Attendee logistics at SRCCON

SRCCON is an intentionally small, hands-on conference, where attendees actively participate throughout the event. The whole event is organized around opportunities to learn from each other and build relationships, and our welcome guide can tell you a lot more about the attendee experience. For lodging and other logistics info, please read on!

Lodging

Our conference hotel, the Graduate Minneapolis, is located right next to our venue. The SRCCON block has sold out, but you can still book there at the regular rate!

It’s also fairly easy to get around Minneapolis via public transit (the light rail Green Line stops about 5-minute walk from McNamara), walking, bikeshare, or rideshare. Here are some other hotels not far from the conference venue:

Days Hotel
.3 miles away
2407 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 623-3999

Hilton Garden Inn Minneapolis University Area
.5 miles away
511 Huron Boulevard SE
Minneapolis, MN, 55414
(612) 504-3000

Home2 Suites by Hilton Minneapolis University Area
.6 miles away
2808 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 473-4662

University Inn
1 mile away
925 4th Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 746-1300

Courtyard Minneapolis Downtown
1.5 miles away
1500 S Washington Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-333-4646

Sonder at East End
2.5 miles away
240 Chicago Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(617) 300-0956

Aloft Minneapolis Hotel
3 miles away
900 Washington Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55415
(612) 455-8400

Have a room and looking for a roommate? Don’t have a room and looking for someone who does? Add your info to the room share list.

Details about ticket prices

In 2019, we began experimenting with a tiered ticket-pricing system. Accessibility remains a core value for us, and this is our attempt to balance the actual costs of the conference with keeping prices as manageable for attendees as possible. We also continue to offer scholarships to attend.

Here are the tiers (plus Eventbrite ticketing fees):

$250: This was our ticket price last year and remains the base price for people who are paying their own way, from small news organizations with fewer than 50 people, or nonprofits with budgets $750,000 or less.
$375: A new ticket price for people from medium-sized news organizations of 51-250 employees, nonprofits with budgets $750,000-$2 million, and other similar-sized organizations.
$695: This ticket tier reflects very nearly the actual cost for each attendee of SRCCON and is for people from large news organizations with more than 250 employees, nonprofits with budgets over $2 million, and other organizations that provide full professional-development budgets for employees.

In addition, we also offer a free scholarship ticket as one of the tiers. We have a limited number of free tickets set aside for people who otherwise would not be able to attend, in particular for laid-off and freelance journalists. We also give priority to people who identify as members of communities underrepresented in journalism and technology, such as journalists of color, and journalists from smaller and non-coastal newsrooms.

Here’s the most important thing to know about these ticket prices: We want you to choose the one that makes sure you can be at SRCCON 2023. We don’t review who pays what, and we won’t follow up with any questions. If you work for an organization where budgets have already been set or there’s not support available to you, choose a lower price and join us. By the same token, if you budgeted for higher travel costs you no longer have to spend and are able to purchase a ticket at a higher tier, please do. If you’re interested in contributing to a scholarship ticket, please pick the highest ticket tier you can afford. Paying for free tickets and scholarships is something we deliberately build into our ticket tier structure.

We based these tiers on community feedback encouraging us to find ways to share event costs. Ticket funds are a huge part of what makes it possible to organize event with dozens of travel and caregiving scholarships, live transcription, two lunches, dinner, and ample snacks and drinks, and the support of a skilled event team in preparing sessions and constructing a schedule that lets attendees focus on learning and talking together.

If you have any questions at all about ticket pricing, please reach out.

Not just attendees, but participants

At SRCCON, everyone participates in some way. Our hands-on sessions rely on participants who are ready to share their experiences and perspectives. Facilitators create space for in-depth conversations, design exercises, demos, and workshops, and participants bring questions and take ideas back to their newsrooms. In addition to sessions, people help make SRCCON an inclusive, welcoming place by leading group activities, volunteering, and even just saying hi to new friends and collaborators over breaks and activities.

Our call for participation form has a few questions for you about what you’d like to bring to SRCCON and how we can support one another. We look forward to seeing what ideas folks have and how we can make them possible during our days together. As one prior attendee put it, SRCCON “will be a special opportunity to take some of the brightest minds in journalism, data, and community-building to tackle everything that has come to a head in the past couple of months with positivity, frankness, and creativity.”

Facilitating sessions

At SRCCON events, session facilitators regularly make up more than a third of attendees. All of our sessions are peer-led by conference attendees—consider becoming a facilitator this year by learning more about sessions. The deadline to propose a session has now passed, but if you might be interested in helping out with a session or coaching facilitators, there’s a spot in the form to let us know.

Welcome, first-timers

We think SRCCON is best when there’s a mix of folks new to SRCCON and veterans of the conference. And we want new folks to feel able to participate in whatever ways interest you. There’s a spot on the form to ask for more information if you’re interested in attending but not quite sure how you want to participate. In reviewing forms, we’ll aim to have a healthy balance of newcomers and returning SRCCON participants. So SRCCON alums, you can put your name in without worrying that you’re taking a new attendee’s spot.

Financial & family assistance

We offered a limited number of travel scholarships to help people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. The deadline to apply for a scholarship has passed, but free scholarship tickets will be availble on the ticket registration page.

These scholarships can also provide support for childcare or other caregiving needs and costs. In the past during in-person events there wasn’t sufficient usage of the free childcare we organized, so we’re not planning to offer it this year. But we’re very interested to explore other ways to make the event more accessible to parents and other caregivers. Please email us if you have any questions or ideas.