• by Steve McClellan , October 14, 2013

Call it one big chemistry meeting. Dozens of CEOs from Omnicom and Publicis Groupe agencies and other specialist shops within the two companies are gathering in Miami later this week to size one another up, according to sources familiar with the plans.

It will be the first major meeting between the two groups of holding company executives since they announced their pending merger in July.

One source familiar with the upcoming event said it was designed as a “get to know you” kind of meeting for the top tier executive levels of both holding companies. Both holding company CEOs—Publicis Groupe’s Maurice Levy and Omnicom’s John Wren are scheduled to be in attendance, per sources.

“It’s kind of like prospective in-laws meeting for the first time,” quipped one person familiar with the upcoming event which will last for three days starting on Oct. 18.

The merger was announced in late July and could take more than a year to complete given regulatory sign-offs required from the dozens of countries in which the two companies do business. The parties have indicated that they are hoping they can get it done by the first quarter of 2014.

Reps from Omnicom and Publicis didn’t respond to requests for comment about the upcoming C-level pow-wow.