Empowering Media Innovation: Highlights from the 22nd emma Conference in Rome

IMMAA Communication
October 2, 2025
Newsletter
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Members of the emma board at LUISS Business School, Villa Blanc, Rome

Scholars gather at LUISS Villa Blanc to tackle sustainable, human-centered solutions, explore global synergies, and address the growing impact of AI in media management

The 22nd annual conference of the European Media Management Association (emma) took place in Rome in June 2025, gathering a vibrant community of media scholars and professionals to discuss the future of the creative industries. Castulus Kolo and Mercedes Medicina, members of the IMMAA executive board, served as president and vice president of emma for the past two years, with their terms regularly concluding at the end of the Rome conference. They authored the following overview and reflection on the key themes, innovations, and collaborative opportunities highlighted during the event for the IMMAA Newsletter.

Castulus Kolo

President, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences

Mercedes Medina

Full Professor, School of Communication, University of Navarra

In June 2025, we held the 22nd annual conference of the European Media Management Association (emma) in Rome, attended by about 120 scholars of all seniority levels and from all over Europe (and beyond). The theme of the conference was “Empowering Media through Sustainable and Human-centered Innovations”. Contributions encompassed today’s challenges of media companies and other players in the creative industries, like digitalization, change, and the crisis of traditional business models in general, and also with a particular emphasis on the increasing role and impact of AI. The conference was hosted by the LUISS Business School on its main campus, Villa Blanc, an eclectic late 19th-century historical and artistic treasure – one of the most enchanting villas in the city, surrounded by lush gardens. We also had the opportunity to explore synergies between emma and the major global academic communities in the field: the International Media Management Academic Association (IMMAA) and the World Media Management Conference. For the latter two international institutions, a process to evaluate a potential merger was presented. We had the honor to discuss the current and potential roles of academic associations in a presentation related to a potential merger, together with Greg Lowe (President of IMMAA), Eli Noam (Former President of IMMAA), Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska (Host of the 2025 WMEMC), and Leona Achtenhagen (Current President of emma).”