As part of our upcoming AI-focused event with Flashes & Flames on Tuesday 25th November, we will be running a series of Masterclasses to help publishing professionals get practical advice and experience for making the most of these new technologies.
These six expert-led Masterclasses will open for pre-booking to existing ticket holders in October (at no additional charge).
Masterclass 1: Frameworks to successfully implement AI in your business
Whether you’ve already got an AI strategy for your business or know you need to make a start on one, clear leadership is needed from the top to ensure it is implemented safely and successfully.
In this workshop, senior executive consultant Madhav Chinnappa takes you through a framework for senior leaders and executive teams to introduce AI tools and workflows in their organisations.
You will learn:
- How to empower senior leaders and teams to experiment with AI in a way that benefits the business
- Pitfalls and things to be aware of when introducing AI tools
- The benefits of having AI champions at a senior level
- Where time could be re-invested for higher-value work
Masterclass lead: Madhav Chinnappa
Madhav Chinnappa is a senior executive consultant who has worked at the intersection of news, AI, technology and sustainability globally for more than two decades in both the commercial and public interest sectors. He is currently advising Human Native AI, an AI data licensing marketplace as well as leading a thought leadership event series around AI and news for the Thomson Foundation and has recently joined the Future Insights Board of Mediahuis.
Prior to that he was Director of News Ecosystem Development at Google and his extensive experience with journalism innovation, funding and sustainability includes launching the DNI Fund, the GNI Innovation Challenge programme and the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund while at Google. He has worked in the news industry since 1994 – first in the launch team of Associated Press Television (APTV), a year in M&A at United News & Media and spent over 9 years at BBC News, latterly as Head of Development & Rights.
This Masterclass is aimed at CEOs, senior leaders, general managers and other executives with responsibility for company-wide strategic decisions.
Masterclass 2: The ROI of AI
There’s a great deal of pressure on companies to introduce AI, but how do you go about assessing its impact and potential for return on investment?
James Carson, founder of Absolutely Agentic and formerly of History Hit, The Telegraph, Bauer and more will take you through a framework for measuring ROI in a media business.
You will learn:
- How to evaluate AI projects before, during and after inception
- What signals success beyond financial savings
- Managing rollout of AI projects in a way which sets them up for success
Masterclass lead: James Carson
James Carson is Founder of Agentic, a consultancy that works with media owners and content focused companies on AI strategy and workflows to enhance audience trends and publishing processes.
Previously he was Managing Director of History Hit, a multi award winning specialist content network that broadcast across subscription video on demand, YouTube and podcasts. He has also held audience leadership roles at The Telegraph and Bauer Media.
This Masterclass is aimed at CEOs, senior leaders, general managers and other executives with responsibility for company-wide strategic decisions.
Masterclass 3: Integrating AI into journalism workflows
There are numerous ways journalists and editors can use AI in their workflows to help research, brainstorm ideas, interrogate data and more.
Journalist and AI trainer Harriet Meyer will help attendees identify areas of their workflow where AI could help, as well as potential pitfalls to avoid and some ethical considerations.
You will learn:
- How AI can slot into journalistic workflows from brief to publication, and where human judgment is irreplaceable.
- A run-through of the most useful AI tools for journalists right now.
- What to be aware of when it comes to using AI, and how to communicate appropriate usage with teams.
Masterclass lead: Harriet Meyer
Harriet Meyer is an award-winning journalist and founder of AI for Media. For over two decades, she has written about finance and consumer issues for nationals including The Sunday Times, The Times, The Guardian, and The Observer.
Today, Harriet draws on that experience to train media professionals in how to streamline and strengthen workflows with AI. Her focus is on practical, actionable applications that enhance productivity without compromising professional or editorial standards.
She has delivered workshops for a wide range of organisations, recognised for her hands-on, jargon-free approach that speaks directly to the realities of daily work.
This Masterclass is aimed at editors, journalists and senior executives with responsibility for content strategy.
Masterclass 4: Using AI to enhance content
AI can do more than just generate text. For savvy journalists, there are tools available to transform content into multimodal formats which can engage audiences on multiple levels and platforms.
Former journalist and AI executive Stacie Chan will take attendees through various tools to add other dimensions and enhance journalistic reporting.
You will learn:
- How to identify opportunities to enhance content with AI
- Some of the most common AI tools and what they do
- Hands-on demo of transforming your content for different mediums
Masterclass lead: Stacie Chan
Stacie Chan has 20 years of experience growing (and exiting) businesses at the intersection of technology and media. Most recently, she was the Founding Commercial Lead at Haiper.ai, a genAI startup developing proprietary frontier video & image models. In less than a year post-stealth, Haiper grew to 8M+ users and millions, and its models and team were acqui-hired by Netmind.ai. Prior to joining Haiper, Stacie co-founded 1BillionStories, a storytelling SaaS company that was acquired.
Before leading startups, Stacie spent nearly 9 years at Google, leading Product Partnerships for Google Search and Google News. As a journalist, she spent years at CBS Interactive, Aol’s Patch.com, and local newspapers. In a former lifetime, she was an Emmy-nominated actress.
This Masterclass is aimed at editors, journalists and senior executives with responsibility for content strategy.
Masterclass 5: How AI chatbots can be used to increase engagement
One area publishers are exploring the use of AI tools for is keeping users on-site and surfacing vast archives of relevant, trusted content.
Zoe Coutinho, Product Director at the FT has been leading a team experimenting with AI chatbots on FT Professional. In this workshop, Zoe will outline the process they went through to implement the chatbot, and where they’re looking to next for AI-powered engagement.
You will learn:
- How to evaluate where AI products are (and aren’t) appropriate for building engagement on-site
- How to measure success and ROI for chatbots, and what signals to look out for
- Whether a build or buy approach is right for you
Masterclass lead: Zoe Coutinho
Zoe is Product Director at the Financial Times, with responsibility for FT Professional and FT Live. She has over 15 years of experience building great products, strong teams, and clear direction for companies including Cleo, Pollen, Reed and Wonga.
She is passionate about creating actionable strategies, setting teams up to succeed, and driving collaboration that gets real results.
This Masterclass is aimed at editors, product managers, and senior executives responsible for engagement or product strategies.
Masterclass 6: Optimising for AI discovery
The way audiences find new content is undergoing dramatic changes with the rise of AI-powered search. Adapting to these new habits will be crucial for surviving and thriving over the next few years.
David Buttle of DJB Strategies will help attendees formulate a strategy for weathering rapid changes, and future-proofing your content discovery strategy.
You will learn:
- How the search and discovery landscape is shifting and what the consequences are for publisher strategy
- Assessing the benefits and costs of remaining visible in AI-powered search
- Optimisation paths to create resilient businesses in this new platform era
Masterclass lead: David Buttle
After 15 years in leadership roles in global media businesses, working across strategy, corporate affairs and commercial roles, David founded DJB Strategies; a boutique consultancy created to help companies in media and information services respond to change, succeed and grow.
Prior to this, David was Director of Public Affairs and Platform Strategy for the Financial Times. He led the FT’s response to artificial intelligence, had strategic oversight of its interfaces with Big Tech, and was responsible for relationships with governments and legislators. Before this, he was Global Commercial Marketing Director, leading an international team that was integral to the FT’s market-leading commercial performance throughout that period.
He has also worked as a senior manager at Pearson, as well as holding corporate communications and marketing roles in education and consulting businesses.
This Masterclass is aimed at editors, SEO and marketing leads, and senior executives responsible for audience growth.
To book for The Definitive AI Forum for Media, Information & Events and access these workshops, please see our ticketing page. Discounts are available for groups of 5+.
For commercial partnerships and sponsorship of these Masterclasses, please contact John Schlaefli.
