This was the b° future festival 2025

“Real People. Real Journalism.” That was the motto of the b° future festival 2025, which took place October 2-4 in the heart of downtown Bonn.

Around 700 journalists and media professionals and thousands of local visitors spent three days taking part in hands-on workshops, constructively critical panels, thought-provoking talks and tons of idea-generating chats, all with the aim of making sure journalism serves people better.

This year we also launched our “b° my Guest / Sei mein Gast” program, in which local Bonn families with extra rooms hosted out-of-town speakers. It was a great success, with all participants saying wonderful connections were forged and new memories made.

A heartfelt big thanks to those families and also to all our partners, speakers, festival volunteers and assistants, and visitors. We hope to see you all again next year!

Key takeaways from the festival

Five Takeaways

It's impossible to capture the entirety of knowledge, ideas and innovation that was shared at the b° future festival 2025. Yet a few points really stood out.

Everything starts with listening. To truly understand something or someone, you must first listen. This means letting yourself be surprised – great news for everyone who started out in journalism because they are genuinely curious!
Think beyond video, article and audio. Journalism can be a performance, art, a video or board game or even a shared experience. Relevance and value to an audience combined with effective communication are what count – and this can take many forms.
Hope is a user need. So many attendees said the festival gave them hope. One almost left journalism but found new purpose at the festival. Local passersby also expressed a desire for journalism to stay critical while keeping hope alive.
GenZ cares. Young audiences do engage with the news – when we take them seriously and respect their interests, preferred formats and tone. This is what we heard from the many young people who attended the festival.
The future of journalism starts with values, not tech. European journalism needs to develop its own answers rather than parrot Silicon Valley thinking. Now is the time to focus on trust rather than scale.