Eighty participants, 50 papers, thirteen panels – EMMA 2010 got underway Friday on 5 February at the University of Westminster’s Regent Street campus and promises to be the most well-attended event to date.

Delegates were welcomed by EMMA president Lucy Küng and the research director of the University’s School of Media Arts and Design, Peter Goodwin.

With plenary sessions on the changing media ecosystem and new developments within the television industry, delegates can look forward to a wide-ranging programme as well as opportunities to exchange ideas and network between sessions and at the two evening events.

The proceedings will culminate with the annual EMMA gala dinner and the presentation of the 2010 best paper prize and EMMA’s Annual Award. Issues addressed in break-out panels will range from the role of public service broadcasters as ‘culture hubs’ in networked society through to online innovation in publishing companies, strategic human resource management in digital broadcast organisations, and the impact of the internet on changing radio consumption patterns.

“It has been gratifying to see the sheer breadth of the submissions,” said EMMA president, Lucy Küng. “As might be expected in a diverse organisation like EMMA, the variety of approaches to the conference theme has been extremely wide. Nonetheless, the membership has taken to the core theme – The Changing Ecology of Media – with considerable enthusiasm.”

Küng added: “As well as looking at the changing environment, many of the papers are looking at new models and approaches for the future – just as we hoped.”

Fittingly, for a conference dealing with the future of the media, the first day’s proceedings will take place in Westminster’s Regent Street campus, the venue in 1896 for the British debut of the Lumière brothers, Cinématographe.