A visitor at the Experia exhibition in front of an interactive screen set up by HybridExperience on Oct. 8, 2026. (Credit: Philippe Hage Boutros/L'Orient-Le Jour)
Under radiant sunshine, in contrast with the cloudy weather of recent days, Experia, the first "interactive expo dedicated to innovation in Lebanon" according to its organizers, opened Thursday afternoon at the Beirut Forum. Spread over some 5,000 square meters, the event brings together, from Oct. 8 to 10, an array of startups and more established companies, all active in the tech and innovation sectors.
More than a hundred exhibitors are expected, according to the organizer Promomedia, including leading universities and schools, banks, media organizations, as well as other institutions and organizations. L'Orient-Le Jour is the media partner for the event. At least 6,000 visitors are expected over the three days, each of which has a set theme and will feature a series of panels, workshops, and demonstrations.
Two hackathons are also on the program, one focused on health and the other on education. The concept: bring together participants for three days to develop technological solutions around issues in these two fields before presenting their projects. For startups, a pitch competition will also be held, with up to $100,000 in funding at stake.
President Joseph Aoun, accompanied by several ministers from the Salam government, inaugurated the expo before touring the venue, guided by Youmna Nahas, a representative of the Choueiry group and a member of the team who worked on launching the expo.
AI omnipresent
Like any professional expo of this kind, Experia aims to provide a platform for meetings between various stakeholders in this ecosystem: entrepreneurs presenting their projects, companies searching for new solutions, as well as investors interested in funding and supporting their development. The event also intends to give the general public a chance to discover the innovations and technologies showcased by the participants.
"We’ve come to exhibit, particularly through scheduled appointments for demonstrations of our platform," confirmed one team member from Dalil.io at the stand of the Lebanese platform, which uses artificial intelligence to monitor and analyze media and narratives, notably to detect misinformation risks.
A few meters away, the teams from Laitron — the legal platform developed by SADER, founded in 1863 and known for its digitized legal database — were honing their pitch ahead of welcoming their first visitors. Across from them, three representatives from Vero.AI explained that their company aims to replace entire call centers with a program built on AI.
Looplay, for its part, wants to equip sports facilities with its system, capable of automatically filming the action on soccer, basketball or other team sports fields, so players can leave with a video of their achievements. Mudeer, Interio, Siviz, AxlioAI, Flexsis, Ovalphalab, and AxlioAI are among the other names from the tech and startup world that, over the course of three days, will try to find an audience or strengthen their approach.
