The programme for Future Week 2026 is coming soon.
Future Week 2026 takes place at Media City Bergen on 23–24 September. This year, we explore three questions that every media leader, technologist and journalist needs to grapple with right now.
What will AI change – and what will remain human? Artificial intelligence is transforming every part of the media industry. But the most important question is not what machines can do – it is what they cannot. We explore how AI reshapes journalism, what it means for editorial integrity, and where human judgement remains irreplaceable.
Who do you trust – and why does it matter more than ever? Disinformation is faster, cheaper and more convincing than ever before. Synthetic content is indistinguishable from real. And audiences are losing faith. We ask how media organisations rebuild trust, defend the information space – and prepare for the threats that keep security chiefs up at night.
What separates the winners from the rest? Some media companies are thriving. Most are not. The difference is not luck – it is the ability to build products people pay for, reach audiences on their own terms, and make strategic decisions that hold up over time. We look at the business models, the leadership choices and the technology bets that define the next generation of media.
Future Week Program - September 23 & 24
Reinventing NTB: From traditional newsagency to mediatech company with clients in 22 countries.
Tina Mari Flem, NTB
News as it happens. For NTB this is no longer only about being the Norwegian media's right hand in providing breaking news from the world. Now it is also about providing technology for news that sets the global standard for a speedy and safe workflow. Hear about NTBs transformation from traditional wire service to technology-driven product organisation with international ambitions - the journey, the challenges and delightful surprises. Now delivering «made in Norway» mediatech to over 22 countries.
Leading When the Lights Go Out
Kaj Backman, Yle
Kaj Backman, Head of Preparedness at Yle News and Sports, will explore how preparedness has become a core leadership responsibility in public service media. Backman will outline the three pillars of preparedness - informational, technological, and mental - and address a fundamental paradigm shift: moving from centralized, bunker-based solutions to decentralized, cloud-based, and mobile operations.
This shift demands leadership that releases traditional control, builds organizational autonomy, and trusts teams to function anywhere, anytime. Backman will emphasize the democratic responsibility of leading a society-critical organization: "Every country has media—either its own or someone else's." Preparing for the worst not only strengthens crisis resilience but also enhances everyday operations - making preparedness a competitive advantage in an uncertain world.
The Great Media Shift
Maxwell Tani, Semafor
The US media landscape has radically changed. Legacy publishers and broadcasters have given way to new digital media outlets, which in turn have been disrupted by algorithmic-driven platforms and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. Trust in traditional media has continued to erode, as an increasingly large share of the public gets its information (and entertainment) from individuals and creators. Political figures and communications professionals are trying new ways to deliver their message, while journalists and legacy media outlets are rushing to adopt new media tactics to remain relevant to audiences. This talk will focus on shifting media consumption habits, and how those changes are reshaping business, culture, and politics in America. What can European media take from the American experience, and how much time do they have to act?
What the DPP Media CTO and Tech CEO Surveys tell us about the State of the Media Industry
Edward Qualtrough, Editorial Director - DPP
The DPP Media CTO Surveys reveal the investment priorities and technology transformation programmes at major media, news, broadcasting and entertainment companies, while the DPP Media Tech CEO Surveys highlight the strategies and perspectives of key media tech suppliers and partners to media organisations.
Exclusively for attendees at Future Week Bergen, report author Edward Qualtrough shares a preview of the 2026 findings from these two initiatives — encompassing AI approaches and adoption, Buy vs Build strategy, digital sovereignty, product innovation focus and more — to explore what customer CTO priorities and supplier CEO strategy tell us about the state of media.
From static formats to liquid content: How to prepare for the possible futures
Sofie Hvitved, Copenhagen Institute of Future Studies
Generative AI is not just a new tool for the media industry. It marks the beginning of a more fundamental shift in how content is created, distributed, discovered and adapted to the individual user.
In this keynote, Sofie Hvitved offers a futures perspective on a set of different futures and how media organisations can prepare for these where content increasingly becomes liquid: more dynamic, contextual, personalised and adaptable across platforms, formats and situations.
The keynote explores the shift from fixed media products and traditional distribution logics towards new AI-mediated ecosystems, where audiences, platforms and intelligent systems take on new roles. What happens to relevance, trust, journalism, business models and the relationship with audiences when content can be versioned, assembled and adapted in real time?
Drawing on signals, futures perspectives and concrete use cases, the keynote invites participants to look beyond today’s AI tools and ask: Which assumptions about media, content and audiences do we need to start rethinking now in order to prepare for these possible futures?
Beyond Broadcast: How ITN is growing into the Creator Economy
Tim Forrest, ITN
ITN is an award winning production company, the UK's largest supplier of commercial journalism, and global content powerhouses with its output generating over 10 billion online views in 2025. In this talk, Tim Forrest the company's Head of Content Delivery and Commercial Innovation sets out ITN’s approach to audiences, creators and technology as part of plans to grow into the creator economy: retaining it's trusted values while collaborating and building for the future.
Free and Resilient Societies in the Era of AI Agents and Nasty Neighbors
Luukas Ilves, Co-founder of the Agentic State & former Government CIO of Estonia
When AI Connects the Dots: The Future Beyond LLMs
Michal Valko (Isara Labs)
Generative AI, Newsrooms and Audiences - are we all in?
Mitali Mukherjee, Director, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
While media organizations race to implement artificial intelligence across newsroom processes, what do audiences now want from the news. Can AI tools be the bridge for the ambitions of news publishers and the needs of the public.
Nordic CTO Panel
Lena Edström (TV 4), Pål Nedregotten (NRK), Hrefna Lind Ásgeirsdóttir (RÚV) and Sanna Tornivaara (Yle). The panel is led by Rowan de Pomerai (DPP)
Anne Jacobsen Memorial Award Presentation
Kjersti Løken Stavrum and TBA