Future Week is the annual media and media tech festival at Media City Bergen, consisting of a number of research seminars, lectures, conferences, debates, and breakfast meetings - all about our shared future as it is driven and shaped by technology. We can already promise you four days filled with exciting and pioneering experiences, as well as valuable insight, inspiration, and - maybe most important - the opportunity to network. We will look into the future, to discuss what lies ahead, and check out some of the great innovations from the Norwegian Media Cluster.
Three Inspiring Conferences
During this year's Future Week, we'll host three conferences, each focused on different topics within the Media Cluster’s disciplines: mcb tech .22, MCB Hack, and the brand new conference - MCB Fact.
mcb tech .22
mcb tech is a joint initiative between the Norwegian Media Cluster and the Finance Cluster in Bergen. The annual future-focused tech conference focuses on new technology as a key driver in business, providing new opportunities and challenges. The need for new strategies and business models and adopting a digital mindset is key to future success. We can already promise a stellar line-up of world-renowned speakers with expertise in innovation and the future of technology. Among them you will find:
- Benedict Evans - a Leading Technology Analyst and an internationally renowned expert on emerging trends, giving you the rundown of the modern tech scene
- Sofie Hvitved - Futurist & Special Advisor in Media & Technology, specializing in “the metaverse” and Web 3.0
- Tim Harford - Journalist, Economist & Broadcaster, a captivating speaker about the modern economy
- Agnes Stenbom - Responsible Data & AI at Schibsted, a highly recognized and knowledgeable spokesperson on responsible use of data and AI in news, media, and advertisement
- Tendayi Viki - An award-winning author and an expert on how to innovate within large corporations
- Anders Norås - Director of Software Engineering & Speaker, despite his C-level title, Anders still gets his hands dirty doing real programming
Stay tuned for more speaker announcements! Read more about the conference and get your tickets HERE.
MCB Hack
MCB Hack, The Data Journalism Conference, was hosted for the first time during Future Week 21. The conference concerns the point of intersection between technology and journalism, where visualizing, coding, scraping, and sensory are all relevant keywords. We promise you to top last year's success and we're offering a program with the industry's highest nerd factor! The conference will be followed by a Hackathon, free and open for all participants at the conference to attend.
We'll be joined by Maria Gargiulo (HRDAG), Sergej Stoppel (Wolftech), Marianne Bouchard (HEI-DA), Eirik Solheim (NRK Beta), Jenny Wiik (The University of Gothenburg), and several more interesting speakers! Stay tuned for speaker announcements and more information about the conference HERE. Note that members of NCE Media / Media City Bergen can claim a free ticket to MCB Hack until 15 May.
MCB Fact
MCB Fact is a brand new conference and meeting place in Media City Bergen, dedicated to the work of fighting disinformation, false news, influence operations, and conspiracy theories. The work to fight disinformation is at the top of the agenda for many of our Media Cluster's members, as well as partners in the cluster's expanded network, both nationally and internationally. Throughout the last years, the Media Cluster has arranged several seminars, workshops, and debates dedicated to this topic, with the 20 minutes on disinformation series being its latestinitiative. Launched by the recently passed Media Cluster's CEO, Anne Jacobsen, the conference will serve to spread awareness, share new projects, and possible solutions to the increasing amount of disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Several interesting speakers have already been launched for this conference:
- Hosting this year's conference will be award-winning journalist Shirish Kulkarni
- Kristoffer Egeberg - Editor, Faktisk.no
- Øystein Bogen - Journalist, Editor & Documentary Filmmaker, TV 2
- Mari Velsand - Director General, The Norwegian Media Authority
- Eskil Grendahl Sivertsen - Special Adviser, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI)
- Rebecca Skippage - Disinformation Editor, BBC News
- Reidun Kjelling Nybø - Secretary General, Association of Norwegian Editors
- Maria Amelie - CEO & Co-founder, Factiverse
- Olav Hjertaker - Founder & CEO, Web64
- Ghazaal Sheikhi - Postdoctoral Fellow, MediaFutures
- Johanne Kalsaas - PhD-candidate in Russian media and communication studies at the University of Bergen
More speakers are to be announced shortly. Read more and get your tickets HERE. Note that members of NCE Media / Media City Bergen can claim a free ticket to MCB Fact until 15 May.
Breakfast Meetings
In order to give you a great start to the day, each day at Future Week will begin with a breakfast meeting with future-focused topics such as innovations in the newsroom, how the Norwegian Cognitive Center works to build competence on AI in media, and the wireless future of 5G.
- 7 June - Getting to the core of 5G
- 8 June - Streamlining media activities by the use of cognitive technologies
- 10 June - Innovation in the Newsroom
AI ABC - Artificial intelligence for media (NO)
During Future Week, the Norwegian Cognitive Center, Digital Norway, and NCE Media invite you to a one-day session that provides an introduction to what artificial intelligence (AI) is, what issues AI helps us solve, and what resources, competence, and data we need to exploit the potential of value creation.
STADIEM - Startup driven innovation in European media
We have invited some of the top-performing European media tech start-ups and scale-ups for you to get to know during Future Week. Meet the top four scale-ups from the STADIEM program, which over the last 12 months, have developed new innovative solutions together with strong European media corporates. You'll also meet the next 40 promising scale-ups in the program, all ready to start developing their next-generation media solution. More info to follow shortly, so stay tuned.
Live Podcasts
Future Week will have a podcast track where different companies and people will be invited to do live recordings of their various podcasts with a live audience. The final event of the week will be a live podcast with Utakt (NO).
Workshops and Hackathons
Future Week will, as always, hold several different workshops and hackathons with plenty of opportunities to explore and dig into some of the topics presented at Future Week, and where you can experience theory in practice and learn from some of the brightest minds in the media industry.
- 7 June - MCB Hack Hackathon
- 8 June - From Idea To Business - An Innovation Workshop With Tendayi Viki
- 8 June - Getting started with the Things Network and crowdsourced LoRaWAN
- 9 June - MediaFutures Workshop: Towards Responsible Media Technology & Innovation
Future Fest
Who are we to miss out on a party? We are inviting you to join us for an evening with food, drinks, music, entertainment, and people, to remember! Sign up for a party without restrictions, where everyone is invited.