For decades, hosting mega-events in the present place has been considered as a strategy to boost the future urban landscape. More recently, however, the re-use of the city fabric’s past heritage has become central rather than the increasing urbanisation of expanding metropolitan areas. The bidirectional dynamic between mega-events and heritage has been emphasized, as mega-events are woven into nowadays cultural heritage narrative for better connecting the values they carry with the needs of the hosting society. To optimize resources while overcoming contradictions, social implications and local memories associated with industrial history for a long-term urban transformation, what to remember, what to showcase, and whom to include both in terms of memory and lifestyle need to be further investigated. Worldwide cases related to different industrialization periods show that the mega-events synergize with various types of industrial heritage to enhance urban (re) development. They also support the implementation of national and local policies towards urban regeneration in (re) shaping collective memory embedded in these heritage sites. Three emblematic cases are selected and discussed in this paper. They illustrate different approaches of place-making and investigate the evolution of collective memory and the role local communities play in this urban process.