With British Council at the Creative Industry Summit 2026

 

Trying to catch up with something big that happened to us at the beginning of the month... So, a great opportunity came our way thanks to the unweavering support of British Council, which just before 'Eid al-Adha let us know they were getting a space at this incredibly prestigious event in Cairo. Because British Council is proud of our work (😁🙏), they wanted to showcase our two creative-economy projects: the Cross-Craft furniture competition of 2025 and the running Co-Weave Fuwwah Lab. Sami Creta asked us to design the space, create banners, and set up a little display of the outcomes.

It was a great opportunity to engage our Art and Design students at the British University in Egypt with a real, hands-on experience and to realise that jobs get done in a couple of weeks (and not in a full-semester), clients change their mind continuously, branding is fundamental, and budget is often an issue (well, not this time to be honest). Interior Design students, supported by staff, designed the space and created a 3D model of it, while Graphics and Media students designed the four banners (eventually only two got printed in full size, the rest became flyers) and edited a beautiful video (we shall post it soon) with footage and subtitled interviews they had shot in Fuwwah in April and May. Other students volunteered to usher the booth during the two days of the event (June 3 and 4). In exchange they got free visitor passes for the Summit and I believe they had a blast chasing celebrities and influencers, hoarding goodies, and listening to some of the talks. Below some of the students with visual story teller and advocate Noha El Komi.

On June 3 British Council also organised a panel discussion on creative economy and placemaking, moderated by Mohamed Abdel Dayem, and featuring yours truly, Choucri Asmar (a friend of our Faculty), Soha Bahgat, and Nabila Hassan.

Right after the panel, Minister of Culture Gihane Zaki took to the stage for a mini-panel coordinated by Sami Creta (British Council), and then visited the Summit, stopping a few minutes also at the booth, where we had a chance to introduce her to our projects (below, the tireless Amr Orensa of Designdustry)

[DS]