Organised by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC), the third edition of the International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries (PCI) is preparing to host prominent figures in publishing, translation, digital content production, and entrepreneurship from around the world on Sunday, 28 April 2024, at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi.

The event aims to explore the latest trends shaping the publishing and creative industries, as well as new opportunities for growth and collaboration in this field.

The Congress is the first of its kind in the Arab world and seeks to facilitate dialogue among thought leaders, publishers, content creators, and entrepreneurs across diverse creative disciplines. This year’s edition will highlight transformations reshaping the publishing and education industries, discussing the role and impact of emerging technologies and new business models. Moreover, the event aims to create promising partnerships to support the globalisation of Arabic content through dialogues, discussion panels, workshops, career tracks, and professional meetings bringing together key players from various cultural and creative industries from over 50 countries.

The Congress kicks off with a Keynote Discussion titled ‘Foresight of Growth: Cultural and Creative Industries as a Driver for Economy’, featuring H.E. Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), and Mohamed El-Erian, Internationally Acclaimed Economist and President of Queens’ College at the University of Cambridge. The session is moderated by Caroline Faraj, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of CNN Arabic.

Moreover, this year’s Congress discusses ‘The Dynamic Relationship Between Literature and Film Adaptation’ under its Conscious Conversations series, hosting Egyptian actor and director Karim Abdel Aziz; author and screenwriter Ahmed Mourad; and film director Marwan Hamed, in a session moderated by Eisa Al Marzooqi, news presenter and multimedia journalist at Sky News Arabia. Panellists will discuss cinema secrets, mutual influences of literature and cinema, ways to present cinematic works and their purposes, among other topics.

In a panel discussion titled ‘Evolving Consumer Tastes and Consumption in the Era of Multi-Platform Content Creation’, the Congress discusses radical shifts in content consumption patterns with the proliferation of digital platforms and consumers’ growing preference for these channels. The session also highlights patterns and specific characteristics of the content presented to consumers, underlining the strategies that content production companies use to balance meeting consumer aspirations and achieving the goals of various platforms. Featuring Mazen Hayek, consultant, media advisor, former Spokesman and Group Director of MBC Group; Maaz Sheikh, Co-Founder and CEO of STARZPLAY; and Ashley Rite, Vice President of Marketing and Growth at OSN, the session is moderated by Zeina Soufan, senior business news anchor at Asharq Business with Bloomberg.

Under the title ‘Creative Economy and Public and Private Collaboration’, the Congress examines the value and contribution of the creative economy to the local economy, discussing ways to enhance it through partnerships and cooperation across various sectors and geographic regions. The session hosts Rehana Mughal, Director of Creative Economy at the British Council and member of the Creative Industries Council, UK; Park Young Il, Director of Korea Creative Content Agency; and Muna Al Suwaidi, Programmes and Projects Advisor in the Culture and Creative Industries Sector at the UAE Ministry of Culture. Lynn Madi Business reporter, CNN business Arabic, is set to moderate the session.

As part of its efforts to highlight the evolving reality of technology and its impact, the Congress will be hosting a session titled ‘Cross-Border Storytelling through Game Adaptations’, to explore ways to transform stories from various cultures into interactive international games. The session brings together Fawzi Mesmar, Vice President of Global Creative at Ubisoft; Essam Bukhary, CEO of Manga Productions; and Lisa Hansen, CEO of Niko Partners. The session is moderated by Edward Nawotka, a publishing and content industry consultants, and Senior International and Bookselling Editor at Publishers Weekly.

The third International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries offers a platform for extensive discussions on the capabilities, benefits, and role of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the publishing industry, exploring its present and future prospects, as well as the extent of its impact on human relationships in general. To that end, a session titled ‘Beyond Bytes: Impact of Generative AI on Humanity’ will be held, featuring Nadim Sadek, Founder and CEO of Shimmer AI; Hoda Al Khzaimi, Director of the Centre of Cyber Security at New York University Abu Dhabi; and Preslav Nakov, Professor at the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI). Aliah Yacoub, AI and Philosophy Researcher and Head of techQualia at Synapse Analytics, joins the session as moderator.

In line with its commitment to promote the culture of reading across all segments of the community, the Congress will host a discussion panel titled ‘New Readership: Fostering a Love for Reading in the Next Gen’. Participants include Luis Gonzalez, Director General of the GSR Foundation in Spain; Isobel Abulhoul, Co-founder of Magrudy’s Bookshop Chain, Founder, Advisor and Trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation; and Mohamad Al Baghdadi, President and CEO of Al Manhal Arabic Electronic Information Platform. The panel of experts is set to discuss creative and interactive strategies to promote the love of reading in future generations, the importance of interactive content in Arabic, transformative methods to enhance children’s passion for literature, and the role of Arabic storytelling in building a distinctive cultural identity. The session is moderated by Georgia Tolley, Presenter and Radio Host at Dubai Eye 103.8FM.

Moreover, the Congress will conduct a wide range of workshops, panel discussions, and presentations involving experts from regional and international institutions, such as Google, Manga Productions, Roya Academy, Nielsen, Shorooq Partners, Sawt Platform, Majarra, and others. These sessions aim to enhance practical and technical skills for young talents, publishers, and specialists in media and content production; they cover a range of topics related to various skills from digital journalism to Arabic screenwriting, content creation for social media, and Extended Reality (XR) in storytelling, in addition to discussions about audio content, podcasts, home studios, anime, graphic novels, and visual novels.

The Congress PCI, in partnership with Frankfurt Book Fair, is presenting a training session for UAE and Arab publishers on pitching and negotiating publishing IP (intellectual property) rights. The session will be moderated by Claudia Kaiser, Vice President Business Development at Frankfurt Book Fair, featuring Sarika Lakhani, Managing Partner and Producer at ‘One Fine Day Films’ and Stu Levy, Founder and CEO at TOKYOPOP, the pioneer agency that brings Asian Pop Culture to Hollywood and beyond.

In collaboration with Bears Factor literary agency, the Congress is organising the Professional Exchange Sessions, bringing together Emirati and Arab publishers, literary agents, and international creatives from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Japan, China, Greece, and South Korea, among others. The sessions aim to strengthen efforts to transfer Arabic written works into creative formats and multiple languages, set robust foundations for collaboration, foster openness to global content production markets, enhance the exchange of intellectual property, provide a platform for participants to expand their networks and develop their projects, and ultimately expand the reach of Arabic creative content.

In another notable addition to its programme, this year’s Congress PCI is launching the Congress X for Youth competition, in collaboration with Unipreneur, to motivate and engage young people aged 15-35 to present their ideas and solutions for employing technology to enhance Arabic language learning and support creative talents in arts, media, and poetry.

Technology Innovation Institute (TII), a global research centre and applied research pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council, has launched NOOR, the world’s largest Arabic natural language processing (NLP) model to date. The project will be showcased within the Expo area alongside other participants demonstrating digital products that support the Arabic language.

The media coverage will be provided by several local and international media outlets, and in partnership

with CNN Business, the Arabic business news partner; and Sky News Arabia, the Arabic broadcast partner; offering diverse insights into the rich programme of the Congress.

For more information about activities and to register for the Congress, please visit the event’s official website