On Tuesday 16 September 2025, various representatives of Luxembourg’s economic and technology sectors took part in the 15th edition of the Q-Day technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
The conference, organised by Quidgest, a Portuguese technology company specialising in intelligent software modelling and generation, selected Luxembourg as its Guest Country for this edition due to the historic links between the Grand Duchy and Portugal, describing Luxembourg as “a partner in achieving European ambitions” and “an inspiring example of focus, specialisation, sustainability and the ability to generate global impact from a small country that thinks big”.
The Guest Country section of the conference was hosted by Tomás Guerreiro, Journalist at Contacto newspaper, and welcomed contributors from the Praça do Luxemburgo project, UFO² Consulting and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE).
The first speaker, David Ferreira da Silva, Co-founder of the Praça do Luxemburgo project, talked of his previous work at the European Parliament in Brussels, the historic links between the city and Luxembourg and how this inspired the creation of the Praça do Luxemburgo (Place du Luxembourg) project, a civic engagement initiative aimed at fostering public dialogue and increasing awareness of European Union affairs. He described how the project serves as an informal space for discussions on topics related to Europe, encouraging participation from citizens and promoting democratic engagement and was awarded the European Charlemagne Youth Prize in 2019, highlighting its impact in promoting European integration and civic participation among young people.
The next speaker was Laurent Beaurepaire, Founding Partner of UFO² Consulting, a Luxembourg-based consultancy firm specialising in organisational and technological transformation. Ms Beaurepaire talked of the cultural and technological connections between the two countries and noted the “focus on interpersonal relationships”, the trust which is “fundamental before concluding business deals” and how both countries share “a strong ability to adapt to foreign culture”. She added: “Both of our countries are ambitious in terms of national strategies, promoting the digitisation of economy, public services, businesses,” and highlighted the existing relationship between Luxembourg’s national innovation agency, LuxInnovation, and Quidgest.
Paula Redondo Pereira, Head of Government Relations and Regulatory Strategy at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, then described the work of LuxSE; how various Portuguese bonds are issued on the exchange, the use of European Commission issued common debt to tackle financial situations and to help member states to tackle unemployment problems in Europe - bonds and securities which were issued and listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. She then talked of Green Finance and the green bond of the World Bank, which was listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and how, today, LuxSE has raised €1.2 trillion through the sustainable bonds that are listed on the exchange, coming from more than 300 issuers from 60 countries around the world.
The final speech was given by Susanna Coghlan, Europe Business Development Manager at Quidgest, who began by detailing why Luxembourg was a natural choice for the event’s invited country and the country of focus. She noted the significance of how 15% of Luxembourg’s population consists of people of Portuguese origin, Luxembourg's role in the development of Europe and the number of European institutions it houses. She added that Luxembourg's innovation ecosystem, the country’s international reach with data sovereignty project, Gaia X, and its work with satellite technologies were also an influence.
Speaking of her work with Quidgest, Susanna Coghlan said “It was this ecosystem that has inspired us to put our energy, effort and investment into Luxembourg.”
There then followed a panel discussion involving the contributors on how to improve and strengthen the bonds between Portugal and Luxembourg.
