Welcoming World Leaders to Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne
HOW THE 5-STAR SWISS MOUNTAIN RESORT HOSTED HEADS OF STATE, WORLD LEADERS AND HUNDREDS OF VIPS FOR SUMMIT ON PEACE IN UKRAINE 2024
TAKING A PLACE IN HISTORY
There have been few global conferences in recent years with the same profile or importance. And when the Swiss government was searching for a venue for June 2024’s Summit on Peace in Ukraine, they found the perfect home: the Bürgenstock Resort at Lake Lucerne, in the heart of central Switzerland.
And while the guest list is difficult to beat, the achievements of the summit heartening and the logistical operation behind the scenes extensive, the extraordinary part is that the resort had just two months to pull the whole event together and deliver the largest political event in Swiss history. It’s a feat that has marked out the Bürgenstock Resort as one of the world’s leading conference venues – putting the resort well and truly on the map for gatherings of the world’s great and good, and not just thanks to the stunning scenery but an experienced team with a can-do attitude and a trusted network of local suppliers. Across two days of meetings and a gala dinner, global leaders including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and US vice-president Kamala Harris plotted a future course to stability in Ukraine in the unique location of the Bürgenstock Resort.
The resort’s three hotels and residences became the hub of global democracy, with a high-end tennis centre converted into the plenary conference hall and countless meetings held in the corridors and hotel rooms of the historic property – a fitting tribute to the nine-year, CHF 650m renovation completed in 2017. Global leaders even ironed out differences on the hotel’s grounds, with many taking an early-morning run in the mountains overlooking the lake: a view that Britain’s then-prime minister Rishi Sunak described as “the real Switzerland.”
Delivering an event of more than 1,500 individuals – including 57 heads of state and 32 ministeriallevel representatives across 93 country delegations as well as 500 journalists – is no mean feat, but the event’s host, Swiss president Viola Amherd, described it as “perfectly organised.” The famed ‘spirit of Bürgenstock’, as acknowledged by Kamala Harris, had its desired effect, too, with the global heads of state signing the “Bürgenstock Communiqué” a communique that many hope will provide the groundwork for lasting peace in Europe.
PLANNING AHEAD IN THE PERFECT VENUE
With Switzerland offering to host the high-profile Summit on Peace in Ukraine, the government was tasked with finding an appropriate venue. Through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bürgenstock Resort was chosen over some high-profile resort competition, as well as a host of Geneva hotels, due to its five-star hospitality, secure environment, proximity to airports, and pricing.
But that was just the beginning: the stature of the attendees meant the hotel had to closely coordinate with a host of domestic and global agencies, including Swiss ministries, the Swiss Army and the Federal Police, security services, the US Secret Service, and the Ukrainian president’s security. Ahead of the conference and befitting the political importance of the summit, the resort also had to facilitate the building of two antiaircraft facilities and six secure helicopter landing spots. By the time the conference began, 700 permanent and 350 agency staff were on site, each passing vetting checks and a host of security checkpoints before accessing the resort to provide the kind of hospitality global VIPs would expect. The team worked 19,800 hours, managing hundreds of hotel rooms and the movement of the delegations and VIPs.
THE GUEST LIST LEADERS
Some of the world’s biggest political figures attended
92 delegations from 93 countries attended the summit including 57 heads of state
DELEGATES INCLUDED
Volodymyr Zelensky, president, Ukraine
Kamala Harris, vice-president, USA
Emmanuel Macron, president, France
Rishi Sunak, prime minister,
United Kingdom
Justin Trudeau, prime minister, Canada
Nana Akufo-Addo, president, Ghana
We have a history. We have hosted functions beforewe anticipated everything
“THIS
VENUE WILL BRING SUCCESS”
The size of the event naturally placed significant focus on the kitchen, with a team of 160 chefs preparing 6,000 meals over the two days, while attendees and security staff consumed 2,100 croissants and Danish pastries, along with more than 340kg of coffee brewed by the resort’s machines. With all eyes on the gala dinner, the team leaned into the Spirit of Bürgenstock, delivering a menu full of Swiss character and produce – but also deliverable to the required scale.
Meanwhile, a special taskforce of 15 specialty chefs were on standby for late notice requests, ensuring even the most specific needs were accommodated without disrupting the kitchen’s overall operations.
For some guests, however, the lasting memory wasn’t just the view of Lake Lucerne or the Swiss cuisine. More than one security convoy was halted by a VIP wanting to take pictures of the alpine cattle, complete with cowbells. And the setting clearly impressed even those used to such summits; as President Zelensky himself said, “this venue will bring success.”
Mette Frederiksen, prime minister, Denmark
Ursula von der Leyen, president, European Commission
Viola Amherd, president, Switzerland
Olaf Scholz, Federal chancellor, Germany
Fumio Kishidaa, prime minister, Japan
Bürgenstock Resort also hosted 500 media representatives over the weekend
B ürgenstock Resort by numbers
OUR PEOPLE
1,150 staff worked during the weekend…
…including 160 chefs
700 Bürgenstock employees
53 hospitality students
Each delegation was waited on by 15 staff
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
The team behind the Summit for Peace in Ukraine at the Bürgenstock Resort had faced numerous conferences before – but this one presented two unique challenges: a short lead time of just a few months – and the fact the entire event was packed into just two busy, frantic days of diplomacy.
“Usually for an event like this you’d have at least a year,” says Chris K Franzen, the hotel’s Managing Director. “But this is the diaries of global leaders, and of course there are political events. So they had to do it just after the G7 Summit in June.”
With security handled by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Franzen focused on getting the hotel ready, which meant swiftly contacting guests who’d already booked – invited back another time – and even moving some long-term guests out. But the real challenge was the sheer movement of people. Delegations were moving in and out all the time, while staff were ferried in buses 24/7 from small local villages past security checkpoints. Franzen estimates he shook hands in the lobby with more than 250 people.
B ürgenstock Resort
by numbers LOGISTICS
30,000 steps Corporate Culinary Director Mike Wehrle walked around Bürgenstock on Saturday
380 limousines, army transporters and shuttle buses used over the weekend around the resort
250 number of hands shaken by MD Chris Franzen when delegations arrived on Friday
220 helicopter shuttles flown in and out
4 staff canteens used over the weekend
he says, and with a core team of 25 chefs that have worked with him since the reopening of the hotel in 2017 alongside more than 100 others, they were well prepared. That planning ahead of time came to the fore on the night of the all-important gala dinner. The cold starter of Swiss char fillet with horseradish, green asparagus and pea shoots was prepared ahead of time, freeing up the kitchen to deliver the main course of veal cheeks in puff pastry, alongside Swiss mushrooms and wild broccoli. A traditional Swiss dessert was served with local meringues and strawberries. The food went down well: simple, high-quality meals that allowed the real work of the conference, a diplomatic breakthrough, to continue throughout.
That was just the main room, though. Across the hotel, VIPs were ordering room service while others enjoyed Asian and Italian cuisine in the hotel’s other restaurants. Wehrle knew that his team could handle it – and that’s a sentiment echoed by Dominik Stalder, the project leader and current Hotel Manager. “We’re a team – it’s team spirit. Everyone was smiling and excited,” the experienced hotelier says. Many in the resort’s senior team have been at the Bürgenstock Resort for years, and their understanding of the beautiful mountain resort gave them total confidence in their plans for the event. That also includes the network of suppliers and providers which the resort has built up – partners that Stalder says he can “trust blind.”
Pre-event planning was crucial, given the tight security and global media attention. “You can’t wait until the last minute – you have to make sure everything is ready. We didn’t have access (due to the security) so we couldn’t just call in supplies if we’d forgotten to order food, or soaps, or slippers or whatever. We had to think about how many turn down services are we going to do? Will we have enough linen already on the mountain, because that’s washed down in the valley, and the army don’t want trucks going up and down the mountain for obvious reasons.”
Internally, the team was also prepared meticulously.
“Most of them had never done anything like this,” says Franzen. “So it was just a question of explaining and setting expectations so everyone knows what they have to do, and when they have to do it.”
We could not have asked for better
partners
“A lot of the leaders came for only a day or less. I’ve hosted heads of state before but never that many, in and out.” Seamless communication and collaboration with various security entities ensured the resort operated smoothly – even better than an international airport.
Perhaps it’s Franzen’s experience in hospitality that allows him to be so calm when talking about delivering, seamlessly, one of the largest diplomatic gatherings of the century so far. He even describes it as “straightforward” and says it’s more difficult running the resort normally with guests who aren’t on such tight timetables. His highlight, however? Standing in the lobby, watching global leaders gently chit-chatting whilst admiring the view from the Bürgenstock Resort. Clearly, they must have felt at home.
A TEAM EFFORT
Bürgenstock Resort’s Corporate Culinary Director Mike Wehrle clocked nearly 30,000 steps on one day of the conference alone – and gained at least one high-profile new fan. US vice-president Kamala Harris enjoyed the hotel’s melanzane (Kashk-o Bademjan) so much she asked for the recipe; and took a cake for her husband with her, too. Mike Wehrle gifted her his Seven Kitchens cookbook.
Like Franzen, Wehrle credits the success of the catering operation with the planning. “We held a lot of tastings,”
Just as for the rest of the team, the summit itself was almost the easy bit for Stalder. After weeks of site visits from various security and diplomatic delegation, of meetings with AV experts and even tent builders, things ran with the precision of a Swiss watch. “It wasn’t quiet, but everything worked as we’d planned it, so there wasn’t a lot of troubleshooting to be done. The proof of the planning work was that we just didn’t have many issues.”
Franzen is confident the Bürgenstock Resort has demonstrated it can handle the very biggest conferences – and smaller ones, too. Just 48 hours before the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, a pharmaceutical company had held their annual get-together in the same resort, and came away just as happy a client as the Swiss government soon became.
“The most important thing for me was that I can say confidently, look, we in the team and the resort, we can pull this off. There is no reason we shouldn’t have more of those,” he says, “The event ran beautifully and we’re proud of the part we played in the Summit for Peace.”
About Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne
THE BÜRGENSTOCK RESORT - FIRST OPENED IN 1873 AND SET ON 148 FORESTED ACRES ON A RIDGE ABOVE LAKE LUCERNE - IS ONE OF EUROPE’S LARGEST RESORTS. AFTER A CHF650M RENOVATION COMPLETED IN 2017, THE RESORT NOW BOASTS TWO SUPERIOR SPAS, 12 RESTAURANTS, LOUNGES AND BARS AND THREE HOTELS INCLUDING THE FIVE-STAR BÜRGENSTOCK HOTEL & ALPINE SPA (THE CONTEMPORARY AND THE HERITAGE), A MEMBER OF THE LEADING HOTELS OF THE WORLD, AND RESIDENCES.
THE RESORT BOASTS 31 UNIQUE MEETING ROOMS AND THE GRAND LAKEVIEW BALLROOM PERFECT FOR PRIVATE OR BUSINESS EVENTS, WITH A CONFERENCE CENTRE OFFERING TOP OF THE LINE EQUIPMENT FOR ANY DYNAMIC EVENT CLIENTS WISH TO HOLD.
THE WIDE RANGE OF MEETING AND EVENT SPACES CONTINUES TO THE DIAMOND DOMES - TWO TENNIS HALLS WITH STUNNING ARCHITECTURE WHICH CAN BE USED AS EVENT SPACES - THE WALDHOTEL BY BÜRGENSTOCK, THE BÜRGENSTOCK CINEMA, THE STAND-ALONE HISTORIC SWISS CHALET-STYLE ‘SPYCHER’ AND THE RESORT’S BERNESE THEMED ‘SIMMENTALER STUBE.’
The Bürgenstock Resort would love to help you with your event. Please get in touch for more information events@burgenstockresort.com