Top international training experts to transfer critical skills to practitioners at PR Congress in Dubai December 10 & 13

Internationally recognised training experts in four key disciplines critical to the public relations industry will be conducting intensive training courses on the first and last days of the Public Relations Congress organised by IIR, to be held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai 10-13 December. The courses will cover disciplines critical to the development of the industry, including writing, evaluation, crisis management, and broadcast television presentation skills, led by four leading experts: international news presenter and journalist Alison Bell, top media analyst Richard Bagnall, crisis management expert, Chris Kinsville-Heyne and Scottish broadcast journalist Fiona Ross.

"These workshops are the very heart and soul of the Public Relations Congress," said Jennie Bishop, IIR's Conference Director for the Public Relations Congress. "Our overriding aim for this event is to raise the standards of the local public relations profession in the Middle East and provide practitioners with the practical training that makes this possible. The workshops have been designed to expose practitioners working in the region with world-class training."

Professional broadcast journalist and presenter Alison Bell will lead Workshop A, "Writing Skills Masterclass - Making Your News Releases Work for You" on the Saturday morning, 10 December. The interactive session provides a professional foundation for news release writing, covering why a news release is necessary, how to angle a story, what to include and what not to include, who to send it to, when to send it, how to capture a journalist's interest and an examination of structure, layout and content.

Alison Bell brings over 20 years experience in broadcasting journalism, having anchored many high-profile programmes, including the Sky News breakfast programme Sunrise among many other television projects. She has also is a regular host on several radio stations and has presented LBC's breakfast and drivetime shows as well as BBC Radio Five Live's Up All Night.

Metrica Managing Director Richard Bagnall leads an afternoon workshop on Saturday, the 10th covering one of the most important emerging disciplines in the public relations industry, "Effective Measurement, Evaluation and Analysis of PR Performance." Bagnall will explain why measurement and evaluation is important for PR, what the PR industry can learn from competing marketing disciplines, different approaches to measure PR, how to measure a PR campaign and moving from measuring output to outcomes.

As Managing Director of Metrica, one of the world's leading media analysis and PR planning agencies, Richard worked previously for 16 years in the public relations arena. Over the last decade he has built Metrica into a formidable institution consistently recognised for its excellent results.

Chris Kinsville-Heyne will lead an intensive workshop on "Effective Crisis Management Techniques: Perceptions are Crucial" in the morning of Tuesday 13 December, the final day of the PR Congress. His session will cover how to define a crisis, characteristics of a crisis, priorities, distribution of responsibilities, building a crisis management team and post-crisis actions, among other subjects.

Dubai-based Chris Kinsville-Heyne has worked for over 15 years a media trainer and over 20 years as a public relations professional, having worked for a wide-range of blue chip clients, including Nokia, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Cisco Systems, and Saudi and Qatar Telecoms. He has trained Ayad Allawi, the Prime Minister of Iraq as well as many CEOs, GMs, Presidents and management teams from global companies throughout the Middle East region.

The PR Congress will culminate on the afternoon of 13 December with a session led by popular broadcast journalist and trainer Fiona Ross, who will give delegates the lowdown on "Facing the Camera: First Impressions Always Count". Ross will advise participants how to develop their TV presentation skills and confidence, how to control their body language, overcome nerves, put across messages, construct a sound bite, deal with various interview forms and cope with difficult questions.

Fiona Ross is a broadcast journalist with over 30 year's experience of radio and television in the UK. For 20 years, until 2001, she served as Political Editor of Scottish Television, Scotland's largest independent television station. In that time she was involved in reporting on a number of major disasters and political events and has interviewed senior UK politicians including Margaret Thatcher and the current Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Currently she works as a freelance broadcaster making television and radio documentaries for BBC and commercial channels. She also presents TV and radio programmes and works as a media skills trainer and consultant to business clients in the UK and the Middle East. During her distinguished broadcasting career she won several awards and in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in June 2005, Fiona was awarded the OBE for services to journalism.

The Public Relations Congress is sponsored by Etisalat, who has been the telecommunications service provider in the United Arab Emirates since 1976, ASDA'A Public Relations, one of the Middle East's leading PR practices and LG Electronics. Trans-Arabian Creative Communications Services (TRACCS), one of the fastest growing and widest reaching practices in the Middle East, is the official public relations partner with Arab Ad, Campaign Middle East and Communicate as official media partners. The Public Relations Congress is being organised in association with MEPRA (Middle East Public Relations Association).