On December 18, Rob Afman, our Sales Manager, attended the annual Meet the Mayor event in Cluj-Napoca, invited by the Board of the Cluj International Committee. The evening brought together local leaders from business, government, and the non-profit sector, and at the centre of it all, Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, sharing his vision for the city and answering questions from the audience directly.
The topics were grounded and real: mobility, brain drain, population dynamics, and how Cluj navigates an increasingly competitive international business landscape. Not the kind of conversation you’d expect to have access to, and exactly the kind that reminds you why being embedded in this city matters. What stood out wasn’t just the content of the discussion, but the openness of it, a mayor genuinely engaging with the people building businesses and careers in his city.
For Rob, the evening also had a personal dimension. Having first visited Cluj four years ago, the progress has been hard to miss. As he put it after the event: “During my conversation with Mayor Boc I complimented him on how much progress I have witnessed in the last 4 years since I first came to Cluj, especially the refurbished city center and leisure areas on the banks of the Somes River.”
That kind of visible, tangible transformation doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of consistent investment in infrastructure, education, and a business environment that takes international ambition seriously. And it shows, not just in the skyline, but in the quality and depth of the tech talent the city continues to attract and retain.
For InnovatorSpark, being based in Cluj isn’t just a geographic fact. It’s part of how we work and who we’re able to bring to the table for our clients. The city’s ecosystem gives us access to engineering talent that is in high demand worldwide, and events like Meet the Mayor are a reminder that this ecosystem is being built deliberately, with people who care about where it goes next.
Cluj-Napoca was recently listed as the ninth safest city in Europe. For anyone still discovering what this city has to offer, professionally, personally, or as a destination for international partnership, consider this your introduction.
Laia Esteve | Digital Marketing | Market Research Specialist
