RIYADH: The Saudi Festival of Creativity, Athar, recently announced the launch of the Maheerah Programme, a mentorship initiative for women working in the marketing communications industry in the Kingdom.
The program will mentor 10 high-potential women working in marketing, communications, PR and other related industries from Nov. 14 - 16 during the festival. Applications will close on Oct. 23 and the selected participants will be announced on Nov. 2.
The festival — set to place from Nov. 13 - 16 at Hotel Crowne Plaza, Riyadh — will include a series of in-depth workshops, coaching, training courses, roundtables, C-suite sessions, young talent competitions, and an awards ceremony.
The announcement was made in the presence of officials from the Saudi Conventions and Exhibitions General Authority, strategic partner, and MBC Media Solutions, co-partner of the festival.
The CEO of the Saudi Conventions and Exhibitions General Authority, Amjad Shacker, told Arab News that events like Athar were a “catalyst for the economy and society.”
He said: “It’s happening for the first time under such an umbrella with such content. I know a lot of hard work and sweat into the content, but the only way to find out how it’s going to perform is by trying.
“One of the things we do is we look at strategic sponsors, we look at the impact and we try to measure what went wrong, where the challenges are and what went right.”
The vice chairman of Athar and CEO of Trans Arabian Creative Communication Services, Mohamed Al-Ayed, said preparations for next year’s festival were already underway.
Ian Fairservice, chairman of Athar and managing partner and group editor-in-chief of Motivate Media Group, said: “I think one of the objectives here is to focus people’s attention in a very positive way on the development and the potential of KSA on the global stage. What better audience than people that work in media and creativity?”
The festival will feature about 1,500 delegates from around the world, including some from the Kingdom’s top companies such as the Saudi Tourism Authority, Red Sea Global, the Saudi Telecom Co., Saudi Aramco, Saudia, and HungerStation, among others.
More than 100 national and international speakers will shed light on the transformative power of creativity in Saudi Arabia.
The festival will culminate in the Athar Awards gala dinner. Awards will be presented to the best young talent academies, agencies, network, and brand of the decade.
