The 2008 Television from the Nations & Regions Conference is organised by the International Media Centre at the University of Salford and the North West Regional Development Agency.

Northwest Regional Development Agency

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is one of nine regional development agencies established by the government to develop the English regions.

The NWDA is responsible for the sustainable economic development and regeneration of England's Northwest and has 5 key priorities: Business, Skills and Education, People and Jobs, Infrastructure and Quality of Life.

Our main role is to drive forward the economic regeneration of the region through encouraging the integration of funding regimes and the cohesive delivery of national, regional, and local expenditure programmes.

Our budget is currently £1.5 billion over the next 3 years. Working with sub-regional partners to provide practical solutions to local problems, we aim to directly influence £1.2 billion of economically focussed expenditure every year to support the delivery of the Regional Economic Strategy.

We are advocates for the Northwest, forging a clear identity for the region, whilst supporting and maintaining partnerships, joining up initiatives and making the best use of the region's resources. Through these initiatives the NWDA is now firmly established and well positioned to provide the leadership to bring about economic growth and prosperity throughout England's Northwest.

International Media Centre: Director, Professor Ron Cook

Established in 1993, the IMC is an innovative partnership project that brings together academic excellence and the media and communications industries.  It is an independent Centre of the University of Salford and founded the annual Television from the Nations and Regions conference in 1994 which it has continued to organise.

The IMC initiates conferences, publications, research and consultancy and provides training and production facilities.  The Centre offers postgraduate  courses in TV Documentary, Scriptwriting, Fiction Film Production, Journalism, Music Composition and Performance and a doctoral programme.  It also provides offices for a range of organisations and independent production companies.  The Centre has enjoyed long-term relationships with leading broadcasters and has a long-term education, training and programme supply partnership with Channel M, Manchester’s own local TV station.

The IMC also has international partnerships with film and media schools in Cuba, China, Finland and Spain.

The University of Salford has a major commitment to Media education, training and research and is currently exploring the opportunities represented by mediacity:uk to provide a new campus for the Faculty of Arts and Media within this major development.