After the successful launch last year of the 1st Dubai Lynx, the Middle East and North Africa Advertising Awards for Creative Excellence, the organisers will extend the competition to a 3-day Festival in 2008.

The 1st Dubai International Advertising Festival will take place from 31 March to 2 April 2008 in the Sheikh Rashid Hall at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, U.A.E. Presented by the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival together with their regional partners, Motivate Publishing, the Dubai International Advertising Festival is held with the support of Dubai Media City ( DMC ) and in association with the UAE Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA).

The Festival will include a seminar programme featuring top international speakers, a series of topical workshops, exhibitions and screenings of the competing work and will culminate in the 2nd Dubai Lynx awards on the evening of 2 April.

Philip Thomas , CEO of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, said, 'We are hugely excited to be working with the creative community in the Middle East and North Africa to generate a great networking platform, as well as helping to raise the creative bar in the region. After last year's overwhelming response to the awards, we are in no doubt that the region will embrace the idea of a fully-fledged Festival.'

'To complement the Dubai Lynx awards and to bring to the Festival an extraordinary learning experience, we will be introducing a fantastic line-up of seminars and workshops presented by a host of leading international and regional industry figures to focus on topical issues. We'll also be launching a Young Creative Print Competition and adding a Media category to the competition', commented Steve Lane, the recently appointed Festival Director.

The UAE Chapter of the International Advertising Association IAA has recently announced that a slate of directors was elected at a special meeting, headed by President Sami Raffoul.

The world’s largest IAA chapter of 270 members chose its 13 board members, with 5 re-elections and 8 new ones, and elected Lance De Masi from American University in Dubai as the Chapter’s Vice-President, Ghassan Harfouche from MEMS as Treasurer and Faris Abouhamad from Resonance Interone Middle East as Secretary General, joining Sami Raffoul from PARC in the Chapter’s executive committee, elected by the board itself.

Marwan Rizk, IAA’s Area Director, said: "We are pleased to welcome our newly elected board members, and we do believe that their experience will serve as a complement to the vast experience of our re-elected members. We have a top-notch board that will continue to help drive the advertising world in the region towards achieving its goal of improving the industry practices, standards, and developing the human resources, through delivering on well focussed strategies.“
Within the same lines, Sami Raffoul, President, IAA UAE Chapter commented:“ The input of the board members is invaluable in ensuring that IAA is able to adapt world-leading expertise and innovative advertising ethos to the unique conditions of local markets. We look forward to execute our vision with fresh and exquisite approaches.”

Along with the executive committee, the directors of the board are Barry Gray (Gray Business Communications), Rajeev Khanna (Gulf News), Eric Hanna (Grey Advertising), Mohamed Almulla (Dubai Media City), Lars Neilsen (Ameinfo), Kamal Dimachkie (Leo Burnett), Nassib Boueri (Wunderman), Elie Khouri (OMD) and Marwan Kai (MIS Gulf). Tanvir Khanji (INCA Tanvir), the out-going IAA UAE Chapter President, will continue to serve the board as its Advisor, ensuring smooth transition and activities’ continuity.

The UAE Chapter board elections occurs every two years, with an exceptional one year extension to the previous board, following through the IAA World Congress which took place in first half of 2006.

The IAA UAE Chapter was founded in 1979 and has a membership base of nearly 270. The Chapter is currently the largest chapter in the world and has won the Chapter Award for Excellence twice.