The evening event organized by ONLYLYON on Wednesday, July 16 in New York City, to promote the launch of direct service between Lyon and New York (JFK) by Air France and Delta was a huge success.

Planned as part of the program of Lyon's official delegation to New York the same week, led by the Senator and Mayor of Lyon Gérard Collomb and Guy Mathiolon, the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the event was graced by the presence of key personnalities from the metropolitan area's institutions and major international companies.

Over 250 participants

Over 250 people attended the evening event held at the Morgan Library & Museum, a prestigious location on Madison Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan, decked out for the occasion in the ONLYLYON colors.
In additionto the official delegation and certain Lyon representatives based in New York,such as the Secretary-General of the association "Les Lyonnais de New York", the ONLYLYON evening gala also attracted representatives from New York companies in sectors of activity closely connected to those of the Lyon metropolitan area. Indeed, more than a hundred American companies, such as Cushman and Wakefield, Via Tech Publishing Solutions, Good Energies, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Nixon Peabody, CB Richards Ellis, Dolce International Holdings, Bionest Partners, Scott-Macon and others, along with a dozen journalists, learned about some of Lyon's key advantages as presented throughout the evening, and networked with their hosts from Lyon.

Combining business with pleasure

To combine business with pleasure, this important business-oriented event was enlivened with entertainment and highlighted with Lyon cuisine. Three top Lyon chefs: Daniel Boulud, a Lyon chef very highly renowned in th US, based in New York and President of the association "Les Lyonnais de New York" ; Mathieu Vianney who has been working in Lyon for 10 years; and Christophe Marguin President of the association "Toques Blanches lyonnaises", prepared a 100% Lyon dinner, to the delight of connoisseurs and novices alike. In deference to pure regional tradition, the wines of Maison Duboeuf were served during the cocktail hour, in the absolutely remarkable setting of the JP Morgan Library, accompanied by a classic quartet.

Evoking and presenting Lyon

The guests were then directed to Guilbert Court, an extension of the Morgan designed by Renzo Piano, and the main room where the seated dinner was served. Everything had been carefully thought out to evoke and present Lyon: from the seating plan resembling the map of the city and its main points of interest, to the musical and visual entertainment highlighted with key messages and images broadcast in the room by the Lyon-based team XLR Project. Philippe Fournier, Director of the Lyon Symphony Orchestra, also attended and followed on from speeches by Gérard Collomb and Guy Mathiolon to bring out an original touch to the event with the piano, asking a guest who had never played the piano before to accompany him, proving that the richness of human relations goes well beyond words and borders.

Finally, Ronald Kenneth Noble, the Secretary- General of Interpol, had also agreed to make the trip over to make his contribution to the event aiming to bring his hometown, New York, closer to his adopted city, Lyon. At the end of the dinner, after a brief talk about Interpol's activities and the context of New York, he enthused about how fond he is of Lyon, its charms and the people who live there and who are, according to him, the key component in its attractiveness. Next, he called for a round of applause for the three chefs from Lyon and for the Senator and Mayor Gérard Collomb, who all came to meet him on stage.

 

Although the evening ended late, the attendees were enthralled right to the end, thanks to Brian Rutter, Marketing & Commercial Director of Delta in NY, who offered two roundtrip tickets in BusinessElite class on the new flight, as a raffle prize. A guest from Ronald K. Noble's table was the lucky winner of this much coveted prize. His talk brought this evening, which was greatly appreciated by our guests and which enabled many contacts to be made, to a pleasant end.

 

And so, the first large-scale promotional event organized abroad by ONLYLYON was e gread success.

Now it's time to follow up the contacts made thanks to this event in New York, and to think about the next international event in 2008 and 2009!

See some special moments of this New York event: visit the photo gallery.

 

For information about the event, contact ONLYLYON team: +33 (0)472-405-759