The 18th annual Radio Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union is being held on 10 and 11 May 2012 in Stockholm. Organized by Swedish Radio and chaired by Alain Massé of Radio France, the Assembly, one of the major public service radio events, will bring together around 80 members of senior management from over 50 broadcasting organizations.

Participants will be welcomed by Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, the Swedish Minister of Culture, as well as by the Director of Swedish Radio, Mats Svegfors, and the Vice-Chairwoman, Cilla Benkö.

With the new Director of the EBU Media Department, Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, in attendance, participants will discuss the role and objectives of the new department. The Assembly will also provide an opportunity for organizations to learn about their fellow Members’ achievements during the past year.

However, this year’s agenda will focus primarily on the challenges facing EBU Radio Members at a time of explosive growth in technological innovation and structural shifts in audiences. Guest speakers and participants will discuss best practices and strategies on how to take optimal advantage of these new technologies and how to adapt their services to new listener needs.

One whole session will be devoted to young listeners and the demands of this multiplatform generation with respect to music and the links between traditional radio and such new players as Spotify.

There will be two sessions on the new challenges in the area of information: journalism 3.0 and journalism after Wikileaks, concluding with discussions on the multimedia approach, videos on the radio and relations with the social networks.

After these intensive working sessions, delegates will have a chance to relax during an evening at the Vasa Museum and a guided tour of Skeppsholmen, one of Stockholm’s most beautiful islands, to round out this Radio Assembly, a high point of the EBU agenda.