The World Communications Forum Association (WCFA) successfully concluded the Davos Communications Summit & Awards 2025, held on April 10–11 at the Davos Congress Centre in Davos, Switzerland. The two-day event gathered nearly 100 senior communication professionals, CEOs, policy advisors, and academics from over 20 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America.

The program featured a diverse range of speakers addressing critical topics such as AI integration, trust in public institutions, values-driven leadership, and the evolving role of PR in politics and business. Keynote speeches were delivered by Paul Holmes, founder of PRovoke Media, Lord Evans of Sealand, former General Secretary of the UK Labour Party, and Mary Beth West, a senior strategist and communications ethicist.

WCFA President Maxim Behar summed it up perfectly: “This event didn’t just reflect where the communications industry is today, but also where we’re heading. From digital transformation to future trends and AI, we’ve just seen the beginning of what will define the next decade. We’re already looking ahead to the next edition of Davos Communications Summit in April 2026, where more brilliant minds will come together to explore the future and how we can shape, lead, and master the digital landscape.”

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WCFA is pleased to welcome PR Powerhouse as its newest Corporate Member. PR Powerhouse is a leading PR-led integrated marketing and communications agency with a strong presence across Africa. The company specialises in delivering comprehensive B2B and B2B2C solutions that helporganisations shape and protect their reputations, enhance visibility, and drive sustainable growth in key markets.

PR Powerhouse’s expertise spans strategic communications, reputation management, thought leadership, and integrated marketing, with a deep commitment to understanding the complexities of the African landscape. PR Powerhouse is known for its dedicated team passionate about collaboration, creativity and agility – partnering with clients to achieve meaningful impact across a range of industries.

To become a WCFA member, please apply here.

I’m in Davos this week, attending the World Communications Forum Association’s Davos Communications Summit, a gathering of global communicators grappling with some of the most urgent questions facing our profession today.

The keynote speaker, Paul Holmes, founder and chair of PRovoke Media, delivered a message that was as unflinching as it was necessary. One that should be echoing across every boardroom, agency, and leadership teams, a tour de force: part history lesson, part industry reckoning, and part call to arms. Holmes didn’t mince words. Public relations, he argued, is no longer about what we say, it’s about what companies do. And increasingly, it’s about what we see coming before anyone else does.

What Holmes delivered was more than a retrospective. It was a wake-up call for anyone in the business of reputation, stakeholder trust, or leadership counsel. We live in an era of permanent disruption, political instability, social volatility, environmental collapse, and technological acceleration, yet most corporate communicators are still optimising campaigns, polishing press releases, or measuring sentiment. Meanwhile, the rules of corporate engagement have changed entirely. We are not in the persuasion business anymore. We are in the pattern recognition business.

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With over two decades of experience in corporate communication and leadership positions across various organizations, making significant contributions, Thabisile Phumo made waves with her expertise and innovative approach to corporate communications.

Today as the Executive Vice President: Stakeholder Relations at Sibanye-Stillwater and Executive Committee Member of the World Communications Forum Association, Thabisile leads from the forefront.

Let us learn more about Thabisile’s professional life.

The Journey Begins

Thabisile Phumo had always planned on pursuing an academic career after qualifying as a corporate communications practitioner 27 years ago. This because her career began at the University of South Africa where she was exposed to academics leading in the communication field. However, with limited experience, she decided to venture into the industry first, believing it would benefit her future academic aspirations.

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Article by Zsofia Lakatos, Managing Director at Emerald Public Relations (Hungary) and WCFA Global Advisory Board Member.

I was recently judging a prestigious communications competition and was shocked to find that there is still no healthy link between the advertising and PR professions. What’s more: there is no relationship at all.

Better and better communication solutions are submitted to the jury - but all of them are sorely lacking something to make them truly effective, truly rounded. I suspect this is because many advertising professionals have no idea what PR people do. Years ago, when I worked for a large communications agency, my colleagues and I used to have a lot of fun being cautiously eyed by people in other divisions. They would come and look at us like we were bazaar monkeys.

Being interesting to others would not be a problem. If they would take - and we would take - that one step to bring us closer to the other. I'm genuinely interested in what goes on in the mind of a creative director, how a digital professional works and what a media buyer does all day. I'd like to believe that there are people who are genuinely interested in what a PR professional does all day and why clients pay more or less for their work.

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My business – interview with Zsófia Lakatos, owner-CEO of Emerald PR, former President, and Member Emeritus of the Hungarian PR Association

- What do you consider the highlight of your career so far?
I can't name one thing, because a career path is not a mountain you climb and enjoy the view, it's more like a mountain range, with ups and downs. It meant a lot to me when I was elected President of the Hungarian PR Association ten years ago, the same year my book on sustainability was published in London and I was the first person in Hungary to receive the "Professional Ambassador of Sustainability" award. An important highlight beforehand, back in 2008 was when I became the Managing Director of Hill+Knowlton Hungary - at the age of 33 - and again in 2015 when, at the age of 40 and having 3 children, I had the courage to give it all up and founded my own agency Emerald PR, an affiliate of Burson Cohn&Wolfe. One outstanding moment for me was being elected Member Emeritus of the Hungarian PR Association on its 30th anniversary and when - as an international success - I was invited to the Advisory Board of the World Communications Forum Association.

- How far ahead are you planning?
In the current polycrisis period, it is almost impossible or very difficult to plan, so I prefer to think in terms of Plan B. And plans C and D. In addition to Emerald PR, I founded a crisis management company Crisis112, a sustainability consultancy BSP and most recently, a training broker agency Emerald Academy. And these are just my professional adventures.

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Since its creation in 2000, Datawords Group has established itself as a leader in e-multicultural technologies, forging the term Multicultural Ingenuity to reflect its capacity to support brands in the deployment of their digital marketing and technology strategies on an international scale.

Multicultural at its core, Datawords has developed a unique know-how and expertise in adapting its clients' technologies, strategies and digital content to a local audience, while respecting their brand image. The deployment of international campaigns poses a real challenge for major global brands, with linguistic and technical constraints, as well as cultural preferences, that can make a single global campaign impossible. Datawords relies on both MULTI digital expertise and CULTURAL adaptation of brand content across more than 50 languages and countries to capture local relevancy.

To reinforce its position in the Chinese market, Datawords announces the acquisition of the award-winning integrated communication company Switching-Time, founded in Shanghai, China. Established in 2012, Switching-Time serves a prestigious set of clients in the fashion, beauty, luxury and lifestyle industries. Over the years, it has expanded its offering to cover the full breadth of digital marketing services, including public relations (e-PR), influencer digital marketing and social media.

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