The Creative Industry Summit has been around for 5 years now, welcoming international and local experts to talk and discuss creative, marketing, innovation and personal journeys. This has made it one of the more sought-after marketing events of the year, and it is celebrating its 10th edition alongside its 5th year anniversary.
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The WORX, the people behind the event, are expanding and celebrating the anniversary with a bang. According to Creative Industry Summit, they are “dedicating it to celebrating the humans of the creative industries,” and are pushing forward for the future with 3 tracks, rather than their original 1 track, 2 day format.
Creative Industry Summit New Tracks 2019
As always, CIS will focus mainly on Advertising, Media and Marketing, which will be the only track available on both days of the event. Otherwise, day 1 will only include Ecommerce and Tech alongside AMM as the 2nd track, and day 2 will have Food Innovation and Personal Branding.
This is will be one of the only events in Egypt that will be looking into the food industry with a creative eye. According to the official track description it will “explore the innovative future of the food industry, along with how we’re driving changes in the way we grow, cook and consume food for a more sustainable and developed world.”
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Cofounder of the Creative Industry Summit Mai Salama spoke with Think Marketing on why they decided to expand their tracks.
“We chose ecommerce and technology because it is a fast-growing industry, there is something new literally every minute.
We also might say we are behind [others], but we are not behind. We have a lot of strong startups [in terms of] technology, and we have [strong] know-how… so, it was inevitable…I personally learned a lot from just working on that particular track.
[On Food Innovation] It is also a very fast-growing market, and as a market, it is very large [in Egypt]. Every day, we don’t just see a new product, a new brand, or a new restaurant, but we see a new experience. When I say experience, I mean an experience because going into one place vs another, how you are handled and the whole trip throughout is an experience that differs in each place.
Pop-up dinners to thematic restaurants, it is different and it is very ‘happening’ and very interesting. So, we really had to tap into that, and that’s why we didn’t call it the ‘Food Track’ because it’s not just food, there is so much innovation in this area that we just had to tap into it.
Having worked on the Food Innovation track, and the ecommerce and technology track, I feel like we have only scratched the surface, there is so much more to say in the coming years… Given that it is in our DNA to celebrate creativity in all shapes and forms, we decided to give more weight to all the shapes and forms, and we intend to introduce more tracks as we go on.”
Meet the speakers of 2019
With so many tracks, it comes to no surprise that the event is boasting a whooping 80 speakers this year, ranging from local SMEs to international corporations.
Some of the speakers this year are John Salley, NBA Champion and chief visionary officer at Ethos Media, Ahmed Abaza of Synapse Analytics, Alia El Askalany the founder and chef of Lulu’s Kitchen, Abdelhameed Sharara CEO and Cofounder of RiseUp, Weera Saad regional Head of Facebook’s Creative Shop (Middle East, Africa and Turkey), Mazen Yassen content creator and founder of Just A GoProer, Ahmad Youssry Head of Marketing Uber Eats MENA, Shady Kindsvater Head of Performance Marketing at Jumia Egypt, and Lamia Kamel CC Plus’s managing director and founder of the Narrative PR Summit.
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A Hint of Controversy
This year’s speakers are full of big names from the worlds of Marketing, Ecommerce, and F&B, but there is one that is grabbing a lot of attention.
Actor/Singer Mohamed Ramadan has just been announced as a speaker for this year’s Creative Industry Summit. Although not yet announced during the writing of this article, it is safe to assume that Ramadan will be speaking at the Advertising, Media and Marketing track on a talk titled “Building an Online Brand for a Celebrity.”
Less than an hour of posting, CIS’s Facebook post on Mohamad Ramadan’s joining was already getting heated with controversy.
However, while some may say that the actor’s appearance at the summit will be detrimental to the event’s reputation, there is something to consider. Under the assumption that Ramadan will be talking on how he has built his brand online, Ramadan is a pretty good case study at this point in time.
With over 6.8 million followers on Instagram, the actor’s posts are met with high engagement and he has been endorsing several brands such as Hardees and Etisalat. Through his intense claims, he has been building his brand around the message “number 1,” and it will be interesting to see his thoughts on his own brand building strategy and how he is using it to maintain a very visible presence online.
Only TWO Days left!
There are only 2 days left towards the summit and both seats and speaking lists are filling out. If you’re interested in knowing who will be there, catch up on the summit’s Facebook page. Otherwise, check out the agenda, out now.
This year’s Creative Industry Summit will be held on the 26th and 27th of March, grab your tickets here.
[Updated on 24 March to include Mohamed Ramadan’s announcement to appear at the summit and “2 days left”]