Revamping our sector's resilience: World Skills Café reemerges at IBC2025
The World Skills Café is making a comeback on September 11, 2025, promising a day filled with insightful discussions, connections, and a collaborative spirit. The event, held at IBC, aims to empower the media and broadcast industry by equipping its workforce with the skills necessary to thrive in an era of rapid change brought about by AI and automation.
Building a Resilient, Skilled, and Creative Workforce
To futureproof the workforce, the media and broadcast industry can invest in continuous digital upskilling, develop adaptable leadership programs, and create personalized, skills-based career pathways that align with evolving business needs.
Continuous Digital Training
Regular upskilling of employees in AI, automation, advanced analytics, and digital tools relevant to broadcast workflows is crucial. This enables effective tool use and innovation.
Leadership Development
Building leaders with strategic, cross-functional, and change management skills is vital. These leaders can guide teams through digital transformation challenges.
Customized Career Paths & Skills Adjacency
Personalized career development, aligned with organizational goals, and encouragement of skill-building in areas adjacent to current roles, facilitates seamless transitions and adaptability.
Soft Skills and Creativity
Training for communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving—skills essential for adapting to new challenges and working collaboratively alongside AI—is also key.
AI and Human Ingenuity Synergy
Integrating AI thoughtfully with human creativity and decision-making can maximize productivity and innovation while retaining unique human contributions.
Agile, Just-in-Time Learning Formats
Microlearning, on-demand content, and AI-powered personalized learning can address role-specific skill gaps promptly and cost-effectively.
Global and Flexible Talent Strategy
Hiring and engaging AI-skilled talent globally, including remote or specialized experts, adapts workforce models to a technology-driven environment.
A Culture of Continuous Learning
Encouraging curiosity, experimentation, early talent development, and resilience keeps pace with fast-shifting technology contexts in media.
Focus on Skills, Education, and Training
The event will delve into discussions about skills, education, and training for a more resilient media and broadcast workforce. It aims to address the challenge of developing people with the right mix of skills, particularly those with IT, broadcast, and deep technical knowledge, agility, creativity, and strong communication skills.
Addressing the Challenge of Mid-Career Development
The event will also focus on mid-career development, addressing the need for support for people already in the industry as job roles shift and new technology develops. Organisations like SMPTE and RTS will be discussed for their efforts in addressing mid-career development issues over the last year.
Creating a Fair, Diverse, and Equitable Talent Pipeline
The World Skills Café will explore the creation of a talent pipeline that is not just skilled, but fair, diverse, and equitable. Jazz Singh, Mark Coleman, and Jasmin John from Black Women in Post Production will lead a discussion on this topic.
Keynote Speakers and Discussions
Nina Walsh from AWS will give a keynote address exploring the critical skills gap and its impact on innovation. She will also address the question of whether the lack of skills is holding companies back and discuss how companies are grappling with uncertainty around AI.
Hannah Barnhardt (TMT Insights) will share her experiences of finding "unicorn" applicants. Matt Stagg and Dushi Thangarajah will join a spirited discussion on the future of new entrant roles and options for young people.
Angeliki Megariti (Caretta Research) will kick off the event with a talk on market data, shifting workforce trends, and the evolution of AI over the last 12 months.
Register for the World Skills Café 2025
The World Skills Café is relevant to educators, CEOs, freelancers, students, and anyone interested in shaping a stronger, more inclusive industry. If you're passionate about people, the future of the industry, and ensuring no one is left behind, register for the World Skills Café 2025 here.
- To foster a workforce that thrives in technology-driven environments, it's essential to focus on skills, education, and training, as the World Skills Café event will delve into discussions about these very topics.
- In a rapidly changing industry, mid-career development becomes crucial, a topic that will be addressed at the World Skills Café alongside efforts made by organizations like SMPTE and RTS in the past year to support industry professionals.
