The World Congress of Science & Factual Producers (WCSFP) is headed to Tallinn, Estonia, for its 2026 edition. Sara Ramsden, editorial director of the event, joins ScreenMDM Talks to discuss curating an agenda that tackles AI, YouTube, linear pubcaster commissions, and everything in between.
WCSFP takes place in cooperation with Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) from November 9 to 12. Ramsden is a longtime attendee of the storied event, having previously served as creative director at Love Productions and science commissioning editor at Channel 4, among other roles over the course of her career. The opportunity to curate the event this year amid the doc business’s transformation lured her out of retirement, she tells ScreenMDM Talks.
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“It is such a warm and collegiate and collaborative community,” Ramsden says of WCSFP attendees. “Of all industry events I’ve ever been to, it’s the one where people are most open and most relaxed, and you genuinely get a chance to talk to all sorts of people at the social events.”
At the core of her thinking for this year’s agenda: “We’ve got to find ways of getting more young people there. We’ve got to find ways of reflecting the reality of just how much work is now taking place in alternative spaces—YouTube, podcasting—and that it’s no good having a policy of us and them. It’s not like, us old-timer broadcasters, what are we going to do about this onslaught that we’re losing? It’s not like that. We’re all in this together, and we all care about trying to get as many people as possible to engage with knowledge and facts and rationality and narratives that tell stories about the world we live in. And whether you’re doing that on Nat Geo or on the BBC or Channel 4 or on your own little YouTube channel or your own enormously successful YouTube channel, we all have the same issues that we care about. A rivalry with the newcomers because it just doesn’t make sense anymore.”
Across almost 30 sessions, the WCSFP agenda aims to meet members of the science and factual community where they are, from having advanced YouTube and deep AI expertise to legacy pubcaster co-production chops. There are several sessions on AI, plus keynote conversations with Estonian neuroscientist Professor Jaan Aru, Electrify’s Ian Shepherd, Goalhanger’s Tony Pastor, Nat Geo’s Tom McDonald, Speechless filmmaker Ric Esther Bienstock, broadcaster and now YouTuber Jim Al-Khalili, and more.
“The thing I’m most proud of is that the major ideas of our age are at the core of Congress,” Ramsden says. “One of the best ways to attract a wide and broad audience to Congress is to talk about the things that we’re all talking about and how we have a duty as science communicators and broadcasters and content creators to find the best ways to communicate those issues to the public.”
The conversation with Ramsden wrapped up with her thoughts on why WCSFP has managed to endure in a landscape where other must-attend factual events have disappeared.
“We’re non-profit, we’re led by our membership, we have a voluntary board and management that aren’t doing it for anything other than the fact that they care about the fact that this genre of television and content survives. I have an editorial board that is all voluntary. Some of them give up a lot of time to help, advise, and make suggestions. Every single session producer is doing it for free. So there’s this vast well of goodwill. And so when you come, you know that people have gone out on a limb to do the best they can. We really believe that what we do is very valuable. And the biggest thing of all, though, is it’s absolutely fantastic fun. The social sessions are brilliant, the dinners are wonderful. We’ve got a marvelous dinner in the Maritime Museum in Tallinn; we’ll be dining right underneath a huge submarine. It’s also really great to share notes with people who are going through similar challenges as you are. It’s all about community.”
Find out more about WCSFP here.
