Alex Gamela - Digital Media & Journalism » conference

Switch Conference – 15th and 16th of May, 2010 at University of Coimbra, Portugal

Alex Gamela — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:32:54 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s in Portugal and it’s worth spreading: the second Switch Conference is just in a couple of days and there are still some tickets available . If you don’t know what it is, here’s what it’s all about:

SWITCH is a 2-day conference to be held in the University of Coimbra, Portugal , on the 15th and 16th of May, 2010. We do want, however, to make SWITCH way more than a conference. We want to make it an authentic 2-day discovering experience. Attendees will get in touch with scientists, entrepreneurs, thinkers, do-er and everyone in between to share their knowledge, their experience and their ideias aiming to create awareness on scientific and technological matters, preparing us to a better defined future and a helthier society. We want and promote earth-shaking ideas, impossible breakthroughts and incredible life stories.

The conference will take place on a weekend to let those who are unable to leave work for the whole week to attend the conference sharing their experience and vision.

SWITCH will have a main room where presentations will fully run from day 1 to day 2, a second room where the startup competition and deep discussions will take place and, finally, outside areas when all sort of fun activities will take place and where partners and sponsors stands will be located.

SWITCH main theme will be “Web & Development” but our bet is on diversity. Diversity of cultures, ideas, discussions, persons and, of course, themes. You can find the full list of topics for this year’s conference here.

In the 2nd Room will take place the startup competition hosted by Webreakstuff. We want to act as a plattaform for networking, but also as as a way for you to meet with investors and to make your business project known by the crowd. The startup competition will sort out the best startups around and promote them with investors and media.

Grab your tickets while you can.

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news:rewired – nudges and conclusions

Alex Gamela — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:23:52 +0000

the view of @drawnalism over #newsrw

I must confess i hate conferences. Well, i’ve been hating them, since i’ve never been to so many of them in such a short period of time, and because i’m not making the most of attending to these things. Conferences are not only places of discussion and learning with some of the best minds in a specific field, but mostly a place to interact with them, network with like minded people, make new friends, get into someone else’s list of professional contacts. Lately i’ve been feeling like a teenager avoiding all the cool kids. I’m starting to think i’m losing people’s skills, or my charm doesn’t work around here. I come from a different culture, and you brits sometimes don’t make it easy. But some do, actually, as i found out after the end of the conference, over a few beers.

I was approached by John Thompson, publisher and owner of Journalism.co.uk, so, the man in charge of the operations. He kindly put up with my ranting about what i thought Journalism.co.uk could do when covering the Journiverse, while i thanked him for my (nowadays undeserved) presence in their list of the best journalism blogs. John and his team do some of the best work i see related to the industry, and i’m constantly recommending their work. Another huge mistake i keep doing is not having a camera available to interview people, my Samsung Omnia has terrible video and sound quality, so i didn’t even tried, but my conversation with John could have been registered and posted here, instead of having to describe it using just words. Not much multimedia of me…

Other people that i managed to talk to IRL (in real life) for the first time we’re Laura Oliver, from journalism.co.uk, but i failed to meet Judith Townend. I got to “e-talk” with them a bit in the last two years, so it’s easy to have the “i kinda know you” feeling. Another great moment was when I intercepted Andy Dickinson, whom i must convince to taste some Portuguese wines, I owe him a bottle anyway. But if you’ve ever been to these events, you know it’s all three minute conversations, then change counterparts. After three beers in a nearly empty stomach i was feeling like a pinball (so unprofessional of me…) but i got to talk to Dave Lee, Adam Westbrook, Josh Halliday, and Phillip John that i already knew from Birmingham. But it was nice to get to talk to these guys in person, they are what i thought of them: smart and to be followed in their online presences, there is a lot to be learned from them.

It was a great day anyway, and the bullet points were the following:

- journalists can’t do everything, they need to find what they need to know;

- journalists need to be entrepreneurial;

-journalism is changing faster than we can be aware of that;

-journalism is still the same thing as it was before, but there is a plethora of new ways to do it, monetize it, distribute it, work on it;

You should check these websites to get a better picture of what happened during the conference: news:rewired, of course, with all the profiles of the speakers and some accounts on the sessions; Andy Dickinson talks about one of the sessions he attended; Adam Tinworth also reports on the sessions he attended.

Now i’m working on my assignments for the MA and looking for a place to work for the Labs phase next semester. This was a useful event for me, nonetheless, and i might profit from it in the near future. At least that’s what i hope. And if you see me at one of these things, please approach me, i might not recognize you, be offline, or just too shy that day.

Here are some images of the conference.

[UPDATE: Check this list of links for a broader coverage on the event]

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news:rewired – how to make money

Alex Gamela — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:48 +0000

James Fryer, from SoGlos.com

This is post number four on the news:rewired conference. You can read the posts one, two and three too.

The final session of news:rewired was dedicated to the ugly side of the future of journalism: how to make money, why journalists are not making money, law and copyright, audiences and advertising. This was stuff journos never had to think about, but that they should consider in their everyday practice, so they can make it financially sustainable. But the trick to be successful is the same as before: be one of the best.

The first speaker of the panel was James Fryer, one of the founding editors of SoGlos.com, the hyperlocal online magazine for Gloucestershire. I had already met James and his associate Michelle Byrne when they sat next to me during the morning sessions, and we got to talk about we should be networking more during the breaks. They we’re really nice, and as someone who developed an experimental hyperlocal website, i was interested in what they had to say.

Fryer gave us the top do’s and don’ts for a hyperlocal venture, and i’d like to highlight a few of his ideas. He was one of the people who pointed out the obvious characteristic for any successful endeavor: be great. Without being great you’ll never stand out, and gain trust and respect from your audience and your advertisers. Besides that basic principle, you must know where you stand commercially, what is your market and it’s needs, and who could be your allies. But don’t forget to remain true to your starting idea, keep your editorial integrity. I’d like to see some of the major news outlets following some of these principles…

SoGlos was victim of some plagiarism, and the next speaker talked about just that. Caroline Kean is a lawyer, and she adressed some of the problems that affect online journalism, like copyright and privacy. She debunked the myth that if it’s on the web it’s free, and that companies should be careful about the misuse of costumers data. These are relevant questions that would suffice to organize a conference on it’s own. She was followed by Ben Heald, “CEO of Sift Media, a leading business-to-business publisher specialising in online, interactive professional communities.” What i got from Heald’s speech was that pay walls will fail, and that money will come from niche communities that will pay for specific contents. I remember i liked his presentation, but i don’t have many notes about it. Probably it’s because he was stating something that was obvious for me, but that still hasn’t reached some minds.

Maybe me forgetting about Ben Heald’s presentation was Greg Hadfield‘s fault. The man has an incredible life story, and recent events in his professional course still put him in the game changers group. He delivered this simple yet powerful idea: journalists must act as entrepreneurs. This involves passion and vision, and one activity can’t be separated from the other. He said that when he was a journalist he never thought about advertising, it was “the stuff that made your article shorter”. Now it’s time to be entrepreneurial, since the face of the industry has changed forever. Adam Tinworth sums up some of Hadfield’s ideas here.

I must confess i was awfully tired by then, and a bit frustrated because i was looking around and recognizing some people from my twitter timeline and hadn’t networked with them live. Besides, wifi didn’t work for me and i had to sit offline the whole day, which put me in a state of deprivation close to a certified addict. But after this we had the End of Conference Drinks! More about that in the next post.

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news:rewired – the start

Alex Gamela — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:31:26 +0000

Last Thursday i attended the news:rewired event, organized by the great Journalism.co.uk team. I have to say that the source of most of my excitment when i got to the London City University, where the conference was held, was the fact that i’d see in the flesh many of my twitter contacts. But it seems i’m 16 again and i’m not able to engage in a conversation at conference foyers. Being dead tired after a long day, in panic because i’m really late with my assignments for the MA and nearly broke doesn’t help, but i’m always good at finding excuses (you can hire me if you need someone for that). It was a good place to network in a more active way, and i failed. My charm doesn’t seem to work around here. But the presentations were good, the event had a main idea running throughout the day, and the crowd was diverse and knowledgeable about media, with different backgrounds and expertises. And that already made the event a winner.

Looking through my notes, i find some terrific quotes that by themselves define the spirit of the event. “Professor of chaos”, that’s how George Brock, Professor and Head of Journalism at London City University, defined himself. But big events in History are surrounded by chaos, and this one in news industry is no exception. Brock then said we had to be “spaghetti throwers”, which as a foreigner, looks like a great image to me. He then gave way to Kevin Marsh, editor of the BBC College of Journalism, that explained to the audience how the BBC made online the center of their news operation, in the biggest multimedia newsroom in the world. Marsh said the evolution process inside the newsroom was so fast they couldn’t even reflect on what was going on, and he took a great lesson out of that experience: “If you think you know the answer, it’s because you didn’t got the question.”

“Entrepreneurial journalism won’t replace big journalism” could sound like a statement against the main current at news:rewired, but it is a great warning for those who are getting the wrong picture about new media. Marsh defends multimedia skills will not suplant journalistic skills but “they suplement the core skills of journalism”. He said there’s no room for a PanMedia journalist, but for journalists with specific skills. We can think this is a step back in the new media philosophy, but i’m also joining this bandwagon. It’s good to know a bit about everything, but we need to be specialists in something. Kevin Marsh also left some good advices for journo students and pros:

-keep learning;
-think like a journalist when you look at the skill set that you need;
-think about what you do well and how the new skills fit with the old ones;
-if the skill is not working for you, drop it.When you stop innovating you should move on.

And he reinforced these ideas by saying “Skills are means to an end”, we spend too much time talking about applications and not about what they can do. But if God is in the details, he gave a final warning: “Don’t lose sight of the big picture.”

The man is right. Check his keynote in full below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the next posts i’ll talk about how the rest of the day went. There is a post about Marsh’s ideas here, but you might want to check Nigel Barlow’s insights too.

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news:rewired – city university, london, 14/01/2010

Alex Gamela — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:14:07 +0000

Are you going? You should.

This is one of those things i’ll try not to miss: Journalism.co.uk, the online journalism website par excellence, is turning 10, and they’re organizing a conference dedicated to what-you-know-what. So if you’re into the present and future of journalism, sign up, it’s on the 14th of January and it costs the fair amount of 80£. By the way, have i ever told you that my blog is on their list?

In Journalism.co.uk’s own words:

news:rewired, a one-day meet-up organised by Journalism.co.uk at City University, London will bring together leading multimedia journalists and digital news editors and look beyond our industry to data experts and e-commerce specialists, generating original ideas for ways of working and practical advice you can use straightaway.

news:rewired wants to help you do better journalism – whether that’s learning the basics of videojournalism or discovering new social media tools through which to tell your stories - by providing speakers who are already changing how it’s done.

“It’s always been our goal to educate as well as observe at Journalism.co.uk, and news:rewired represents the culmination of our accumulated efforts in that direction over the past decade,” added Journalism.co.uk founder John Thompson.

Multimedia, mash-ups and making money – this is the news business rewired.

Full details are at www.newsrewired.com, but here’s the basic outline:

Who’s it for?

Journalists: staffers, freelancers, editors, newsroom executives, trainees and students from all sectors, as well as those looking to get back into the industry

Journalism trainers, tutors and teachers

Anyone in media, journalism and communications with an interest in where our industry is headed

When and where?

news:rewired will take place on 14 January 2010 at London’s City University from 10am – 5:15pm.

What’s going on?

Session 1: Multimedia

Choose from three groups: videojournalism; social media for journalists; a troubleshooting panel for all your online journalism needs.

Session 2: Collaboration

Take your pick from three discussions on forming partnerships, covering: user-generated content, data and local media.

Session 3: Making Money

No event for modern-day journalists would be worth attending without a discussion on making money. But there’ll be no wishful ‘blue sky thinking’ here, just a look at what’s worked, what hasn’t and where the opportunities are for online journalists.

How much will it cost?

news:rewired tickets are £80+ VAT and can be bought at this link.

For more information contact:

Laura Oliver (laura [at] journalism.co.uk) or Judith Townend (judith [at] journalism.co.uk) on +44 (0)1273 384290

And follow @newsrewired on Twitter

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#HD09 – Hello Digital

Alex Gamela — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:26:08 +0000

Today will be busy, i’ll be attending Hello Digital, the West Midlands media festival, here in Birmingham. Innovation is the keyword, but also creativity and commercial success. Yesterday i heard the 4iP head manager say the West Midlands are “the hottest spot to be in the country”, when it comes to digital media. I believe he’s right.

I expect to write about this later, but you can follow the conference at Millenium Point via livestream. Check the official website or follow the #hd09 tag on Twitter.

Hoje vai ser um dia em cheio, vou assistir ao Hello Digital, o festival de media das West Midlands aqui em Birmingham. A palavra chave é inovação, mas também criatividade e sucesso comercial. Ontem ouvi o director do 4iP dizer que as West Midlands são “o local mais excitante do país” no que diz respeito aos media digitais. Eu acho que ele tem razão.

Espero escrever sobre isto mais tarde, mas podem seguir a conferência no Millenium Point via livestream. Vejam também o site oficial ou seguir a tag #hd09 no Twitter.

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(The Future of) Journalism in Portugal conference | (O Futuro do) Jornalismo em Portugal

Alex Gamela — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:03:17 +0000

Video: Comunicamos

If you are in the vicinity of Carregal do Sal and if you would like to join the debate around Journalism in Portugal, then you should attend the conference organized by the Rascunhos school newspaper. A high school newspaper!

The organizers, as you can see in the video above, are young, but eager to discuss journalism and present their project. Ricardo Sousa, the smart fellow on the left, invited me a few weeks ago to participate, but i had to decline, and now i feel sorry for it because it looks like it’s going to be good.

I was impressed with Ricardo then, when we exchanged emails, but after watching the video i am even more. This guy is going places. I don’t know his partner in the event, Romina Santos, but i know that their team effort will be fruitful, and i can’t express how much i admire them for doing this.

They’ll be having from young journalists to journalism teachers, to experienced reporters and newspaper board members. And they’ll take the chance to present the brand new edition of their school newspaper.

It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and i will have to watch the video stream to compensate the fact i won’t be there. But i feel good knowing that there are kids willing to do stuff, and get into the debate. The future looks brighter this way.

Se estiverem por perto de Carregal do Sal e quiserem entrar num debate sobre o Jornalismo em Portugal, então devem ir à conferência organizada pelo jornal Rascunhos. Um jornal de uma escola secundária!

Os organizadores, como podem ver no video acima, são novos mas impacientes por discutir o Jornalismo e apresentar o seu projecto. Ricardo Sousa, o rapaz inteligente do lado esquerdo, convidou-me há umas semanas para o painel, mas tive que recusar, e agora lamento não poder ir, porque parece-me que vai ser bom.

Fiquei impressionado com o Ricardo na altura, enquanto trocávamos emails, mas depois de ver o video fiquei ainda mais. Este miúdo vai chegar longe. Não conheço a colega dele, a Romina Santos, mas tenho a certeza que o seu trabalho de equipa irá dar resultados, e não consigo expressar o quanto os admiro por fazerem isto.

Eles vão receber desde jovens jornalistas a professores de jornalismo, de repórteres experientes a directores adjuntos de jornais. E vão aproveitar a oportunidade para apresentar o seu jornal de escola, novinho em folha.

Soa-me que vai ser divertido, e vou ter que seguir pelo stream de video para compensar a minha falta de comparência. Mas sinto-me bem sabendo que há miúdos com vontade de fazer coisas, e entrarem na discussão. O futuro parece mais brilhante assim.

JORNALISMO EM PORTUGAL- Debate e apresentação jornal Rascunhos, 11 de Setembro 2009

Programa do Dia:

14h00min – Abertura Solene da Cerimónia

Intervenção do Presidente da Câmara Municipal de Carregal do Sal, Atílio dos Santos Nunes

Intervenção do Director do Rascunhos e Director da ESCSAL, Prof. Hermínio Marques

Intervenção da Co-Editora Principal do Rascunhos, Romina Santos

14h20min – Ínicio da Sessão de Palestras

“Um Jornal Escolar no Século XXI. Como? – Apresentação do Jornal”, Ricardo Sousa – 15 minutos

“Como se faz um bom Jornal?”, João Simão – 30 minutos

“Comunicação Oral Começa nas Escolas”, Carla Marques – 30 minutos

“Ética no Jornalismo”, Daniel Ricardo – 20 minutos

16h00min – Ínicio do Debate “Jornalismo em Portugal”

Paulo Querido, via Skype, Jornalista Freelance Multimédia

Vanessa Quitério, no local, Estudante de Jornalismo / Estagiária

Paulo Ferreira, no local, Jornalista, Editor Adjunto do Jornal Público

Bruno Faria, no local, Jornalista, Repórter para o “Jornal i”

Daniel Ricardo, no local, Jornalista, Editor Executivo da Visão

João Simão, no local, Professor de Jornalismo, Editor da UTADtv

Ainda em aberto a possibilidade de participação do Director do Diário de Notícias

moderam Ricardo Sousa e Rita Ferreira, Jornal Rascunhos.

18h15min – Final Oficial do Debate. Nota de Encerramento

Agradece a Presença e Fecha a Sessão:

Ricardo Sousa, Co-Editor Principal Jornal Rascunhos

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