MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC has announced that it will host a conference on Video journalism on 7 and 8 July in the UK. This is aimed at exchanging ideas on how this medium can be exploited further.

Video journalism is capable of producing compelling content through the use of small, hand-held digital cameras and laptop edits. More than 600 BBC staff have already been through training, changing the way that television news is made. Now, for the first time, video journalists from across Europe are meeting at the BBC's Video Journalism Centre in Newcastle to share ideas and showcase some of their work.

Journalists from countries such as Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands will attend the BBC conference to explore the creativity involved in this kind of filmmaking. Managers from across Europe will also be in attendance to talk about the newsrooms of the future and the challenges and opportunities presented by an entirely VJ driven operation.

The broadcaster states that as multi-channel television continues to develop the challenge will be to find better ways of engaging with its audiences. Through video journalism, BBC Nations and Regions are setting a news agenda which matters to the audience and telling stories in a more intimate and engaging way and often with much greater access than can be achieved with conventional ways of working.