Cardiff, Amsterdam, Bergen: MTH Potsdam logged quite a few flight miles in September. Bergen, Scandinavia’s leading media cluster, was the most recent stop so far — and just as exciting as the previous two. Together with a delegation from the Babelsberg media ecosystem, the team visited, among other things, Future Week 2026, the flagship event of the cluster organization Medieklyngen.

Joining the trip were: MTH Managing Director Peter Effenberg, Lukas Kaddik from Studio Babelsberg AG, Fernanda Lange Böttcher from Brandenburg’s economic development agency (WFBB), Jörn Krug from Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Peter Parycek from Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), Daniel Larena Baumann from Valid, and Jörg Zinke from Showcase Potsdam.

Two conferences on a wavelength

Future Week takes place from 23 to 24 September and is considered one of Northern Europe’s most important media and innovation conferences. It brings together journalists, developers, researchers, broadcasters and startups at Media City Bergen to examine the current state of the industry and the technologies that could shape the screens of tomorrow.

This year’s conference focuses on AI solutions for newsrooms, the strategic transformation of media companies, and new production processes for film, streaming and TV — the thematic overlap with Babelsberg and the MediaTech Hub Conference is obvious.

A particular highlight was the Nordic CTO Panel, where technology leaders from TV4, NRK, RÚV and Yle openly discussed their strategic priorities. It was a format that showed just how much can be learned from one another when the right people are in the same room.

A cluster setting new standards

Media City Bergen also proved exciting for the delegation beyond the conference itself: across around 30,000 square meters, more than 50 media companies work under one roof, including public service broadcasters NRK and TV 2, as well as startups, research institutions and technology companies.

Much like Babelsberg, this is an ecosystem where production, research and innovation are closely interconnected. That made direct exchange, as well as the search for synergies and cooperation potential on site, all the more important for the delegation. Visits to the studios of NRK and TV 2 were therefore part of the trip as well.

What now?

Bergen once again confirmed what Cardiff and Amsterdam had already shown: the questions facing Babelsberg as a media location are not local questions. They are European — and the best answers emerge through international exchange.

All the more reason why we are excited that, following our visit to Bergen, a Norwegian delegation will travel to Babelsberg for the MediaTech Hub Conference on 29 and 30 September. Innovation in media technology truly knows no borders.