AI is reshaping media careers—automating some entry-level tasks while creating entirely new roles in newsroom technology, editorial AI strategy, and content production. Hear from professionals building and using AI tools across media companies for a candid conversation about what's changing and how to stand out as the industry evolves.
Eugenia Miranda Richman, VP, Editorial Innovation, Penske Media Corporation
Eugenia Miranda Richman is the VP of Editorial Innovation at Penske Media Corporation. Richman is a seasoned digital media leader and award-winning journalist who has been with PMC for the past 10 years, most recently serving as Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). Prior to WWD, Richman spent four years as Editor-in-Chief of SheKnows, where she doubled its readership, launched new editorial products including glossy digital issues and topical virtual events, and drove significant audience and revenue growth. Earlier in her career at PMC, Richman served as Digital Director for Footwear News, where she grew the brand's digital reach by 1000% and built its commerce business.
Eugenia earned two bachelor's degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master’s in interactive media from the City University of New York. She resides in New York City.
Edward McGurn, Head of Production, MCM Creative; Founder & AI Production Lead, Re(Ai)lism
Edward McGurn builds new ways of making film with AI. As co-founder of MCM.AI and founder of Re(Ai)lism in New York, he develops hybrid production — real actors performing on stage inside environments that are generated, relit, and finished with AI — and generative pipelines that carry a project from screenplay to final cut. His work starts from one idea: development, production, and post are collapsing into a single process, and the filmmakers who understand all three will make the next generation of movies.
He came to that idea the long way. He began as a DGA assistant director on fourteen features, for directors including Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, then spent eleven years at Phoenix Pictures, joining as a creative executive during Black Swan and Shutter Island and rising to Vice President of Production & Development. He later executive produced and directed the series Big Rad Wolf for Vice and Quibi, and produced and directed the documentary Rainbow Warrior for Luc Besson and Canal+. A Yale graduate, he lives in New York.
Pete Pachal, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Media Copilot
Pete Pachal is the founder of The Media Copilot, one of the leading resources helping journalists and media professionals get more from AI. He teaches journalists how to use AI through Media Copilot courses and custom newsroom training, working with organizations including Fortune, The Washington Post, and the BBC. A veteran journalist who held senior roles at CoinDesk and Mashable, Pete writes a weekly AI column for Fast Company and has appeared on Fox Business, CNN, and The Today Show. He brings a journalist's instincts and years of hands-on AI experience to every training session, giving reporters, editors, and media teams practical skills they can put to work the same day.
Dr. Lilian Ajayi Ore, Data Scientist, Digital Marketing Executive & Talent Development Leader; AI Lead Faculty, Strategic Communication Program, Columbia University; Author, The Power of the Learning Mindset
Dr. Ore holds an EdD and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s GSE, receiving Double Distinctions on her dissertation research. With more than 17 years of industry experience as a leader in Fortune 100 and 500 companies, she has developed deep expertise in learning, marketing, research, business, and digital innovation. She has also designed and led various academic and executive programs, including master’s and doctoral degrees, entrepreneurship initiatives, faculty development workshops, and global corporate partnerships, impacting learners and executives across sectors and continents. A member of Marshall Goldsmith’s Top 100 Executive Coaches, Dr. Ore has been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Publishing, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur.com, to name a few. Dr. Ore has delivered keynotes in over 54 cities worldwide, taking the stage at leading global platforms including the World Bank, United Nations, Ford Foundation, AI4, and International Association of Business Communicators, among others.
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Dr. Ore is a recipient of several prestigious awards and recognitions, including Top 50 Learning and Development Professional, Top 100 Women list, Inspiring Voice in Academia by Harvard Business Impact, President’s Gold Volunteer Service Award, and Leadership Ambassador by Toronto World Leadership Forum. Dr. Ore was appointed UN Eminent Peace Ambassador by the IAWPA UN Peace Volunteers. More recently, she received Columbia University’s Dean Eggers’ Research Award.
Dr. Ore is an internationally recognized data scientist, research scholar, thought leader, and motivational speaker with expertise in learning, artificial intelligence, leadership development, and executive coaching. Her research and practice center on the cognitive and organizational processes that enable leaders and teams to develop adaptive capabilities, foster curiosity, and translate continuous learning into measurable organizational performance.
Moderator: Hadas Gold, AI Correspondent, CNN
Hadas Gold is an AI correspondent on CNN’s Business team, focusing on the complex world of artificial intelligence, the global race to dominate the technology and how AI impacts our daily lives.
Previously, Gold was CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent. She was the first correspondent at CNN covering the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and ensuing war reporting under live rocket fire, for which she and the CNN team were awarded an Emmy Award for Breaking News Coverage as well as an Overseas Press Club award.
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During her three years in the region, Gold regularly reported from the scene of the alarming record levels of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, including the 2021 Hamas-Israel war. Gold reported extensively on the rise of new militant groups, Israel’s military raids into the West Bank, and the future of the Palestinian Authority.
Gold also reported widely on the drastic internal political changes happening in Israel, from the unprecedented protest movement against the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul plan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s historic corruption trial. She also covered Israel’s world-first COVID-19 vaccination campaign, historic visits by Israeli leaders to countries such as Bahrain, as well as then-President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories in 2022.
Before moving to Jerusalem, Gold covered media, tech, and politics for CNN from London and before that, Washington, D.C., where she was one of the lead reporters on the Trump administration’s historic lawsuit to prevent AT&T from acquiring CNN’s former parent company, Time Warner.
Before joining CNN, Gold spent more than five years at Politico as a media reporter, during which she was named one of the “most influential media reporters” by Mediaite in 2017. In 2011, while a graduate student, she was awarded a fellowship with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, where she reported on trash pickers in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Gold graduated from the George Washington University with a B.A. in journalism and an M.A. in media and public affairs. She is a member of the National Council at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. Follow her at @hadas_gold.
Presented with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the Media Arts & Technology Department at Borough of Manhattan Community College
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The Center's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
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