'Insider' Morgan to keynote at Media and Marketing conference

Speaking on the Power of Celebrity, Morgan is set to be as controversial in person as he is on television.

"It's like a drug. Fame is very intoxicating. It ruins people's psyches, ruins their personalities, it makes them greedy, it makes them egocentric, it makes them selfish and can be a very corrosive thing. I've seen people who handle it very well, people like Simon Cowell, who keep a very healthy view of it all. But then you see other people like the Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton brigade and it just wrecks them," said Morgan, speaking to Arabian Business magazine prior to travelling to Dubai to speak at the conference.

Morgan, whose acerbic performances on America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent have transformed not only his career but those of ordinary people, left the Daily Mirror after ten years as its editor following a scandal over allegedly fake pictures of British soldiers maltreating Iraqi prisoners. A vocal opponent of British involvement in the invasion of Iraq, Morgan documented his time in British newspapers in his best-selling autobiography 'The Insider'. Recruited by Sun editor Kelvin MaKenzie to edit the newspapers entertainment column, he was subsequently appointed as editor of the News of the World by proprietor Rupert Murdoch - a move that saw Morgan, at 28, become the youngest editor of a British newspaper since the Second World War.

With a career that saw more than one brush with the British Press Complaints Commission effectively ended when he left the Daily Mirror, Morgan proceeded to reinvent himself with a number of media moves (including a role in the purchase of the British Press Gazette) which culminated in his becoming a celebrated talent show judge alongside Simon Cowell in America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent.

"I'm actually quite proud of the portfolio of different types of work I've built up because a lot of people when they're fired as editors just either just become PR men because there's very little alternative or they just melt away into obscurity. I was absolutely determined that wasn't going to happen to me," Morgan states.

A regular Mail on Sunday columnist, Morgan also presents British TV show You Can't Fire Me, I'm Famous. Morgan has been involved in a number of highly public feuds with other public figures, adding to a reputation as a highly colourful media figure.

Professing to love his new-found fame, Morgan denies his career has become dominated by frivolity: "Why would I want to do serious work when I can walk out in front of 1,000 people in the audience on America's Got Talent and 25 million Americans watching at home and perform?" he asked Arabian Business.

The Media and Marketing Conference is to take place on November 11th and 12th 2007 at the Sheikh Rashid Hall at the Dubai International Convention Centre and will see major speeches from key media figures including Emaar chairman Mohammed Alabbar, Al Jazeera Network director general Wadah Khanfar, Etihad Airways CEO

James Hogan, The One founder Thomas Lundgren, Hydra Properties chairman Dr. Sulaiman Al Fahim and IAA President Joseph Ghossoub. The conference is being hosted by the BBC Television presenter and ITP chairman Andrew Neil.

Piers Morgan's interview in Arabian Business will be available in the November 4th edition of the magazine and also online.