Agenda for Meetup #5: Conversational Journalism with RAG Systems

At the meetup on September 25, 2025, at WDR in Cologne, we will focus on how media use RAGs to make their knowledge bases accessible to users.

Date

September 25th, 2025, 1 PM – 6 PM

Location

WDR Funkhaus, Kleiner Sendesaal, Wallraffplatz 5, 50667 Köln 

Agenda

  • 13.00 Welcoming speech by Bernd Oswald, Manager AI for Media Network
  • 13.05 Welcome greetings from Katrin Vernau, Director of Westdeutscher Rundfunk, (Video message)
  • 13.10 Critical nodes in the network: AI Agents as information mediators and what they mean for journalism. Keynote by Christina Elmer, Professor of Digital Journalism / Data Journalism TU Dortmund
  • 13.35 Understanding RAG in 10 Minutes, Franziska Hellmundt, AI Project Lead WDR
  • 13.50 Content pools for the win: why we built a Chatbot with Ippen, Uli Köppen, Chief AI Officer, Bayerischer Rundfunk
  • 14.05 Project BreznBot: How to build a chatbot from various data sources – in just three months, Cécile Schneider, Product Lead, AI + Automation Lab, Bayerischer Rundfunk
  • 14.30 Coffee break
  • 15.00 How does that concern me? – How AI helps make laws understandable, Stefan Domke (WDR Project Lead; Concept & Content) & David Finsterwalder (Freelance Developer & Consultant; Technology & Implementation)
  • 15.20 DriveMixer: How BNN uses RAG to research and create content, Julius Sandmann, AI Responsible Badische Neueste Nachrichten, Nico Hehlke, Data Scientist, Digital Revenue Initiative (DRIVE), Ole Fehling, Coordinator DRIVE-Initiative
  • 15.40 The dpa Research Assistant: why we develop a RAG application externally at you.com and how we still maintain our technical sovereignty. Yannick Franke, AI Team Lead dpa-IT Services, with Q+A
  • 16.00 AI Flash: Three People will introduce an AI Project / AI Idea from their House.
  • 16.20 Networking with Drinks and Snacks
  • 18.00 End