I expect presence of 5,000 eminent figures in New Suez Canal opening: Moutran

Ceremony will surprise everyone and the cost is yet to be determined, says Memac Ogilvy & Mather Chairman

WPP multinational alliance, which was selected to organise the New Suez Canal's international opening, is hurrying to finish organising for the inauguration, which is to take place in 44 days.
With this historical opening, Daily News Egypt exclusively interviewed Edmond Moutran, Chairman and CEO of Memac Ogilvy & Mather, which manages the alliance.
Moutran expects 5,000 eminent political, diplomatic, and sport figures from all over the world, in addition to international, regional, and local media and representatives of the Egyptian people, to attend.
Would you tell us more about the WPP multinational alliance which won the New Suez Canal international opening?
Memac Ogilvy & Mather is an international company established by David Ogilvy in New York in 1947, and is owned by WPP. Memac Ogilvy, on the other hand, is an Arab company that I established in Bahrain in 1984. The two companies cooperated until they became partners in 1998, and it is now Memac Ogilvy. Shares increased in 2014 so that Memac Ogilvy came under the umbrella of Ogilvy International. Memac Ogilvy is present in 13 Arab counties through 15 offices working in advertising, marketing public relations, social media, and research. The company is one of the top three companies in the Arab world in terms of the number of employees and revenues, and the second in terms of innovation.
The alliance comprises seven major companies, so what is the role of each company in preparing for the opening?
The alliance is led by Memac Ogilvy, which is responsible for the idea of the promotional campaign and its implementation in all media. The alliance includes Ogilvy Public Relations, which will do the media advertising campaign until the opening. These two companies work locally, regionally, and globally. Media Waves, on the other side, will help in the media campaign locally. Emeco Travel will be responsible for all the logistics procedures related to the attendance of media delegations, regionally and internationally. Memac Ogilvy for Celebrations will be the company responsible for organising the opening in Ismailia. A dinner celebration will be held in Cairo for senior political, diplomatic, and sport figures from all the neighbouring countries invited to the event. It will be organised by Richard Attias company.
Do you know how will the event be?
When we started organising the event in all our local and regional offices, we took into consideration the importance of the event, not just to Egypt, but to the whole world. The campaign has the same slogan as the New Suez Canal. The event will hold wonderful art shows, but we cannot talk about this now so as not to spoil the surprise. I will say again, however, that the event will be huge.
Did you prepare an invitation list from inside and outside Egypt? Have you already started sending invitations?
The state and the specialised entities will be the ones sending the invitations to the senior figures from neighbouring countries. Invitations were already sent to the senior figures and there has been indeed great interest from the international and Arab community.
What is the expected number of attendees?
I expect that 5,000 eminent political, diplomatic, and sport figures from all over the Arab and foreign countries, in addition to international, regional, and local media and representatives of the Egyptian people.
What is the estimated cost for the celebration?
We are now in the final agreements of the celebration with the concerned bodies in Egypt, so we do not have a final estimated cost as it will depend on what is agreed upon. Finally, we would like to thank all the specialised entities for choosing our company to organise this important event. We are working with the best we have to organise the promotional campaign for the opening.