Online digital business and academic leaders from across the UK were expected to meet in Bradford today to hear about plans for the National Media Museum’s new Internet Gallery.

The gallery, to be launched in 2012 as an online resource and physical space in the museum, aims to reflect and interact with the story of the internet.

Plans also include opportunities to develop and showcase expertise in digital and online industries throughout the region.

Museum director Colin Philpott said: “We are delighted to welcome so many leaders and experts in various fields of new media to find out about this new gallery.

“After two-and-a-half years of fundraising we will soon be able to offer our visitors a unique and unrivalled exploration into the way the internet has changed, and continues to change, our lives.”

The £2 million project will explore themes, including the origins of the internet, global communications, online identity and the nature of digital communities and businesses.

Curator of new media Tom Woolley said: “It is incredibly exciting for the National Media Museum to be looking at this important and contemporary subject matter.”

The Internet Gallery Future Vision event was due to be held at the museum this evening.

Contributors were due to include Ben Hammersley, of Wired magazine and head of digital at SIX Creative, Helen Milner, managing director of UK Online Centre, and David Judge, creative director of retail and branding design agency Judge Gill.

A group of guests from digital media businesses, including the founders of Freeserve, the Guardian Media Group, Future Everything, Northern Net, Manchester Digital Development Agency, along with Bradford University and Manchester Metropolitan University, were due to attend.