We build this together

Thank you SRCCON 2023!

At our first in-person SRCCON since 2019, this community built an incredible space to imagine better futures for journalism together. Here’s what we did:

• Came together for nearly 40 peer-led workshops, teaching each other new tools and techniques for journalism, exploring workflows and practices to help our teams level up, and spending time in the kind of values-first culture we want to bring into our newsrooms to make them more equitable places for everyone.
• Led 10 more informal, social sessions during an evening program where we got to be together as people who do this work—sharing our creative projects, getting out into Minneapolis for a river walk and some hockey, playing games, making crafts, and chatting about all sorts of things we love.
• Connected throughout our two days over tasty meals and nice, long snack breaks, opening up even more time to meet new people, catch up with old friends, and keep talking about all the ideas at this year’s SRCCON.

About this year’s program

Here’s our official conference schedule—we’ll get started at 9am on Tuesday and close by 6pm Wednesday. In between, there’s so much to do:

• The SRCCON program: Our workshops are community-built and peer-led. We’ll teach each other to use tech and data better, we’ll reimagine journalism culture together, and we’ll find collaborators who can support us down the road.
• Our evening program: After dinner on Tuesday, SRCCON has casual sessions about life outside of work—hobbies, games, and other activities that let us hang out and connect over the things we love.
• Meals & snacks & breaks: Our program includes lunch both days and dinner on Tuesday, plus plenty of snacks and drinks and long breaks so you can keep chatting.

More things to do

SRCCON attendees love to bring games, tea, and other things to share, plus plan local activities together. Jump in here:

• SRCCON 2023 Information Share!

We also love to share related events that people plan around SRCCON:

• Perspectives: How Communities Handle Crises and Dream of Better Futures: Monday, Oct. 16, 7:30pm. Perspectives is an ongoing project to help journalists find inspiration and strategies from other voices. This discussion will include Jeanelle Austin, Executive Director of the George Floyd Global Memorial, and Jessica Eckerstorfer, co-director of the Southeast Asian Diaspora Project.

If you’re planning a meetup or related event while you’re in Minneapolis for SRCCON, let us know so we can share it with everyone!

COVID safety guidelines

At SRCCON, we prioritize caring for each other. One way we’ll do that this year is by masking throughout the conference while indoors and not actively eating, drinking, or facilitating. We’re excited to be back at our longtime SRCCON venue, but it’s a spot without windows that open or outdoor session spaces. Given that our options for improved air flow are limited, we’ve decided to use a tool we’ve all gotten very familiar with: masks!

We will be modeling our COVID safety policies largely off of the PyCon 2023 policies. We’ll have ample masks available, and encourage participants to bring their preferred N95, KN95, or similar masks as well. Exceptions to masking indoors include while consuming food, for speakers when presenting, and when necessary to communicate with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing.

We also strongly encourage all participants to be up to date on their vaccinations. If you have any questions or need further information, please reach out to us.

What you can expect

The SRCCON program is focused on the practical challenges that news technology and data teams encounter every day. At SRCCON, you’ll:

• Be part of hands-on workshops that reimagine newsroom tech, teamwork, leadership, community, and journalism itself—not panels where you sit back and listen, but sessions where you participate and learn.
• Connect with people who share your hopes and dreams for journalism—not just making professional acquaintances, but creating personal relationships that last.
• Bring who you are into a conference that thinks about the program, the schedule—even games & meals—as ways to celebrate everything you have to share.

SRCCON events are highly participatory, where participants come first so they can can feel comfortable digging into complex problems. The conversations that happen here come from the community and reflect its values:

• We lead change—by challenging the power structures that have failed our industry, we push for long-lasting change in our organizations, led by journalists of color and journalists in local and regional newsrooms.
• We support one another—by offering each other our expertise and empathy, we find new collaborators, help each other learn, and make our networks and organizations more resilient.
• We experiment in the open—by sharing our work and processes, we do the transformative work our organizations need to better connect with and inform our communities.

Who attends SRCCON events

Our participants represent organizations ranging from massive to tiny, and come from all over the U.S. and many other countries. SRCCON participants are developers, designers, journalists, editors, and allies: the practitioners and leaders who are transforming their newsrooms into more representative and innovative places to work. Participants come to SRCCON to change journalism by creating more intentional processes, better relationships with the communities they cover, and new ways to engage and inform people.

How much does it cost?

Ticket prices start at $250, plus ticketing fees. We’ll also offer a limited number of need-based, free scholarship tickets as well as travel or caregiving $500.

SRCCON events don’t have open sale dates or lotteries. If you want to come to SRCCON 2023, our call for participation is how to let us know.

What’s next

You can stay in touch by following @SRCCON, and get information about tickets, our call for participation, and other event news through the OpenNews notification list. If there’s anything else you’d like to know about our events, we’d love to hear from you.

About us

SRCCON events are produced by OpenNews. We connect a network of developers, designers, journalists, and editors to collaborate on open technologies and processes within journalism. OpenNews believes that a community of peers working, learning and solving problems together can create a stronger, more responsive, and inclusive journalism ecosystem. Incubated at the Mozilla Foundation from 2011-2016, OpenNews is now a project of Community Partners.