Technologies shaping the future of news

Opening of the Digital Growth Summit 2026

Mohamed Ridouani (Mayor of Leuven) & Dana Nastase (Head of Business Development, Twipe)

What keeps media CEOs awake at night?

Stig Ørskov (CEO, WAN-IFRA; ex-CEO, JP/Politikens Hus) & Gert Ysebaert (CEO, Mediahuis Group; ex-President, INMA), moderated by Danny Lein (Founder & CEO, Twipe)

Where is the news industry going next? What do the next few years demand of publishers? And how can big and small media companies alike prepare for the underlying changes in the industry?

What the Digital News Report tells us about what’s next

Nic Newman (Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism)

What can we take away from a decade’s worth of research data from around the world about the challenges the media industry faces — from AI to influencers to subscriptions?

How your assumptions about AI are shaping the future of news

Ezra Eeman (Strategy & Director, AI in Media, WAN-IFRA)

An interactive session in which Ezra challenges what the room thinks it knows about AI — and shows how much those assumptions shape the futures we’re able to imagine for news.

How to innovate and scale a large regional news organization

Lina Timm (Managing Director, RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland)

Best practices, AI transformation and paths better avoided: how RND organised itself to deliver regional news digitally at scale.

Podcasts and audio as the spearhead of digital growth

Karel Dierickx (Head of Audio & Video, Mediafin)

We’ve long seen a trend in the rising popularity of audio and video. Now see how Mediafin is taking this to the next level, and what other publishers can learn from how they did it.

Breakout leaders pitch their workshops

Three breakout leaders, seven minutes and seven slides each, to pitch their workshop to you — so you know which one to join over lunch.

Who Owns Europe’s Intelligence? AI, Data Sovereignty and the Future of News

Bart Becks (Founder, Genisys | Board Member, European Innovation Council)

Between Silicon Valley and China, what role is there for Europe when it comes to AI infrastructure and data? And why you should start considering European AI sovereignty.

Reinventing your offering in a machine dominated world: How Kleine Zeitung aims to thrive in a world dominated by agents and machines

Sebastian Krause (Head of Product & Data, Kleine Zeitung)

A growing share of news traffic is no longer human. How does having both bots and humans as your audience affect your digital products and offerings?

Shipping AI in the newsroom

Stanislas de Livonnière (Head of Data & Innovation Department, Le Parisien)

How does Le Parisien decide, design and ship AI experiences for the newsroom? Stanislas will share best practices for keeping stakeholders involved along the way.

How Tomorrowland’s customer-first obsession led to innovation breakthroughs

Joris Himpens (General Manager, Lab of Tomorrow by Tomorrowland)

Tomorrowland, the world’s largest electronic music festival, is unabashedly customer obsessed. Learn how that mindset has helped them craft incredible experiences and push the frontier of innovation — and how it translates for news publishers.

How a 400-year-old industry can transform crises into opportunities

Julien de Wit (Founder, Think Ahead Inc & author of “De Comeback Code”)

Julien has spent years studying how organisations develop resilience and balance it against innovation. A compelling and inspirational speaker, he closes the day with what all of that means for a 400-year-old news industry facing its next round of upheaval.

Closing of the Digital Growth Summit 2026

Danny Lein (Founder & CEO, Twipe) & Dana Nastase (Head of Business Development, Twipe)