CWP: What is the main idea behind the Narrative Summit 2019?
Lamia Kamel: Narrative Summit is an initiative to create a platform of leadership and collaboration with various institutions and partners that aims and positioning and promoting the brand of Egypt. Our slogan, “What Happens Between the Colon and the Dot,” emerged from our efforts to unite some of the brightest local and global professionals from various fields in the market to discuss, under one roof, their distinct stories, lessons and experiences that can create a bank of first-class knowledge available for everyone and anyone in Egypt. The initiative started off in 2016 and it continues to grow into a regional platform. We have been picked by the Arab League to take part in their Arab Sustainability Development Week which takes place between November 4-6. It is going to be an acknowledgement of all the PR support that we were able to provide to our partners and speakers who were able to shed light on their different sectors and fields be it the private or public sector or the international arena. This is really a step forward for us and in 2020, Narrative Summit will be a part of the Expo 2020 in Dubai. It started off as just an idea that continues to grow and evolve which is what Narrative is really all about; reaching out to different institutions that can help build a nation brand.
How did the collaboration between the Arab League and Narrative Summit come about?
We have always been able to realize the importance of different institutions and how each one of us is part of a big puzzle. We know that no one platform could own the idea of nation branding alone and we always maintain a spirit of collaboration and partnership in order to push the notion and spread our reach. We continue to send out invitations and ask attendance to many institutions and the League of Arab States were one of them. They were progressive and ambitious enough to realize the breadth of the potential we could achieve together and that in order for the sustainability notion to become popular and properly implemented, they had to reach out to different sectors in society. We all need to take part in sustainability; it is not a luxury concept or something that is only for the developing world. It is something that every member of this community should engage in and integrate into. The Arab League picked us among many newcomers including The World Bank, The European Union, the Egyptian Ministry of Planning. Every year, the Arab Sustainability Week is held under the patronage of the president and we expect it to be as such this year but we are still awaiting the confirmation of his excellency. What the Arab League was able to do this year was to engage more marketing and branding partners and this is where we come in.
We know that one of the objectives of Narrative Summit is to promote forming partnerships between different entities to create opportunities for cooperation; what will Narrative Summit be offering this year in light of its cooperation with the Arab League?
This year we are going to zoom in on sustainability. Every year, Narrative Summit would focus on nation branding and target different aspects of it. Last year, we were more engaged with the government so we created a great platform for government entities to promote their initiatives and plans. This year, we are illuminating sustainability as a key ingredient of building a nation brand. The Arab League is bringing in incredible content and engaging various regional speakers. We are also bringing in international, regional, and local speakers in from different sectors.
Who are the most important participants in this year’s summit?
This year we have a really incredible line up of inspiring speakers. Dr. Hala El Saeed, the Minister of Planning, Monitoring, and Administrative Reform, which is a real honor for us. We also have Mahmoud Mohieldin who is the Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group where he heads the efforts of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Another amazing speaker we have is Dr. Salah Hassan who is one of the most important global authorities on nation branding. He is currently a professor of Brand Management at George Washington University. Gordon Tredgold, International Business Speaker, Coach, and Consultant, will also be joining us to discuss the importance of setting big and bold goals. Sarah Gallo, destination marketer and travel expert, will be a keynote speaker this year showing us the impact of tourism on nation branding. Another exciting speaker we will be hosting is Shehab Taha who is the Project Manager for Turner International Middle East and the brilliant engineer behind the Louvre Abu Dhabi. We are also currently waiting on confirmation from Patrick Walker, Co-Founder of NewCo TBD.
In the third edition of Narrative Summit 2018, you made several recommendations; which, of any of these, have been executed?
A main objective of 2018’s summit was to forge partnerships and build collaborations and promote our ideas. We created such partnerships with many different entities including Photopia photo week, Richard Clayderman, and now our cooperation with the Arab League. Our most important goal was for us to create an agenda all year round that continuously participates in different initiatives and partnerships. We also created Narrative Disruptors as a sub-event to promote digital transformation as an initiative under the umbrella of nation branding. We are using the Narrative platform to shed light on different topics by collaborating with different partners and zooming in further on nation branding utilizing different initiatives. We are really expanding our horizons and trying to accommodate as many partners as possible in order to push forward the concept of nation branding and this year our focus is on sustainability.
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