Assessment of the influence of global events on urban developments. Six cities - Genoa, Barcelona, Athens, Bilbao, Shanghai and London - have been chosen as case studies. These have all recently hosted a global event or will do so in the near future. After an introduction of the characteristics and impact of global events in general the history of each city is sketched and the political and urban implications of the events are examined. Three key aspects - organisation, management and city marketing - are dwelt on at length. Over forty facets including site size, visitor attendance figures, investments, populations, stakeholders, aims and methods, are then compared. A timeline, pictograms and drawings together with clear definitions of the different categories of events are used to give the best possible conditions in which to compare and analyse the events in question. Analysis of the successes and the failures of host cities in the past. The conclusions it draws can put an end to the structural errors still being made when organising large-scale events.