RAISE Summit '26 | RAISE Special Announcement with Charlie Meraud & Michael Amar

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Charlie Meraud

Co-Founder

RAISE & Machina Summit & Paris Blockchain Week

Michael Amar

Co-Founder

RAISE & Machina Summit & Paris Blockchain Week

play_circle_outline Hyve's Acquisition of Chain Of Events Fuels US, UAE Expansion and Scaled Meeting Tech for AI-Security Executive Roundtables

play_circle_outline Founders Remain Involved as Hyve Scales Paris Blockchain Week, Plans to Double or Triple RAISE and Expand MACHINA Globally

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RAISE Special Announcement with Charlie Meraud & Michael Amar

Charlie Meraud

Co-Founder RAISE & Machina Summit & Paris Blockchain Week

Michael Amar

Co-Founder RAISE & Machina Summit & Paris Blockchain Week

In this interview from Raise Summit in Paris, Charlie Meraud and Michael Amar, founders of Chain Of Events, join theCUBE's John Furrier to break the news of the company's acquisition by the Hyve Group, a leading B2B events company based in London. Meraud and Amar explain the rationale behind the deal, describing plans to "geoclone" their events into markets such as the U.S. and the UAE while preserving the meetings-driven, ROI-focused model that has powered Chain Of Events' rapid growth across Paris Blockchain Week, RAISE Summit and the MACHINA robotics summi... Read more

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RAISE Special Announcement with Charlie Meraud & Michael Amar

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(INTRO)

>> Hi, I'm John Furrier with theCUBE. We have breaking news here in Paris, France, that the Chain Of Events has been acquired by the Hyve Group out of London. We have the two principals here, Charlie Meraud and Michael Amar, from the Chain Of Events. Guys, congratulations on the news. You guys are being acquired by the Hyve Group, a leading B2B events company to scale out events. Congratulations.

>> Thank you.

>> Explain the transaction. What is the actual news?

>> The actual news is that we've been growing so fast with our AI summit, RAISE Summit, our robotics summit, MACHINA, and our Paris Blockchain Week. And at some point, we want to grow even more and scale geographically. So we want to geoclone most likely in the US and UAE. We also are looking to expand what makes our secret sauce working, which is the meetings and the ROI for our clients. And we want to be able to scale and make sure that every attendee gets to meet who he wants to meet and close a deal, and Hyve has nailed down an amazing technology that allows us to organize those meetings at scale.

>> So just to get it right, so you got the Paris Blockchain Week, which you founded in 2019, RAISE Summit, which has been a success in its third year. First year's kind of experimental year, we're in the second year, but it's a huge success, and MACHINA, which has been the robotics summit that's going to blow up huge. Those are the three main things, franchises, right?

>> Totally, yes.

>> And you have other things involved too, right? The meetings? What else is involved?

>> That will be part of the program. We also are working to create a relationship between the sellers and the buyers. So our roundtables, sometimes I want to discuss things that might not go public around a Chatham House Rule environment in roundtables. We try to also create these moments where the execs that faced huge problems with security and AI or real scaling of AI can discuss this together. So we try to be this platform that makes it work for everyone.

>> Charlie, you guys started with blockchain. Okay, successful event here in Paris. Take us through that growth. What happened?

>> we started Paris Blockchain Week. Ethereum was four years old. Bitcoin ETF was not a thing. Regulation was nowhere. I can almost say it was illegal in some countries. So we were very early in that space. And you can imagine the face of our event back then was very different from where it is now. We now have more than 300 banks that showed up in Paris for a blockchain event. I'm sure you know Wall Street is going on -chain. Yeah, so the market has been shifting towards financial institutions and joining a group like Hyve gives us the push we need to offer to both our client partners and audience, I would say, the institutions they need and the institution crypto needs to move towards institutionalization. And Hyve owns a Fintech Meetup conference,

>> which is one of the largest FinTech conferences in the world. And we're going to combine the FinTech players and the banks, the TradFi players, with the digital assets content that we have. So nice synergy.

>> Totally. Okay, so I have to ask, you've got a great, successful blockchain conference in Paris, you build on that, you've still got the blockchain, huge success, why do the transaction? you guys are already kicking ass.

>> Yeah because we're very good professionals inside of the industry, it's one of the reasons for the success, but we don't have a background of being event producers and it's a job in itself. And if you want to scale in different countries, it's a very different organization. And we want to be founders, really keep to be involved in the core thing which is the content, the people, the ICPs that we want to bring. And if you can have the support of an organization that knows how to do it almost blindly and seamlessly, it will give us more freedom to really focus on where we excel.

>> So you're scaling.

>> You're going to take the same formula,

>> and you're going to scale it with Hyve Group.Totally. What's going to change? Is it going to be the same people involved? Is there going to be material changes?

>> We're staying, and we're going to hire quite a lot in the different geographies, and also try to maximize the synergies with the Hyve Group.

>> Great. What's your hope? What's the goal?

>> if I'm talking about Paris Blockchain Week, it's becoming signal. And this shift is, once again, towards financial institutions. So the goal is to go abroad, to go global. I think the U .S. is definitely a market where we need a presence. And to offer the meetings our clients and audience need is definitely what we are looking at and what Hyve can bring to the table.

>> What can people expect from RAISE next year?

>> We already announced that we're going to double the size. It might be a little more than that. We're going to combine it with expanding MACHINA, the robotics, which was a huge success. So we think it's going to take us to at least three or four times the size it had this year. And obviously combining with the Fintech Meetup, of course during the same week, the week of the 6th of July in 2027.

>> What was attractive with Hyve Group? What was the motivation? What did you see in them that made it appealing? obviously I see the synergies on scale. What were the key points?

>> what I can say is I think we are insiders of the topic we're tackling. I'm insider of the blockchain and crypto industry. We have a team insider of AI, MACHINA is the same. And to have a company that really knows how to scale a global event and leverage all our insights is definitely what we wanted. And that's why we were very excited by this transaction.

>> Yeah, I got to say the experience and the content has been amazing here at RAISE. Congratulations on the news. Looking forward to seeing the larger, expanded version. And again, congratulations. It's a great testament to what you guys are doing. Thank you for sharing on theCUBE. Thank you. Appreciate it.

>> Thanks.

>> I'm John Furrier. Breaking news here in Paris is that Chain Of Events is being acquired by the Hyve Group, scaling up the success formula of Paris Blockchain Week and RAISE Summit going global. Part of our success here at theCUBE, we love breaking the news. I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching.