DUBAI--Anwar Ibrahim, Roger Fisk and Lord Tim Bell lead the speaker line-up at the 20th Public Relations World Congress, held next week in Dubai. 

The conference takes place from 13-15 March at the city's Grand Hyatt hotel, focusing on the theme: ‘From the Arab Street to Wall Street, Communications in the Age of Dialogue.’

Fisk, who started working on the Obama campaign in 2007 and managed a nationwide grassroots fundraising team that redefined modern political fundraising, later served as the Cabinet Liaison for the Presidential Inauguration and is now a presidential appointee in the Obama administration in the Commerce Department. 

Former Malaysian deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim, is a Malaysian opposition leader and leader of Keadilan, the People's Justice Party; Lord Bell, who played a key role in former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s three successful election campaigns is the chairman of Chime Communications.

Other speakers include Al Arabiya TV’s Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed; former Al Jazeera head Wadah Khanfar; Shell comms chief Herbert Heitmann; Huntsworth chairman Lord Chadlington; Bloomberg's Richard Powell; and, Google's Maha Abouelenein.

Sunil John, chairman of the orrganising committee of PRWC Dubai and CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, said: “What sets apart the speakers at the PRWC is that they bring insights that have been shaped by their personal experience working on some of the most defining moments in contemporary history. By sharing their views at the Congress, they will open up new channels of dialogue for the participants.” 

A biennial event, the last Public Relations World Congress was held in 2010 in Lima, Peru, and attended by industry representatives from 39 countries, while the 2008 Public Relations World Congress was held in Beijing, China. The first ever Congress was held in Brussels, Belgium in 1955.