Mission City Business Lunch in Differdange: From Strategic Vision to Concrete Collaboration

On March 25th 2026, the City of Differdange hosted its Mission City Business Lunch, a high-level stakeholder event designed to bring together industrial leaders, public actors and European partners around one central question: how can a city and its economic actors work together to accelerate the transition towards climate neutrality?

All pictures in this blog post by ©Joanna Hudyka Photography

The event formed part of Differdange’s engagement in the European 100 Net Zero and smart Cities mission initiative. As Luxembourg’s only Mission City, Differdange is part of a group of pioneer cities selected by the European Union to test, refine and implement systemic pathways towards climate neutrality by 2030. This ambitious target serves a wider purpose: helping Europe prepare the transition towards full climate neutrality by 2050.

For Differdange, this mission is not limited to environmental ambition alone. It is about rethinking the city as a whole: mobility, energy, waste, climate adaptation, cooperation with residents, and, crucially, partnership with business and industry. The Mission City Business Lunch was conceived as a way to translate this strategic framework into dialogue, commitment and action.

Why a mission City Business Lunch?

The idea behind the event was simple but important. Differdange did not want to approach the transition city project by project, or company by company, in an isolated way. The objective was to invite key economic stakeholders into the city’s broader mission and to create a shared understanding that climate neutrality is not an external agenda imposed on local actors, but a collective endeavour in which companies, industries and institutions all have a place.

To make that possible, the City brought together representatives of major firms, public institutions and European actors for a carefully curated midday event that combined policy, strategy, networking and symbolic commitment.

The presence of Luxembourg’s Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Lex Delles, gave the event strong political weight. The participation of Anne Calteux, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Luxembourg, underlined its European dimension. Alongside them were representatives of the European Investment Bank, the NetZeroCities consortium and other strategic partners.

The result was not just a formal gathering, but a concrete step forward: 29 letters of intent were signed on site, and a large symbolic letter of intent — measuring two metres by one and a half metres — was signed on stage by participating stakeholders. Even more importantly, the table arrangements were designed to create synergies between guests, and this worked remarkably well: at least four new collaborative project ideas emerged directly from the conversations held during the lunch.

From Empty Room to High-Level Event in Two Months

What made this event particularly demanding was the timeframe. The entire Business Lunch had to be prepared in roughly two months.

Working in close collaboration with the City of Differdange and with the support of specialised service providers, EVERARD Consulting & Communication helped translate the political and strategic ambition of the event into a concrete, functioning reality. This involved not just communication work, but the orchestration of a complete event architecture.

The mission covered the development of the overall event concept, the structuring of the programme and the planning of the event flow. It included the design and production of invitations, the preparation of a survey sent to invited companies, the drafting of the letters of intent, and the writing of the speeches delivered by city officials. It also involved the elaboration of the communication and follow-up strategy: when invitations should be sent, how companies should be contacted, and how the city could move from invitation to actual attendance and engagement.

At the same time, the operational preparation was equally extensive. The venue itself was an empty space that had to be transformed into a coherent and welcoming environment for around 120 guests. This required detailed planning of the room setup, including stage, projector, lighting, sound, seating, tables, glassware and visual identity. A full catering logic had to be created from scratch so that a starter, main course and dessert could be prepared and served smoothly on site. Hostesses were brought in to welcome guests, and a cloakroom had to be set up and integrated into the visitor flow. The bar service, including two bartenders, was also planned as part of the overall experience.

In addition, numerous individualised elements had to be prepared. Menu cards were produced and personalised with each guest’s name and food preference, whether vegan or otherwise. The visual coherence of the room, the invitations, the presentation materials and the symbolic signing moment all had to work together as one unified experience.

Behind the scenes, this meant writing the cahier des charges for the caterer, helping select the right catering partner, briefing that partner in detail, coordinating the setup of the space with external providers, and ensuring that all technical, aesthetic and logistical components aligned. It also meant preparing the PowerPoint presentations, managing the event sequence minute by minute, and supporting the City in creating a professional and credible framework for dialogue with business leaders.

A Collaborative Achievement

Events of this kind are never the result of one actor alone. The Mission City Business Lunch was a collaborative effort involving the City of Differdange, institutional and European partners, and several specialised firms working on logistics, catering, setup and production.

Our role as a consultancy was to help bring these elements together, maintain coherence between strategic intent and operational delivery, and support the City in transforming an ambitious idea into a concrete and successful event.

The value of such work often lies precisely in its discretion: when the event runs smoothly, the complexity behind it becomes invisible. Yet that complexity is real — and so is the importance of getting it right when the aim is to convene high-level public and private stakeholders around a shared mission.

Beyond the Event

The Business Lunch was never intended as a one-off communication exercise. It was conceived as a starting point for a longer process of structured collaboration between the City and its stakeholders.

The fact that 29 letters of intent were signed on site shows that the event succeeded not only in creating visibility, but also in generating commitment. The emergence of at least four new project ideas through the curated seating logic further demonstrates that carefully designed encounters can create tangible value.

In that sense, the Mission City Business Lunch achieved exactly what it set out to do: it created a credible, high-level and constructive framework in which public ambition and private initiative could meet.

For us, it was a privilege to contribute to this process and to support the City of Differdange in an event that combined political sensitivity, European relevance, strategic communication and detailed operational delivery — all within a very short timeframe.