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Pitch: How questions saved my life and publishing industry in Europe

How do you make people listen to you and stay alert in a conversation? By asking the right questions. What comes naturally in a human conversation has been neglected in publishing for too long. A bunch of European publishers just managed to change that. Anyone who cares about their community can do the same.

Pia Frey: I'm 28, coming from Berlin, Germany. My life has been evolving around questions: first as a philosophy student, then as a journalist, as a publisher of best-selling books that consist of nothing but questions and as founder of a startup that engages users – through questions.

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Pitch: Engagement is Relational, NOT Transactional

Walking through the convention floor and looking through the schedule, it's clear that "engagement" is the latest rage. And it has been for awhile. Just look at the growing number of engagement editor positions. And although the definition is nuance, I want to talk about community engagement and NOT audience engagement. If you want to talk about Twitter, Facebook, and other social media metrics (or even commenting platforms), this session isn't for you. I want us to come together in this unconference session to answer the question: What does journalism look like when we purposefully put the public at the center of what we do, bring people together who accurately represent diverse voices, authentically listen, and deliberately connect conversations to tell the whole story. We will also use this time to gather the intelligence of the group to shape an upcoming digital platform that will support the community of practice of engaged journalism. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is making an investment to support the platform and spread best practices in engagement among journalists across the nation.

Andrew DeVigal is the inaugural Chair in Journalism Innovation and Civic Engagement and the first professor of practice at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC). He runs programs and projects at the Agora Journalism Center, the gathering place for innovation in communication and civic engagement.

Pitch: Maps & Apps for Newsgathering

I bet you thought maps were just a cool visualization tool? Or that data journalism was only for super fancy geeks? With a new fleet of mapping tools in the cloud, and the army of the Internet of Things, you too can make beautiful maps ready for publishing, discover news stories, and gather information. We will workshop one story about fracking in California to show you how to find ready to plot authoritative data, and integrate it with apps and other newgathering methods.

Tierney O'Dea is a news technologist focused on the development of geographic information systems for newsgathering and story telling. She started her career at NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw in New York, is finishing up her Masters at USC's Spatial Sciences Institute, and the founder of the Public Science League

Pitch: Breaking Through the Firewall: Engaging People in Censored Societies

In Iran, the president and foreign minister communicate to the world on Twitter and Ayatollah Khamenei posts on Facebook. But for just about everyone else, major Western social media tools are blocked, replaced by only what is deemed appropriate for a "halal internet." But with censorship in countries like Iran comes innovation from independent media seeking to engage the very audiences these regimes want blocked. Not so long ago proxies were at the forefront of this effort. But now, with growing proportions of young audiences using smartphones, chat apps are providing a means for journalists to receive, verify and report information in closed societies and reach people they've never reached before. And what happens in Iran doesn't necessarily stay there. The lessons we've learned can also help journalists who want to engage audiences in open societies

Fred Petrossian is online editor-in-chief of Radio Farda (Radio Free Europe's Persian service). He is co-founder of the award-winning March 18 Movement to raise awareness about bloggers’ safety around the world. Petrossian was involved with leading digital projects such as Harvard Global Voices.He co-edited and co-wrote “Hope, Votes and Bullets”(2010) on Iranian protest movements based on citizen media. He has been an international speaker on civil society and citizen media in media and academic centers such as Yale University.

Pitch: Ad-free subscriptions: Can they work in journalism?

Hulu does it.

Pandora does it.

Wired is trying it, and The New York Times is considering it.

What are they doing? Offering ad-free subscriptions.

People are paying to get their time back, have fewer distractions and protect their privacy online.

Can this business model work in the field of journalism, with its relatively lower ad rates? What has the experience been for publishers so far? How can the experience be improved?

The time is ripe to talk about taking a half-step away from the increasingly difficult world of chasing online impressions while at the same time helping advertisers reach the people who really want to hear from them.

Let’s bring together publishing and advertising executives, technologists and journalists for a frank and open exchange.

Ryan Nakashima is a JSK Fellow at Stanford for 16-17, working on the very challenge of how publishers can deal with ad blockers. I've been the media, technology and business reporter at The Associated Press in Los Angeles since 2008. Living off journalism's dime since the mid-90s.

Pitch: Don't Read the Comments, Sew Them!

The comments are tough to deal with. They are messy and more often than not they just make no sense. Even for journalists who are invested in engaging with their readers, the vitriol can be demoralizing.

So stop reading them and start sewing them in an ONA sewing circle.

Join Hannah Wise, Dallas Morning News breaking news political reporter and the creator of @SewManyComments, to learn how to embroider your favorite comments.

Take a break from the screens, come make new friends and learn a cool craft to take home to your newsroom. Trust us, embroidery is a great conversation starter.

Worried about coming up with a comment to start? Hannah will have a selection of pre-designed patterns to choose from as well.

Can't sew? Not to worry. Embroidery is easier than it sounds and this Uncon sewing circle will be a judgement-free crafting space.

Come make something beautiful out of the digital nonsense.

Hannah Wise is a breaking news political reporter at The Dallas Morning News and the co-founder of Dallas' ONA Local chapter. The creator of @SewManyComments on Instagram, she loves to turn fleeting comments into permanent pieces of stitched art. Talk to her about living in a working U.S. Post Office, her cat Brünnhilde or your favorite cup of coffee.

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Pitch: How to Solve Local Journalism’s Money Problem

The advertising model of journalism is dying. Even the biggest media players are locked in a race to the bottom. In order for journalism to thrive again, we need a new model to support journalism in the public interest.

That model already exists in the form of special districts. Special districts provide communities with firefighting services; utilities like water, gas, and electricity; and schools. Join us for a conversation about how this model can support the development of news and information services that put community first and offer a sustainable source of revenue for journalism at local, regional, and maybe even national levels.

We invite ONA attendees who work in non-profit news, public media, community engagement, local publishing, and any other field to join.

We believe community information districts are the key to financing the future of quality local journalism.

Simon Galperin is pursuing an M.A. in Social Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the co-founder of Muckgers, a digital-first college newspaper covering Rutgers University. Previously, he was the senior editor at Jerrick Media, a digital media startup, and founding editorial strategist at NJ Spark, a social justice journalism lab based at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information.

Joe Amditis is pursuing an M.A. in Social Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the associate director of The Center Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. He is also the co-founder of Muckgers, a digital-first college newspaper covering Rutgers University.

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Pitch: Media: Blended

On college campuses around the country, students are producing newscasts, not for television, but the web. These newscasts take snatches of inspiration from the evening news of old, shows from today such as Vice, video podcasts, and comedy news shows and blend them into something new, original and far more targeted to their audiences. On the University of Nevada, Reno campus, students are producing Wolf Pack What, a YouTube program focused on student news, pop culture and issues of the day. But there are no anchor desks, and news packages are just as likely to introduce absurdist elements as they are to be straightforward. This is reflective of the mindset of the next generation of journalism professionals, who draw from the best media of today and remix it into what will become the media of tomorrow. As traditional news fades, the latest generation of journalists is ripping up the rulebook in this new digital age, making news not just informative, but funny and personal.

Michael Olinger is an undergraduate student at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is the recipient of the Paul A. and Gwen F. Leonard Scholarship, the Edward W. Scripps II Scholarship and the Reno News & Review Scholarship. In 2015 he interned for The Fresno Bee. This year he was a fellow with News21, producing stories published by NBC News and The Washington Post. He is the Secretary/Treasurer of the Nevada Online News Association.

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Pitch: You've found metrics that matter. How do you get people to care?

Step 1 is out of the way. You've found metrics that matter to your business or newsroom. Congrats!

But now comes the hard work. Getting everyone to buy-in and truly embrace these metrics can be a daunting task. How do you do it?

I have plenty of thoughts around these topics but would be glad to make this more of a discussion as I know there are plenty of people interested in this topic and having these conversations in their organization as we speak!

Some topics to explore:

- How do we know we chose the right metrics to focus on? - Is it ok that our focus is different from another news org? - Who needs to know about what metrics are important? - What challenges should we expect to face when rolling out a plan? - What tools can help us? - What do we do to hit our goals? - If we are chasing metrics, is that bad for our readers or sponsors? - What do metrics actually tell us? - HOW DO WE GET EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE???

We'll dig in to the meaning behind the numbers and how they can empower, not just measure.

John Levitt is the General Manager at Parse.ly, an analytics platform built specifically to help newsrooms better understand their audience.

Connect with John on Twitter at @johnmlevitt. Or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmlevitt

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Pitch: Collaboration is a messy necessity

Collaboration is a buzzword, but like most buzzwords, the real world implementation can be messy and even ineffective. Different editorial processes, tool chains and editorial calendars make collaboration a chaotic enterprise. So how do we make it work in an age of dwindling resources and great need of enterprise reporting and why is it so important? Join me for a round-table discussion of collaboration, what works and what doesn't. This session is a highly interactive discussion with plenty of opportunity for input, discussion and experience sharing.

Heather Bryant is the founder and director of Project Facet, an open source software project to help manage the editorial process and facilitate collaboration between newsrooms. Facet received a Knight Prototype Grant in 2015. Heather is currently a JSK Fellow at Stanford studying how to help small, rural and emerging newsrooms build effective and meaningful editorial collaborations.

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Pitch: #Cannabis Journalism: Reporting on America's New Normal

The conversation surrounding cannabis in American culture is evolving every day, and the reporting is changing with the times. Visitors to Denver for ONA might have read, or know something about WEED, but do they know about Cannabis from every angle that it can be covered and reported out?

Andrew Matranga: I usually start with “I’m Andrew, and I love maps.”

So, there you have it.

But beyond my cartomania, I also geek out on my kids, soccer, bikes, technology, data and music. Oh, and Star Wars, for sure. Let’s not forget that saga set in a galaxy far, far away…

On Mondays and Wednesdays during the academic year, I serve an assistant teaching professor of journalism in the Media, Film and Journalism Studies Department at the University of Denver.

I teach courses in online and visual journalism, newswriting and reporting, digital design and editing, web and content management. On Monday nights, I assist as faculty adviser for the student-produced newspaper, The DU Clarion.

I am originally from a family of five based in Chicago. I completed an undergraduate degree in 2002 at Syracuse University in Central New York, and I defended my masters thesis at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 2005. Since then I’ve tagged both coastlines, hiked some of the iconic mountain ranges and National Parks of the Lower 48, and traveled to Canada, Puerto Rico, Italy, Peru, Mexico, Thailand, and Scotland in search of lasting, adventure-filled experiences.

Lastly, but most dear to me, is my project of building a lifetime with my wonderful wife, my two awesome sons and my amazing daughter.

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Beat Reporting Best Practices

Many of us in the journalism community primarily identify through strictly defined beats, a traditional system for organizing reporters that has been majorly shook by changes in objectivity standards, community involvement and other expectations adapted because of new web-informed norms. Among new and adapting beat reporters, I want to lead a conversation on best practices for beat reporters, specifically those that include a geographic niche. We'll address issues like being a part of a community you must challenge, developing and managing sources, delivering investigative projects within small groups, managing confidential sources and receiving criticism and other community engagement. This will be full of specific examples with tactics and tips.

Christopher Wink is the cofounder and Editorial Director of 25-person Technically Media, which publishes local tech news and events network Technical.ly and, as of fall 2015, social impact site Generocity.org, including a 10-person editorial team. In that capacity, the ONA Local Philadelphia chapter leader is an organizer of Philly Tech Week, Baltimore Innovation Week and Barcamp News Innovation, among other events that bring smart people together.

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Pitch: Looking after your MOJO digital media

Mobile Journalists (MOJOs) collect a lot of digital media assets from the field such as video, audio interviews, photos, location and quick editorial notes. Most often this media is confidential and also IP worth protecting.

Sadly due to the inconsistent ways in which media is stored on device, transported back to editorial desks and shared across teams majority of the MOJO media captured in-field is lost or not stored for future retrieval to enrich a follow up story or back up an archived piece.

It's important that these mobile digital assets are secured in app (on device) and distributed to a secure central MOJO media library for further reuse.

Implementing secure standards and consistent ways in which MOJO media is handled will add value to newsroom editors and increase the value of the in-field MOJO role in gathering digital media.

NB that MOJOs understand where, how and by whom their mobile digital media can add to the groups value, and benefit the whole publishing ecosystem especially if there are multiple editorial teams reliant on a centralised MOJO managed content hub.

Richard Cheary, CEO of Afrozaar, Product Director of MojoReporter

Things that get me up in the morning, apart from my youngest son or my trail running mates, is the fact that our product development team's constantly innovating and architecting secure stable media platforms for the publishing industry, which brings with it a sense of pride.

I was once asked, "Why Publishing Software?"

I replied, "Why not, it's got everything someone in digital is looking for; Customer profiling, Social, eCommerce, App store integration, Analytics, Products, Security, Performance, Scalability, Mobile apps, Video transcoding, Digital advertising, Meta data, Cloud search, Brand, UX and communities."

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Pitch: "But I want to use a real camera!" Preaching mobile journalism

There is still some wait-and-see, even pushback in classrooms, faculty meetings and newsrooms against the use of mobile phones for journalism. Fact is, no newsroom is going to give any new grad a handycam anymore, and most expect new hires to be mobile ninjas...ready to train their bosses & colleagues. Let's share arguments, tools and exercises/assignments to preach - and build - professional 'mojo' practices. This would be mainly a session for educators but we would value the input & experience of news bosses trying to jumpstart mobile for their newsrooms. How can we work together?

Susan Newhook teaches video and television reporting at the University of King's College School of Journalism in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her experience in journalism extends across all platforms, working for the CBC and as a freelancer. She will launch her school's first all-smartphone undergraduate reporting course in the upcoming academic year, and 'drank the Kool-Aid' of Dublin's #mojocon in 2015 and 2016 - this year as presenter/trainer.

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Pitch: Using Slack in the Classroom

Bring your laptop! Bring your iPad! Bring your phone! We're going to show you some ways you can introduce your students to real-time collaboration tools using apps like Slack in your classroom discussions.

The target audience for this session is educators. This will be a hands on session. You will walk away with concrete learning outcomes, an understanding of the pros and cons of using real-time tools in the classroom and a plan for how you can start incorporating them into your classes next week.

There will be at least two additional faculty members that will help lead this discussion.

Staci Baird: Assistant Prof of Communications @ULaVerne. #flipclass #edtech Modern journalist. Student pilot. I ❤️ adventure, margaritas with a kick, yoga & baking.

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Pitch: Inventing Pain-free Transcription

I've spent three decades as a broadcast journalist. I've witnessed and lived the tech revolution that has transformed journalism. Yet one core function remains trapped in the 1970's: we still have to manually transcribe our interviews, news conferences etc. I left my job as ABC News London Correspondent in 2014 to launch Career 2.0: I joined with a brilliant team of devs to find a way to use Artificial Intelligence to do the heavy lifting and bring transcription into the 21st Century. I am a reporter, I am totally unqualified to be a CEO and an inventor, but with an amazing team we have cracked it and created Trint (transcription+interview). We have built software that automatically, quickly and amazingly accurately transcribes, then makes it easy to search, verify and share content. It's being used by NPR, the Washington Post, BBC and others and now we are opening to the world. What an adventure it's been. And it's just beginning.

Jeff Kofman is Co-Founder and CEO of Trint, a London, U.K.-based media tech company.

Jeff knows the world of video content. He is an Emmy-winning veteran network television news and war correspondent with more than three decades of experience reporting from around the world for ABC News, CBS News and CBC News. He has covered many of the biggest stories of our time including the Iraq War, the Arab Spring, Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Oil Spill and the Chile Mine Rescue.

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