After a successful event in Stockholm, Sweden last summer, the World Poker Congress is coming together again in 2007. The 2007 World Poker Congress meetings were announced last week to be held at the Westin Dragonara Resort at St. Julian’s, Malta, from November 29-30.

For the second straight year the keynote speakers for the event will be WPT founder Steve Lipscomb and World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. The World Poker Congress is described as a coming together of both the online and live poker industry to examine ways both worlds can work together to produce growth. With the changes in the landscape of poker both online and around the world in the last year, they should have plenty to talk about.

Some of the notable topics on the agenda at this year’s World Poker Congress include rakes, running tournaments, fraud, and one of the most important to both sides – ways to expand product range in today’s financial climate.

When it comes to the discussions on running tournaments, Jeffrey Pollack might want to take a few notes on ways to improve next year’s WSOP. The 2007 WSOP wasn’t run horribly, but when things went wrong they really went wrong. The bad cards fiasco and the idiotic poker tent idea were just a few of the problems that presented themselves at this year’s WSOP. If the player numbers begin growing again and even more people end up at the 2008 WSOP, there will need to be some big changes made in order to make things smoother for players, dealers and spectators.

The No. 1 thing on most attendees’ minds at the World Poker Congress will likely be how to expand their business. More business equals more money, which is of course what business is all about. Anyone who plays poker should be highly interested in what goes on at those talks. For poker to truly succeed and have a chance at getting fully into the U.S. market on sound legal ground, the best minds in poker need to devise plans and strategies and this looks like the best platform on which to do it.