Media Party has always focused on translating complex industry shifts into practical, actionable strategies for media makers. This year in Barcelona, our Lightning Talks pack big ideas—from building trusted newsroom AI to rethinking community engagement—into concise, five-minute sessions.
For its European debut on September 7–8, CaixaForum Barcelona transforms into a living laboratory centering on a vital challenge: sustaining the integrity of information in the post-search era and the age of generative AI. To launch our Lightning Talk Session on Monday, September 7 at 4:45 PM, five speakers take the stage to unpack automated editorial systems, verified conversational tools, rapid visual workflows, community building, and citizen journalism.
Here is your practical guide to the Day 1 sessions.
- 1. AURA: Building AI Editorial Intelligence Systems in an Independent Newsroom
- 2. Building Conversational AI that Newsrooms Can Trust
- 3. Build as Fast as You Think: AI for Visual Storytelling
- 4. Kill the Funnel! Build Community Instead
- 5. Everyone Can Investigate: How Citizens Can Work with Media Outlets and Hold Power to Account
1. AURA: Building AI Editorial Intelligence Systems in an Independent Newsroom
- Speaker: Graciela Rock Mora (Innovation Director, La Silla Rota)
- Overview: Graciela presents AURA, a three-agent AI system built on n8n that connects analytics tools to generate automated editorial intelligence for La Silla Rota, a small Mexican political newsroom operating under daily pressure.
- Key Takeaway: How a non-technical journalist led the build, the system’s limitations, key learnings, and practical insights from presenting AURA at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Marseille.
2. Building Conversational AI that Newsrooms Can Trust
- Speaker: Scott Hale (Director of Research, Meedan)
- Overview: A live demonstration of Suwali, Meedan’s multilingual AI platform designed for trusted knowledge retrieval. Unlike standard LLMs trained mostly on English data, Suwali answers strictly using a curated base of an organization’s own archives and documents.
- Key Takeaway: How grounding AI in verified source materials—with explicit citations and “I don’t know” default answers—enables accurate, multilingual newsroom workflows without risking audience trust.
3. Build as Fast as You Think: AI for Visual Storytelling
- Speaker: Cecilia Tombesi (Digital Art Director, The Times and The Sunday Times)
- Overview: Concrete examples of how The Times and Sunday Times integrate AI, UX design, and data visualization into daily newsroom workflows to produce award-winning visual journalism.
- Key Takeaway: How near-costless experimentation enables small visual teams to eliminate workflow friction, accelerate execution, and build innovative newsroom products with outsized impact.
4. Kill the Funnel! Build Community Instead
- Speaker: Richard Höchner Gallicani (Republik)
- Overview: Key takeaways from 10 years at Republik Magazine, detailing how shifting from traditional sales funnels to a community-first approach allowed them to grow a resilient, 36,000-member-strong community.
- Key Takeaway: Why human connection is journalism’s ultimate differentiator in the age of AI content, and how replacing transactional sales funnels with meaningful participation creates sustainable media.
5. Everyone Can Investigate: How Citizens Can Work with Media Outlets and Hold Power to Account
- Speaker: Neus Vidal (Seek Initiative)
- Overview: Practical examples of citizen-led investigations supported by the Seek Initiative, a non-profit equipping community leaders, activists, and civil society groups to investigate local corruption, environmental issues, and public spending.
- Key Takeaway: How Seek’s “10 Pathways of Investigation” framework combines local community knowledge with investigative rigor to scale accountability far beyond traditional newsroom walls.
Join Us in Barcelona
Ready to be part of the global media innovation community? Explore the full lineup of keynotes, workshops, and project fairs taking place across September 7 and 8 at CaixaForum Barcelona.
