Many media innovators are gathering this week in Perugia for the International Journalism Festival. We are looking forward to hearing the takeaways. Earlier this year we saw a new combined focus on subscriptions and advertising at the Subscription Summit in Stockholm and heard media leaders talking about the importance of creating a north star vision at the FT Strategies Summit in London.
If you didn’t make it to any of those events, no worries. We’ve curated a list of upcoming industry conferences and highlighted some of the must see sessions on the agenda.
Digital Growth Summit 2023 | Brussels, 27th September
This year’s Digital Growth Summit (DGS) takes place in Brussels on September 27th during the Media Innovation Week.
From discussions at last year’s Digital Growth Summit in London, one of the themes that emerged was the complexity of engaging a wide variety of generations with different needs and habits.
While there is a lot of focus on how to engage GenZ, this years Summit broadens the conversation to explore the audience needs, products and technologies that can help publishers drive successful digital business growth across all generations:
- Gen Z: maturing and becoming more aware of their news needs, while having specific product demands and expectations.
- Millennials: a group that remains challenging to engage and drive conversion to paid subscribers.
- Generation X: digital savvy audience with immense subscriber potential.
- Baby Boomers: very loyal subscribers with strong habits, especially in print.
- Generation Alpha: where virtual and immersive technologies will likely play a big role.
The agenda is still in the making but confirmed speakers so far include Ezra Eeman, Kirsi Hakaniemi, Nic Newman & Gabriela Campbell.
Keep an eye out for the invites sent by our team. Loyal readers of our Twipe Insights newsletter benefit from special conditions. Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Digital Media Europe 2023 | Vienna, 26-27 April
This year’s Digital Media Europe takes place next week, on 26th – 27th April in Vienna, Austria. 2023’s edition will focus on building successful digital products and offers. Some of the sessions we are looking forward to include:
- Alternative business approaches to young audiences with Simon Binns from LADbible and Anja Bonelli from Ippen.
- How Norway’s leading business newspaper successfully used gamification to build a younger audience with Marit Tronier Halvorsen of Dagens Naeringsliv.
- Panel Discussion Video: “Built into your product” or/and “off-platform and vertical”? with Sophie Gourmelen from Le Parisien and Jens Pettersson from NTM.
- Product relaunch and the “1€ for 6 Months offer” at Germany’s Rheinische Post, Julia Morein and Sophie Heinzen
Tom Mann from our team will be there. Get in touch to learn more about some of our cases of subscriber growth and get early insights into the Digital Growth Summit agenda.
World Congress of News Media 2023 | New York 22-26 May
This year’s World Congress of News Media takes place between 22 – 26 May in New York. A full week of conference, practical workshops and study tours as well as the Global Media Awards. Our JAMES Technology is also among the nominees for its impact on retention at Keskisuomalainen in Finland (fingers crossed!).
Some of the sessions we are looking forward to:
- The path to 2030: What CEOs believe will happen next with news media, including Gert Ysebaert of Mediahuis, Sinead Boucher of Stuff NZ and Julia Becker from Funke.
- How technologies will transform news media next, Anders Grimstad of Schibsted, Karen Silverman of WEF, Thomas Schultz-Homberg of KSTA Medien and Nick Thompson of The Atlantic.
- Keeping it real: Overcoming the challenges of reaching Gen Z, with Rachel Richardson of Snapchat and Lucy Blakiston of Shit you should care about
- Interactive formats: What’s working (and not working)? with Debbie McMahon of Financial Times, Yiting Ang of SPH , Jeehee Kim Joongang of Korea Joongang Daily and Matej Loncaric of 24 Sata.
- No longer anonymous: Registering and nurturing potential subscribers at Advance Local, with Lamar Graham of Advance Local.
Dana Nastase from our team will be at the event. Don’t hesitate to get in touch.
European Publishing Congress | Vienna, 15th June
The European Publishing Congress backed by Kress takes place from June 14th to June 15th, 2023 in Vienna. Media managers and digital experts from Europe’s best publishing companies present their strategies and discuss the future of the media industry.
We love the rich agenda packing a variety of topics from AI, product development, print evolutions and roles of leadership into one day. Sessions on our radar:
- The train we must not miss, Ladina Heimgartner, CEO Blick Group.
- “We are developing the new standard”, GerBen van’t Hek of Mediahuis Nederland.
- AI and layout: The personalised e-paper as a goal, Heiko Weigelt of FUNKE Technology.
- Print lives! by Anja Burri from NZZ.
News Product Alliance Summit | Remote, 26-28 April
The NPA Summit takes place fully remote from 26th to 28th if April. The virtual conference is meant for everyone who approaches their work from the intersection of editorial, audience, business and technology and includes hands-on sessions, master classes, global discussions, social chats, and more.
Some of the sessions we are looking forward to hear more about:
- Build vs Buy brought by Anjanette Delgado from Detroit Free Press and James Ku from Al Jazeera.
- Applying the “MVP” of product thinking in small newsrooms: Kyle Plantz of CUNY & Maggie Farley of ICFJ.
- Editors, product managers and engineers: How can we work together in better ways? Elite Truong of API & Kazi Awal of Insider and Dana Lacey.
- How product managers can navigate an uncertain future with strategic foresight, Sam Guzik of NY Public Radio.
- Let AI do the boring stuff so you can focus more on serving your community, Joe Amditis of Centre for Cooperative Media and Simon Galperin of Community Information Cooperative.
Global Fact-Checking Summit | Hybrid 28-30 June
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Global Fact-Checking Summit which generated major projects and initiatives including the International Fact-Checking Day, IFCN’s Code of Principles and partnerships with major tech corporations. The event is hybrid and takes place from 28th to 30th June in Seoul and remote.
Among the speakers, the Summit will host Peter McIndoe, co-founder and creator of Birds Aren’t Real. This is a satirical conspiracy theory that suggests birds don’t exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. In last year’s Digital Growth Summit, Sander Duivstein highlighted their work in a fascinating key note speech entitled Real Fake:
On the agenda you can expect:
- Misinformation policy regulations on social media
- Media literacy and the rise of artificial intelligence
- Newsroom economics and sustainability management
European Media Innovation Conference, Antwerp, 27-28 September
INMA’s European News Media Conference highlights best practices and strategies across European Publishers. This year the event will come to our home country, Belgium on 28th & 29th September. This is right after the Digital Growth Summit so if you are after an intense week of learning, inspiration and knowledge sharing, bundling the two events is a must.
Among the sessions on the agenda at the conference we are curious to see:
- What can news media do with AI, and what does AI do to news media? Johannes Gorset, Director of Engineering for VG, Schibsted News Media.
- Belgium and The Netherlands’ Leading Magazine Publisher Tackles Bundling, Kim Vansteenkiste Customer Journey, Data- and Paywall Expert, Roularta Media Group.
- Completing the transition from a legacy to all-digital news brand, Mette Østergaard Editor-in-Chief, Berlingske.
9 Other Great Picks
- Top five takes from the Washington Post’s TikTok experiment (May 10th, Remote Webinar) – Reuters Institute of Journalism invites Carmella Boykin to explain some of the lessons learned pioneering the use of TikTok at the Washington Post. The Post‘s TikTok channel has now 1.6 million followers and 74 million likes.
- BeBeta, Journalism in progress is the yearly conference of the German BDZV and takes place in Berlin on 12 & 13 June. Among the speakers they will host Stefan Buhr from Frankfurther Allgemeine Zeitung and Andreas Schmutterer from Mediengruppe Presse-Druck.
- 2023 World Congress & Media Innovation Festival is the inaugural event of the International Press Institute. The event focuses on New Frontiers in the Age of AI and takes place in Vienna on 25 and 26 May.
- News Media Business Summit is hosted by Editor & Publisher. The Summit focuses on local journalism innovation & revenue generation and takes place from 1 to 3 November in Pennsylvania.
- ONA Conference, is the hybrid yearly event of the Online News Association. The agenda registrations opens this month.
- Audience Development Media Alliance Conference takes place in person in Las Vegas from June 20-23.
- There is an interesting media selection at Web Summit in Lisbon in November 13-16 featuring speakers from Reuters, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Independent, CNN and AP.
- Newsrewired conference of Journalism.co.uk takes place in person in London on May 23rd with a focus on subscription retention, AI, news avoidance and mobile.
- Great Surprise: Newscamp is coming back in 2024 after 5 years.
