Cairo Khayal: a free tech and art summit at the EIEC from 8 to 10 November
Amr Salama, Youssry Nasrallah, Karim El Shennawy and Tarek Nour are among the speakers at Cairo Khayal, part of Cairo ICT 2026, with free entry after online registration.
Film directors, advertising people and visual effects artists share a stage in New Cairo next week. Cairo Khayal, billed as the region's first summit where technology meets art, runs from Sunday 8 to Tuesday 10 November at the Egypt International Exhibition Center (EIEC), as part of Cairo ICT 2026, the technology show's 30th edition, held this year under the theme "AI in Action".
Entry is free for anyone aged 18 or over, but you need to register first on the summit's website, which its organisers say takes about a minute. The registration gives you a badge with a QR code, and the same badge opens Khayal and every hall of Cairo ICT.
The talks are on the Content Stage. On Sunday 8 November, Jörg Kalhöfer gives a masterclass on making visual effects for global brands at 2pm, with support from Adobe. At 3pm, advertising pioneer Tarek Nour gives a talk called "The Godfather of Advertising", while director Amr Salama and Mohamed Gamal run a workshop on working with AI tools, "Human x Machine: The AI Creative Lab", moderated by YouTuber and director Hady Bassiouny. On Monday 9 November, director Omar Hilal explains how he makes a film from idea to frame at 2pm, in a conversation with producer Tamer Mortada of Aroma Studio; Karim El Shennawy follows at 3pm in a session with critic Ahmed Shawky; and at 4pm Youssry Nasrallah gives a masterclass called "The Director's Chair".
There is more than talking. The summit has a film competition with prizes worth up to EGP 1 million, with entries submitted through its website, plus a prize for vertical short films and an audience award voted for in a partner's app. It also runs a 48-hour "create-athon", a 48-hour game jam and prompt battles, where entrants compete on what they can make with AI tools.
If you want to go, register on cairokhayalshow.com before the day so the badge is on your phone at the gate; under-18s are not admitted. The EIEC is on El Moshir Tantawy axis in New Cairo, and Cairo ICT draws big crowds, so give yourself time for parking and queues. The full schedule for Tuesday 10 November had not been published when we checked.