2025 IMMAA Conference in Cairo, Egypt

• IMMAA Communication
• March 18, 2025
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Managing Innovation and Creativity for Sustainability in Media Companies

In today’s high velocity digital media markets and accelerating AI revolution, competence in management and leadership are critical success factors. It is especially important to develop mastery in leveraging creativity as a strategic resource for strengthening competitive advantages in company processes, products, market relationships, and business models. The complexity of digital disruption makes innovation and creativity a necessity for long-term sustainability. Company success requires competencies in emerging digital technologies and fostering organizational cultures that encourage experimentation, agility and respect for ethical responsibilities. Strategic managers are challenged with demands to rethink orientations, practices, and structures, to redesign business models, and to boost productivity by improving efficiencies that can be gained by harnessing AI technologies. Doing so raises ethical and legal issues pertaining to intellectual property rights and managing human creativity.

The 2025 annual conference of the International Media Management Academic Association (IMMAA) invites scholars and industry leaders to collaborate in a professional discourse focused on clarifying what successful media managers and companies are doing, and can do better, in work to navigate the digital media ecology. The conference will facilitate rich dialogue, useful exploration, and knowledge development. Participants will learn about groundbreaking research and collaborate to develop insights at the intersection of management theory and practice applied to media industries.

Research and education in media management and economics can play an invaluable role in collaborative work to develop more robust theoretical frameworks employing varied methods in diverse contexts. This is essential to both advance scholarly discourse and improve the applied value of research. Achieving advances requires adhering to sound scientific principles and maintaining concerted efforts to generate deep insights derived from empirical data and cases about how media markets and industries are changing and how they are developing management and leadership competencies to effectively balance challenges and opportunities in digital media markets. Diverse methods are needed to investigate complex, nuanced industry dynamics from different perspectives to produce more holistic understandings. As media industries navigate the uncertainties of an AI-driven transformation process that is just beginning and rapidly gaining speed, with profound implications for media companies and industries, interdisciplinary approaches that integrate a variety of management theories and empirical methods are essential to develop deep insights and produce actionable knowledge.

Topics of Interest include but are not limited to the following broad categories of research:

• Innovation in management theory and practice in the digital media environment.
• Trends in market strategies and product development.
• Leadership approaches and skills that foster creativity to produce innovation.
• Developments in business model designs conducive to sustainability.
• Developments in AI business analytics to enhance data-driven decision-making.
• Managing creativity and content creation as a core strategic resource.
• The impact of internationalization on local media markets.
• Cross-cultural and global perspectives on media management practice and theory.
• Ethical frameworks and social responsibility related to AI.
• Case studies of successful innovation in media companies today.

Disciplinary Dimensions include but are not limited to:

a. Analysis of Industry and Market Trends:
Analyzing developments in the media industry with a focus on clarifying trends and market dynamics with implications for sustainable growth and resilience in high velocity markets.

b. Approaches and Methods for Managing Creative Work and Workers:

Research about how media organizations are managing creative work and workers as a core strategic resource for competitive success and sustainability.

c. Advances and Transformations in Digital Media Technology:
Research about the transformative impact of advances in digital technology, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence, on media companies and industries and implications.

d. Continuity and Change in Media Consumption:
Research to clarify persistent patterns, developing trends, and shifts in media consumption across populations in various dimensions.

e. Media Policy and Regulation Affecting Media Systems:
Studies investigating the substance and trends of media policy and regulations in today’s rapidly changing digital environment and implications for competition and sustainability.

f. Advances in Advertising, Marketing, and Branding:
Research on trends and developments in strategies and practices in advertising, marketing, and branding.

g. Opportunities and Complications in Cross-Cultural Management:
Research addressing challenges and opportunities involved with managing work communities characterized by high or increasing diversity.

h. Curriculum and Pedagogy in Media Management and Economics Education:
Studies and cases demonstrating development in educational strategies and practices in the integration of digital technologies, innovative teaching methods, and interdisciplinary approaches to enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and practical application in the evolving media landscape.

Welcome to Cairo!

Cairo is a captivating city that blends a rich and unique heritage with vibrant modernity as one of the most influential cities in the MENA region. Cairo is an ideal location for the 2025 IMMAA conference. The city boasts iconic must-see landmarks that are wonders of the world and must-see experiences, including the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, cruising on the Nile River, and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Cairo has a dynamic cultural scene with contemporary art galleries, bustling markets, and a diverse and delicious culinary scene. The American University of Cairo is an influential center of research and education in the region that is energetically preparing to host a conference that will provide ample opportunities for engagement, collaboration and intellectual exchange. Join your colleagues from around the world as we together explore the heritage and wonder of Cairo while engaging in an enriching, and through provoking conference.

Mark Your Calendar

June 15, 2025:  Deadline for abstract/panel proposal submissions

July 7, 2025:  Notification of acceptance

July 7 – September 15, 2025: Early Registration

September 16- October, 7, 2025: Late Registration

October 17-19: the 2025 IMMAA Conference in Cairo

17 October: Pre-conference activities including a welcome reception

18-19 October: #IMMAA_Egypt Annual Conference

Registration Fees

• Registration link and accommodation venues will be announced in due time.

Submission Guideliens

1. Guidelines for abstract submissions

Abstract submissions for the 2025 IMMAA conference are invited as paper proposals. Please submit extended abstracts (750-1000 words maximum excluding references).

The abstract should clarify the following evaluation criteria:

• The paper focus and its importance to the field.  If reporting an empirical study, explain the research purpose, context, questions, and the relevance to media management scholarship. If a theoretical study, explain the rationale, links to key literature, outline of the argument, and the implications.
• If empirical, provide an overview of the methods employed, analytical steps, and reflections on data.
• An overview of key tentative results, or if not yet completed anticipated outcomes.
• Tentative contributions to theory and practice.  

All abstract submissions will be chosen based on the results of a double-blind peer review process. All submissions should be sent to: immaaegypt2025@aucegypt.edu

• Guidelines for panel proposals

Submissions of panel proposals should include a 300-word explanation of the title and purpose of the panel, the panelists and their affiliations, with abstracts of 300 words on the focus of each presentation and a 100-word short bio of each panelist and the panel organizer/chair.

Panel submissions will also be subject to a double peer-review process. All submissions should be sent to: immaaegypt2025@aucegypt.edu

PLEASE NOTE:

For both paper and panel proposals, please include the following data for the submission:

• Your name and the names of any other authors / contributors
• Affiliation/s,
• Email addresses
• Short bio for each author or panelist (100 words max)

The American University in Cairo (AUC)

Located in Cairo at the heart of the Middle East and North Africa, AUC is a leading American-accredited institution of higher education and a center of intellectual, social and cultural life in the MENA region. Established in 1919, over the more than 100 years of its history to date AUC has balanced a strong commitment to liberal arts education with a focus on the region’s needs in practical applications and professional specializations. The AUC campus boasts modern, technologically advanced facilities that enhance the learning experience of students and support faculty research and teaching.

Hosted under AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), the Journalism and Mass Communication Department (JRMC) is the largest department in GAPP, boasting two undergraduate degrees and a master’s program that have been recognized for excellence nationally, regionally and internationally.

We look forward to welcoming you to the 19th IMMAA conference in Cairo at AUC from Oct. 17-19. Please visit the IMMAA website, www.immaa.org, or the conference website https://immaaegypt.com for more details and routine updates about the conference program, travel information, and accommodation options.

Questions or other inquiries should be emailed to the onsite organizers at: immaaegypt2025@aucegypt.edu  If you want to know more about AUC, please visit https://www.aucegypt.edu/