Chatbots - Personalising News At Scale

Chatbots - Personalising News At Scale

*** Very special guest for our last meetup of 2019 ***

With mass media and news broadcasters in general finding it hard to cut through the noise, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation needed to do something different to meet ever-increasing customer expectations. Enter Craig McCosker, the Product Strategy Manager who championed a new world of personalised news using messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger.

Craig’s team at the ABC have built Australia’s most successful chatbot, and gathered over 1 million users who get their news via Messenger. However, that success didn’t happen overnight…

Join Craig (and special guests) to learn about their journey, the insights they gained and what the future holds for personalising news at scale!

• Craig McCosker - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The journey from 0 to over 1 million users:

• A behind-the-scenes look at how the ABC designed, built and launched their first messenger chatbot for the 2016 Federal Election
• ABC’s journey in launching a regular news service chatbot, and future goals to further personalise their relationship with their readers, at scale

--- Agenda ---

6:00pm - Doors open with networking and free beer, drinks and nibbles
6:20pm - Speakers start
7:20pm - Q&A Panel with the speakers
7:40pm - More networking
8:00pm - Doors Close

--- Speakers ---

• Craig McCosker (Product Strategy Manger, Future Focus at Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

• As one of the early journalist-developer crossovers, Craig has played a key role in developing digital strategy at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), launching the first ABC News web sites in the 90s. Craig’s 25-year career in digital publishing has been focused on identifying the potential of new technologies to improve media and communications, designing innovative products and developing content management systems. ABC News has been a pioneer in using live blogging, data journalism, interactive maps, podcasts, distributed platforms, push notifications and interactive video to deliver news. One recent project, ABC News on Facebook Messenger, has been praised internationally as a leading example of a successful news bot. Craig says instinct is helpful in ‘picking the next wave’ but research, immersion, experimentation and just ‘paddling really hard’ are the essential elements in keeping pace with the future.