WCSFP 2026, the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, will put digital media at the heart of its programme when it convenes in Tallinn, Estonia from 9 to 12 November. Speakers include Goalhanger co-founder Tony Pastor and Electrify co-founder Ian Shepherd, alongside Complexly CEO Julie Walsh Smith. Their organisations together generate around 200 million views, streams or downloads a month. The full programme is available online.
Goalhanger is one of the UK’s most successful independent podcast networks, with titles that include The Rest Is History. The company recorded more than 750 million full-episode views and streams in 2025. Pastor will speak with Richard McKerrow, co-founder of Bake Off and The Piano producer Love Productions and now CEO of Free Productions and FreeSpace, about the network’s rise, the building of global audiences without traditional gatekeepers, and what podcasts can teach television.
Electrify invests in and scales creator-founded companies. Its portfolio of 21 brands includes the science channel Veritasium, and the group reports more than 65 million YouTube subscribers and over 2 billion views in the past year. Complexly, the organisation behind Crash Course, counts more than 32 million YouTube subscribers and more than 5 billion cumulative views. Sam Barcroft, CEO of Attention Industries, will interview Shepherd and Walsh Smith about how each built a YouTube business and where factual creators go next.
The organisers describe the programme as a way to bring traditional television into closer contact with this expanding ecosystem. Editorial director Sara Ramsden said, «We want WCSFP to be where that conversation moves from talking about change to shaping what comes next.»
A session on AI and creativity will pair Anthony Morgan, co-host of CBC’s The Nature of Things and a neuroscience graduate, with Estonian neuroscientist Professor Jaan Aru. Morgan will interview Aru on the effects of technology on the brain and on how creators can adopt AI tools while retaining the human abilities behind strong content.
WCSFP is a not-for-profit, member-driven organisation managed by Documentary Campus. The 2025 congress took place in Rio de Janeiro.
