The event will take place at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Hotel, recently chosen as the most anticipated hotel opening of 2012 by the Forbes Travel Guide, on October 30-31. The evening of the 30th will also feature a Global SABRE Awards dinner, which will bring together the winners from events in the Americas, the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and Asia-Pacific regions to identify and celebrate the world’s best public relations campaigns.

Holmes Report founder Paul Holmes stated, “At a time when the public relations activities—engaging employees, building authentic brands, elevating corporate responsibility, and playing a constructive role in shaping public policy—are more vital to organizational success than ever, it is time for an annual industry event that is global in scope and strategic in focus.

“We are looking to bring together an audience of industry leaders to discuss critical industry issues and celebrate best practice from around the world. The fact that so many of the leaders on the agency side of the business have signed on to support this initiative is evidence that this is an idea whose time has come.”

Invited attendees will include senior communications professionals recognized in The Holmes Report’s Influence 100 list of the 100 most important in-house communicators in the world—the second edition of that report will be unveiled at the event—as well as members of public relations leadership organizations.

The conference will feature plenary speakers, panel discussions, and breakout sessions focusing on “The Influence Imperative.” That will include an emphasis on the ways in which public relations can increase its influence within organizations—addressing issues as diverse as talent acquisition, content creation, and measurement and evaluation—and the ways in which organizations can increase their influence across an increasingly informed and engaged stakeholder universe, with sessions on employee engagement, brand-building, crisis communications and crisis PR, community relations and corporate responsibility across multiple industry sectors.

The vast majority of the sessions will be highly interactive, with an emphasis on dialogue between the panelists and the audience, an acknowledgement of the fact that all of the senior level attendees have much to contribute to the discussion.

Partners are also being encouraged to present new research at the conference to serve as a starting point for discussion and debate and to add to the industry’s body of knowledge.

Barack Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, shattered more than 200 years of history Tuesday night by winning election as the first African-American president of the United States.

A crowd of nearly a quarter-million jammed Grant Park and the surrounding area in Chicago, where Obama addressed the nation for the first time as its president-elect at midnight ET. Hundreds of thousands more — Mayor Richard Daley said he would not be surprised if a million Chicagoans jammed the streets — watched on a large television screen outside the park.

“If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” Obama declared.