You started out studying computer science. How and why did you make the jump to the entertainment industry?

I have been playing the piano since I was a child, and loved music, especially live performances. I shifted fields when my brother, the Lebanese pop star Ramy Ayach, asked me to manage his career when he started as a professional singer. So I had to quit the IT industry – I had my own business – to start to manage his career. All the while, I have been continuously learning about artists, events and the entertainment industry by taking intensive courses, during travels, and of course by reading a lot.

Please tell us the story of Ambiance Entertainment Group. When was it founded and what is the vision of the company?

Ambiance Entertainment Group was founded in 2010. The company’s main vision is to offer the best consultation services to our clients according to their needs. This can include coming up with themes, presentations, guidelines, designs, scheduling, planning, preparation and production. 

From wedding planning, to corporate events, to concerts, to occasion-specific designs covering entire buildings, AEG Events’ line of work is very diverse. As a CEO, how do you manage to juggle between these different types of events?

It is a hard but joyful job, and it is very rewarding. I am an entrepreneur, event planner and an artistic person, passionate about design, esthetics and beauty, and my intention is to deliver perfect solutions to our clients: this is what makes AEG a unique company. I am lucky to be working with a professional team of experts that deliver great results right on the spot.

AEG also specializes in talent management and booking public figures. Which personalities are you proudest of having worked with?

Honestly, each and every public figure, celebrity, or artist, has his or her own personality and idiosyncrasies. I have worked with so many different famous people, and each one of them has a unique character. To be honest, I have to say I’m proud to have worked with all of them. 

How were you affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which slowed down the event-planning industry because of lockdowns, social distancing and increased health and safety measures?

This is the big shift. We are now living in a new era, as if each science fiction movie we have seen were happening live, right now, or could happen in the very near future. Society and the economy at large were affected by COVID, and the events sector especially so. We are trying our best to create unique virtual concepts with our own special signature. 

To what extent do you think that the event-planning industry will move to the digital world in the future, and how do you envisage your company pivoting to the virtual realm?

Well this is something that’s real, and we can’t escape the fact that this happening; we have to adapt. I think the event-planning industry is going to turn to the virtual whether we like it or not. The big question is: How should we do it, and what will distinguish us in the industry? At AEG, we are hard at work trying to come up with original answers to these questions.