Red Carpet Dinner

A warm welcome to newly arrived international companies

At the prestigious annual Red Carpet Dinner, we provide a warm welcome to international companies who arrived during the last 12 months with the help of Rotterdam Partners. With this event we express our sincere appreciation to the companies for choosing Rotterdam as a business location, and a big thank you to all guests for being an important part of our network and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Every year, Rotterdam's mayor Mr Ahmed Aboutaleb formally welcomes the new arrivals to our city at this special event.

"For me, the Red Carpet Dinner illustrates the real value of collaboration. Building a better future together!"

Wilbert Lek, Managing Director Rotterdam Partners

Main networking event

The Red Carpet Dinner is considered one of the most important networking events for international companies in the Rotterdam region. It provides unique opportunities to meet and mingle with representatives and directors of national and international enterprises, innovative SME’s, (foreign) startups and scale-ups, ambassadors, (honorary) consuls and aldermen of local authorities.

An important part of the Red Carpet Dinner is getting together with the newly arrived companies and celebrating the value and impact of collaboration. Every year this special event has a theme in line with Rotterdam’s values and which reflects on the year.

Red Carpet Dinner, edition 2022

On 3 October 2022, Mayor Aboutaleb welcomed a total of more than 30 international companies that established themselves in the city over the last 12 months to the Red Carpet Dinner at the Kunsthal Rotterdam. The new international arrivals, including BioTisk, Performance Rotors and S2Grupo, ceremoniously walked the red carpet as part of the ‘welcome to our city’ ceremony. Artist Tim Wes gave an inspiring presentation about his dream for Rotterdam.

This years’ theme and focus were fully on important transitions in areas such as sustainability, digitalisation and circularity. Rotterdam faces major transitions in these areas. One of the key objectives is to be completely climate-neutral by 2050. Attracting foreign companies that contribute to this with knowledge, skills, investments and jobs is a valuable way to meet the city’s transition goals.

Read the full press release

"Cities are not made of bricks, but of people. It is of paramount importance to always keep looking for connections."

Ahmed Aboutaleb, Mayor of the City of Rotterdam in his welcoming speech at Red Carpet Dinner 2022