Complex times call for comprehensive expertise to reach solutions, and the increasingly networked state of the global energy business has underlined the importance of similarly global gatherings like the World Energy Congress.

Preparations for next year’s 22nd World Energy Congress, scheduled for October 13 through October 17, 2013 in Daegu, South Korea are well underway and the World Energy Council, which hosts the event, announced the first round of confirmed speakers recently.

The diversity of their backgrounds and titles speaks to the proliferating diversity of the energy business even as the sector itself is drawn tighter together by global flows of energy commodities and assets ranging from natural gas to solar panels to the money required to build or upgrade power plants.

The CEO of Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Khalid Al-Falih of Saudi Aramco, will be joined by such figures as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christina Figueres, James Leape of WWF International and infrastructure suppliers like the CEO of Siemens Energy Michael Suess. Roughly 7,000 attendees from 140 countries attended the last World Energy Congress three years ago, World Energy Council Secretary General Christophe Frei said in an announcement confirming the first round of speakers.

“At the Daegu Congress we are gathering not only energy leaders, but also drawing on the knowledge and expertise of experts from across related sectors,” President and CEO of the Korea Electric Power Corporation and Chairman of the Organizing Committee Kim Joong-Kyum said.

Asia’s role in tackling global energy challenges will be a major issue the WEC event plans to tackle. For an earlier interview with KEPCO’s Kim Joong-Kyum with Breaking Energy click here.

For more information on the World Energy Congress and the first round of confirmed speakers, click here.