Creative • Business • Strategist
I thrive in creating structure out of chaos.
My expertise is in understanding creative chaos and converting into rational concepts that can be communicated to align others with your vision, mission & strategy.
With a foundation in architectural engineering, design, and seven years as a strategic consultant, I bring a creative yet practical approach to drive your business towards alignment, impact and scaleability.
Roles Consultant | Business and Brand Strategist | UX Researcher | Event curator | Project Management | Content Creator
Industries Technology | Art & Culture | Entertainment | Fashion & Design | Education | Hospitality
Testimonials
“Ms. Alia Sabry (urbn) has been well engaged as an expert in providing a project Concept for one of SIGMA Properties projects , creating and designing a user experience concept for a bookstore and a pop-up cafe and space for artists in Alexandria.
The collaboration with Ms. Sabry and her team was exceptional and they were well able to translate the company’s vision and endeavor with a great presentation and concept. We highly recommend Ms. Sabry for future projects and collaborations."
Karim Mahmoud. Business Development Director at Sigma Properties
“Alia has a rare combination of qualities… she’s super-creative yet practical… she can elevate the mundane to the sacred… she has a way of imagining spaces and human interactions within (and between) that the person in them finds both surprising and reassuring. I worked briefly with Alia but have kept up with what she has been doing in Cairo and Berlin, as a regular ‘user’ and sometimes as a mentor. She is dedicated, talented, creative, and impressive. And having her presence in the team for me was a massive bonus - her energy and her outlook was positive and pushed me and the team to be positive. "
Con O’Donnell, Co-Founder Rise Up
I first met Alia at a multi-media exhibition she was making for Omar Samra about "The Art of Exploration". Her passion and ability to organize an event in a way that not only honors the hard work of the subject, but also focuses on what really matters, truly made the event "envelope pushing."
We quickly became friends, and I quickly took the opportunity to work with her on a rocking chair via her high-end family furniture business - Caravanserai, for one of my commercial interior design projects. After a brainstorming session, Alia came back with an idea of transforming a chair from their existing catalog into a rocking chair. This not only saved us time as a client, it was also a brilliant idea from her as a supplier. The new rocking version of their chair became a hit.
Her creativity, unmatched organizational skills and her natural ability to see the big picture made her the ideal person to start a designers networking group in Cairo that allows us designers to network, share and learn from one another - and most importantly, comforting one another in this crazy field.
So, when Alia recommended me for a project with a client wanting to design a bookstore/cafe/art gallery, I was in. Between all the meetings with clients and the awesome sessions we held privately, I became an even bigger fan of Alia. She not only makes things happen; she also does so with vision, knows who to connect with, impeccably organizes the whole thing and makes you feel like you are on a creative fun vacation while doing so.
Alia, in a nutshell, is multi-disciplinary designer. Be it design, organizing, concept creation, curation or whatever else falls under design and art, Alia is my go to.
Ramzi Makram Ebeid, Founder & Head Designer at Human Nature Design
“I am so glad I found Alia! I was so overwhelmed by all of my ideas that I did not know how to make sense of them to put them into products and offerings. I am so grateful she helped me organize, fill in the gaps, get all my ideas out so that I can see them and now I know how to create my offers! When I met Alia, I said I need someone who could take my ideas and create structure for productizing them! And she delivered! After a few brain dumps, my ideas had a home and a hierarchy of when to use them in my clients journey. Alia listened to how I wanted things setup, my personal preferences were honored during the process and I felt that my personal essence and integrity of my work was intact while she offered a valuable outsider's perspective for the gaps I was missing (because when you’re too close to your own project, you miss things!). This was an extremely valuable experience. If I had not worked with Alia, my idea organization would still be on my to do list causing me anxiety and overwhelm. Having the accountability to do it with Alia was exactly what I needed. Now I have what I need to implement my ideas and follow the structure we created!"
Lauren, Content Creator & Entrepreneur
“Alia joined our team to help us in planning for a new, fresh, young, hip transformation. Her visions for the project were extremely spot on and she was able to dive in and capture the spirit and recommend key changes that needed to happen. Her suggestions were very helpful and accommodating to the tight budget back then. She was balancing between spending and prioritizing the short term and long term work that needed to be done. Alia is an exceptionally talented young architect with an artistic vision. She has all the right ingredients that make for a successful entrepreneur. She has a talent of bringing talented thinkers to brainstorm concepts and vision and is super resourceful in her circle of contacts. Her energy is able to ignite excitement and appetite for team work. She is definitely a free soul belonging to all what is of value in different cultures and backgrounds.
I highly recommend Alia to any workplace or project and team. Her values are beyond words as words are limiting! Her value is in her spirit, brilliant mind and dynamic character that belongs to our new ever shifting world. Best of luck Alia and thank you for your contribution to Diwan during our work together.”
Nihal Shawky, CEO of Diwan Bookstores
"Alia Sabry has been collaborating with me during the last two/three years in a contemporary art/ film project. Alia is a highly creative person with positive values and an impressive work ethic. She is artistic, very intelligent and savvy regarding work flow organisation and new technologies. Alia has lived in Egypt, Germany, the United States and Spain, plus she studied in Denmark briefly, so she is very used to dealing with people from different cultural backgrounds, nationalities and different walks of life. Apart from Arabic and English she speaks fluent Spanish. Her work in Cairo as an art director, event organiser, urbanist and designer, made her even more open, tolerant and capable of resolving complex social challenges and dealing with professional conflicts. Her creative input reflects fundamental issues of our changing world. Alia is passionate about issues as diversity and inclusion, she also highly values dialogue and a sense of humour. Apart from her excellent design, communication and organisation skills, Alia is an efficient and reliable colleague who can work as a team leader or as an active, positive part of any team. She is very sensitive and empathetic, but also strong, independent and in all a very interesting person, who has experienced much more than most people of her generation and is open to new challenges."
Sally Gutierrez, Visual Artist, Non-fiction filmmaker & University Lecturer at Universidad Complutense de Madrid