b° future festival

The b° future festival 2025

The third edition of the b° future festival took place at the end of September 2025 on Bonn's Münsterplatz and marked a turning point for the young format. With around 700 journalists from 37 countries, the conference significantly surpassed the previous year's edition; the public part attracted several thousand Bonn residents.

In terms of content, the panels and workshops revolved around issues that shaped 2025: AI in daily journalistic work, the growing threat of disinformation campaigns, the representation of marginalized voices in newsrooms, and the future of local media in a fragmented market. Leading voices in constructive journalism from Scandinavia, North America, and Germany spoke on the main stage.

The festival once again proved that a professional conference and a public festival can work together in one format — and gave the Bonn Institute, the organizer founded in 2022, the momentum to prepare for its fourth edition in 2026.