces of certain journalists in the editorial office. The theme of the conference – “It was good yesterday, it will be better tomorrow” – as well as the high-flying casting, with guests such as Professor Francis Fukuyama, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, exclusive videos of the founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, or even the CEO of Vinci Xavier Huillard, have whetted the curiosity of the sixty-year-old. “It’s a unique opportunity to experience live the debates on the themes regularly covered by the magazine, on artificial intelligence, Europe or health,” he rejoices before going to his seat.
A few meters away, a group of journalism students wait for the debates to begin. “It’s still something to attend the 70th anniversary of a newspaper and see such prestigious guests in real life,” slips one of them. “We may not be very young, but we want to understand what is happening now, what will happen tomorrow, what the world will be like,” laugh Bernadette and Martine, two retired subscribers. of the weekly “since the 70s”. In front of them, images of the magazine’s historic front pages scroll on a giant screen: the fight against the death penalty, for abortion, the shock of September 11, support for Charlie Hebdo, or, more recently, the tribute paid to the Ukrainians. The face of billionaire Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX and Twitter and to whom L’Express dedicated a complete dossier last May, echoes the concerns of several generations. “We all have questions around artificial intelligence, global warming… I admit to having a somewhat apocalyptic idea of the future in my head, so it’s reassuring to be able to listen to today’s experts debate on these subjects,” confides Aurélie, a 20-year-old student. “At first, I was afraid that artificial intelligence would take over from humans, that it would be a kind of machine that we could no longer control. But I was quite reassured by the articles that I was able to read in L’Express, and I can’t wait to know what Bill Gates or Francis Fukuyama think about it,” said André, a nonagenarian and reader of L’Express “since the newspaper’s creation.”
In the packed 1,200-seat room, these readers rub shoulders with journalists, business leaders and political figures – such as Xavier Bertrand or Richard Ferrand – who have come to attend the discussions. For months, the editorial staff of L’Express has been mobilizing for the event: in addition to the conference, an exceptional 220-page issue, retracing the history of the newspaper, has been available on newsstands since Thursday, and distributed for six weeks at the price of 12.90 euros. Readers will also be able to find exclusive interviews with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, director Thomas Jolly, professor Steven Pinker and Iranian political activist Shirin Ebadi. “It’s the culmination of a lot of work and research, we are very happy with the result,” says Anne Marion, librarian at L’Express, who immersed herself for weeks in the magazine’s archives to tell the better his story. “Today, it’s a bit like launching a rocket: we’ve worked for months with all the teams, we make sure that the technique works well, that everyone is ready… And we can’t wait to see the result”, illustrates the editorial director Eric Chol, an hour before the start of the conference.
“It makes you think”
At 2 p.m., the hubbub fades, Eric Chol and the president of L’Express Alain Weill take turns on stage to greet the spectators, before opening the big debate between the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire and the professor Francis Fukuyama, on the theme “Are democracies going to die?” For more than an hour, the two men discuss the many challenges that our democracies are already facing: international conflicts, the co-existence of different cultures, the risks of identity withdrawal, conspiracy and even global warming… “C “was fascinating: I learned lots of things about the fragility of our democracies, the traps we should not fall into… It makes you think,” comments Alexandre, a third-year journalism student.
For nearly four hours, the young man attentively followed Xavier Huillard’s masterclass on how to run the company of tomorrow from the ground up, the intellectual Gilles Kepel’s insight into the Islamist threat, the intervention of Director General of Armaments Emmanuel Chiva on the anticipation of threats in the world in 70 years, the intervention of designer Philippe Starck… After the round table around the challenges that await us in 2093 on the subjects of health, youth, agriculture or even work, Alexandre wonders with his friends about the possibility of having medicines delivered by a drone or about the professions which will have disappeared within 70 years. “It pushes us to think, we clearly ask ourselves questions that we would not have thought of before,” he explains.
Other spectators, like Patrick, are taken aback by the power of the new technologies presented during the conference. “It’s impressively realistic,” comments this reader when Hamdam Mostafavi, editor-in-chief in charge of digital at L’Express, asks the audience to identify real photographs among other images resulting from artificial intelligence . Same admiration for the virtual reality headset presented by Stan Larroque, CEO and founder of Lynx, French leader in mixed images resulting from artificial intelligence. “Everything that we will be able to do in a few years with this type of tools in fields like medicine or science, that fascinates me,” underlines the spectator.
The presentation of the L’Express 2023 Europe Personality Prize to Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, in the presence of editorial director Eric Chol and Laurence Boone, Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and of Foreign Affairs, responsible for Europe.
© / Robin Tutenges / Pour l’Express
At the end of the day, the intervention of Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who reiterated her commitment to Europe and its values of democracy, freedom, openness and solidarity, also made a strong impression. “She is an extremely inspiring woman, whose journey everyone should know and support her commitments,” believes Patrick. The magazine also wanted to reward the Estonian Prime Minister, by awarding her the L’Express 2023 Personality Europe Prize.