“iRead” Foundation announced the launch of the 3rd edition of the “iRead Awards”, the biggest annual event to support writers and discover talents in writing scripts and short stories, in November after signing a partnership agreement with “RMC Worldwide Partners”, one of the largest companies operating in the field of organizing events and concerts in Egypt and the Arab World.
According to the partnership, “iRead” and “RMC Worldwide Partners” will henceforth manage and organize all the events of the competition, starting with a promising third edition of the iRead Awards this year. The partnership was signed by Ms. Engy El-Saban, Board Member of “iRead”; The Egyptian Author, screenwriter, and Board Member of “iRead” Mr. Ahmed Mourad; and Mr. Ahmed Ebeid, Founder and Managing Director of “RMC Worldwide Partners”.
In light of the efforts of the “iRead” Foundation to revive reading in the Arab World since its launch in 2018, the Foundation has been organizing the “iRead Awards” as an annual award ceremony with the aim of honoring emerging writers, recognizing young talents, and giving them an opportunity to start their literary life in line with the Foundation’s goals in creating a society that brings together readers from all over the Arab world, and shed light on books from various fields and contribute to enriching knowledge and educating citizens.
To complement the impressive success of the first and second editions of the “iRead Awards”, “iRead” and “RMC Worldwide Partners” are jointly presenting the third edition of the competition. It is worth mentioning that this is not the first collaboration between both companies, “RMC Worldwide Partners” sponsored and organized the 2nd edition of the “iRead Awards” last year.
Commenting on the announcement of the 3rd edition of the “iRead Awards”, Ms. Engy El-Saban, Board Member of “iRead” Foundation, said, “I am proud of the success that was achieved by “iRead Awards” in the 1st and 2nd edition, through which dozens of talents were supported and recognized, especially the 2nd season, that was celebrated on the sidelines of the first event of “iRead Awards” in partnership with the Cairo International Film Festival in the presence of a large number of public figures to support talents.
The efforts of the “iRead” Foundation was not limited to this event only but also included cooperation with the “Baheya” Foundation for early detection and free treatment for women diagnosed with breast cancer, by launching full-fledged libraries at Baheya’s hospitals to spread awareness and enhance public knowledge among Baheya’s fighters.” Commenting on the new partnership, El-Saban added, “The collaboration between “iRead” and “RMC Worldwide Partners” in the 2nd edition of the iRead Awards last year was just the beginning of a long road of achieving promising and continuous successes together”.
The Egyptian Author, screenwriter, and Board Member of the “iRead” Foundation, Ahmed Mourad, commented, “My passion for reading the stories increases year after year as more stories apply for the competition. The success of the first two editions of the “iRead Awards” has greatly increased our expectations of the stories we are receiving this year. This, in my opinion, indicates the competition’s success in encouraging writers and scriptwriters to produce pieces of art worth sharing and acknowledgment, which will make the jury’s task of selecting winners even harder,” He described the partnership with “RMC Worldwide Partners as an important step to help in achieving the goals of the “iRead Awards” to spread the culture of reading among the largest possible number of people to help in reviving reading and building an educated and forward-thinking society.
The 3rd edition of the “iRead Awards” will include two main competitions, namely the Best Short Story Competition, that received nearly 2,000 stories so far, in which the best 10 stories are to be selected and published in a collection of stories to honor the owners of those stories. The second competition, namely, The Readership Voting Contest, has exceeded 100,000 votes so far and aims to recognize the best book, the best rising novel, and the best publishing house in 2021/2022 through readers’ voting. The jury panel for this year will include a selection of the most important names in the world of literature, including, the writer Omar Taher, the author Mustafa Ebeid, and the screenwriter and author Ahmed Mourad.
For his part, Mr. Ahmed Ebeid, Founder and Managing Director of “RMC Worldwide Partners” expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership with “iRead”, saying, “Egypt has recently witnessed great interest in organizing local and international events and conferences in a very impressive way which has had a positive impact on Egypt’s image as an attractive destination for its ability to hold unique events and conferences”.
He elaborated, “This is exactly what we are working hard to achieve. We aspire that our message will not be limited to the entertainment side but also to the cultural one, which is what RMC Worldwide Partners seeks to achieve in partnership with “iRead” by organizing this event to help revive reading and the development of the culture of the society.”
“RMC Worldwide Partners” has organized many important events at the local and global levels, such as The Sound of Movies was organized as a trip to the golden age of Egyptian art. In addition to the duo of the world’s most famous cello players, “2CELLOS” in their recent international tour, “The Dedicated Tour” in SomaBay, Hurghada, the legendary Majida El Roumi concert at the Qubba Palace, the Abdel Halim Hafez hologram concert at Mall of Arabia theater in cooperation with “MBC” Group and “NDP ” Company, Umm Kulthum hologram concert at Abdeen Palace, and the “Opera Aida” artistic show in celebration of 150 years at El Gouna Conference and Culture Centre.
