← SRCCON 2019 Session Transcripts
Welcome to SRCCON 2019!
Session facilitator(s): OpenNews staff
Day & Time: Thursday, 9am
Room: Memorial
ERIKA: Hello! Welcome, everyone. If you want to grab a seat, folks who are standing and grabbing warm beverages, we’re gonna get started in just a moment! We weren’t sure if the hush would come over immediately or take a few moments, and you all have come together right away! So thank you so much. As folks are making their way to seats, I just want to take a moment to welcome everyone. We’re so excited to see you again Minneapolis! Just have a few things to go over this morning before we dive into our first sessions together. So this is our sixth SRCCON! Yes, yes!
(applause)
And we’re so happy to be back in Minneapolis, and have so many folks from the city here, with relation to the city. And from many other places around the country and beyond as well. As we’re entering, I just want to acknowledge that this campus is on the traditional ancestral and contemporary land of indigenous people. And we just ask that you take a moment and honor that we are on Dakota land over these two days. So at SRCCON, we have the chance to envision how we want to see journalism operate, and what kinds of leadership we need to get there. This is a place where a network of networks comes together, and folks connect across a range of identities and experiences. Journalists of color, journalists from local and regional publications, immigrant journalists, journalists in product and many other subcommunities. We have so much stuff set up over the next two days to interact, get to know each other, and share across those experiences and identities. Our job is to create the space and lend the support you need to build those connections and to make it possible for you to get to know each other. And that’s only possible when everyone participates.
So that’s also a lot about our structure over the next two days together. So we’re gonna tell you a little bit more about the intentional structure that we bring now, and then you’ll get a chance to say hi to someone new as well. So first up, I want to bring up Ryan, who managed the entire sessions process this year! And set up the amazing schedule that we’re gonna have for the next two days. And he’s gonna tell you a little more about what to expect with the schedule.
(applause)
RYAN: Awesome! So this moment – like, right now – is totally one of the highlights of my year. When I get to stand up here and see everybody here. So thank you! Thank you for being here with us. This is so exciting. So like Erika said, I’m gonna talk a little bit about the structure of our two days together. SRCCON is an event where we spend a lot of time thinking about organizing things in a way that help you get the most out of it, and that creates space for you to build relationships with the people that you’re sitting with right here, right now. So I’m gonna talk about two tools that we have in place to kind of help you navigate our two days. The first one – hopefully you found. Maybe it’s on your phone. It’s our schedule app. If you all know about schedule.SRCCON.org, that is the place to kind of stay up to date with everything that’s going on. We keep that schedule updated throughout the conference. I’ve already updated it twice this morning. So it’s a good thing to check in on, throughout each of the days. It will help you find what sessions are going on, when breaks are. There’s a few tools that you’ll find in the schedule app. A star button you can tap to kind of create your own schedule as you go. There will be links in each session item to an Etherpad, which is a collaborative document you can use to take notes or share resources with other attendees in a session. Links to transcripts. So the schedule app is a really helpful way to navigate these two days at SRCCON.
So as you’re kind of scrolling through the schedule app, you’ll notice kind of the structure of our days. And there’s a lot of open space in there. There’s nice long breaks. 30 minutes between sessions. So you don’t have to choose between continuing a conversation that was super interesting to you and also having time to grab coffee or use the restroom. There’s plenty of time built in for things like that. There’s nice long lunches in the middle of both days, so lunch here and tomorrow, dinner here tonight. There’s an evening program tonight as well, and we’ll talk a lot more about that at lunch. There’s also open space in our schedule for your emerging ideas, to help build SRCCON, as we’re here. Y’all have been already using some of the sign-up boards. We keep things pretty lo-fi at SRCCON, and we want you to feel free to grab Sharpies, mark things up, I’ll call out the lunch conversations board as a good example. We’ll open up all the session rooms during lunch for people to gather around topics or just meet up with old friends, whatever you want to do. You’re free to use the session rooms during lunch. Sign up for them back on that board. We’ll talk about a few more of our boards later on during lunch. But that’s the schedule app. That’s how to use it. That’s how to use the sign-up boards. I’ll talk about one more tool, and hopefully it’s already with you. Your badge!
So on the front of your badge, we’re introducing you all to each other. But I’m gonna talk about the back of the badge. And this is a twist. So just twist and you’ll find a lot of useful information. Like one thing: The Wi-Fi password! You all have your own Wi-Fi password for conference Wi-Fi here at SRCCON. Your network user password is all right there at the bottom. So please feel free to use that, and log on for whatever you need. And then right at the top is a map of the venue that we’re in. The wayfinding here is excellent. There’s touch screens kind of throughout, but you have wayfinding with you wherever you go. Just right on the back of your badge. So that map will help you find whichever session you’re trying to get to, whichever space that you want to be in. So that’s our schedule. That’s our badge. That’s a little bit about our venue.
I’m gonna hand off to Erik, and he’s gonna talk a little more about being together in this space.
ERIK: Hey! How is it going? Before I start, in that, I just want to say: Welcome to Minneapolis! This is where I live. This is my home. I grew up here. And it’s really great to have all of you here again. This is a beautiful venue. It’s a beautiful city. And if any of you need recommendations or anything like that, feel free to come up and chat with me. It’s really cool, because I also hear a lot of people say that – like, there’s a lot of people here who have connections to this city, whether they used to work here, grew up here, I hear it more than in other places. It’s really interesting. So Ryan talked about wayfinding. We have the schedule here. I’m gonna talk about a couple more touch points for that wayfinding. Straight back there is where food is going to be, down this hallway. So when snacks and lunch and dinner happen, that’s where that’s taking place. I also want to mention we have a nursing room up on the second floor. We will help you find it. It’s sort of a room through the bathroom. It’s not a bathroom, but it’s through the bathroom, and there’s power and water and comfy chairs and stuff like that. So come talk to us or check in at the front desk over there, and someone will get you where you need to be. Restrooms. There are two gender neutral restrooms and two gendered restrooms, so go where you need to go. And I also want to mention that this is the first time at SRCCON – we’ve had child care at SRCCON a number of years, but this is the first time they’re actually on-site with us. Which is really exciting. Yeah!
(applause)
So the child care room is back by where the food is going to be, and we invited the kids to come and eat with their parents if they wanted to, for meals and snacks and things like that. So you might see some little SRCCON-ers running around, and we’re really excited to have them here, and excited for the parents to be able to do that. I also want to point out that volunteers are wearing green shirts. They’re all over there. People in green shirts, volunteers. People in blue shirts, staff. We can all help you with what you need help with. Please approach any of us, if you have a question or a concern. We will take care of whatever it is that we need to take care of.
The code of conduct is something that is very important to us. We’ve had it since day one of SRCCON, and we take it very seriously. You’ve all sort of checked that you read it and understand it when you registered. I understand that that doesn’t always happen. So if you haven’t read it, please do read it, because it is integral to making the space safe and comfortable and respectful for everybody here. I’m not gonna go through the entire thing, but I want to say that it just basically does boil down to respect. That’s respecting other people’s space, respecting other people’s time, respecting other people’s ideas, respecting other people’s pronouns. We have pronouns here. You can pick one up if you haven’t yet. So it’s about respecting other people so everyone feels they can be a part of this event. It’s the reason SRCCON, I believe, is what SRCCON is. Because it’s an open exchange of ideas in a respectful and safe space.
So if you have any questions about the code of conduct, feel free to talk to any of us. We are happy to discuss it. On the back of the badge, on the twist, is the SRCCON safety help line. That goes to — any time you need something, or see something that you feel uncomfortable with, or you’re in a situation or have a situation that you’re uncomfortable with, you can text or call that number, and it will go directly to our staff, and we will take care of the situation. The last little thing I want to mention about food is: There are a number of food allergies here. I have spoken with many of you. And worked with the caterers, and everything is going to be well labeled. There is going to be something for everyone here to eat. And if for whatever reason you have a question or you’re worried about something, or you don’t see something labeled, please ask. Whether it’s – I would start with asking one of the servers, or somebody from the catering crew. If you can’t get an answer from them, talk to us. Everyone should be able to eat something here. We will take care of you. So please just keep that in mind. I will talk more about meals and things once we get into lunch this afternoon. But that’s it for me. Again, approach me if you have any questions about any of this stuff. I’m happy to talk about it. And I am going to pass it on to Lindsay!
LINDSAY: Thanks, Erik! It’s so great to be here with everyone in this beautiful space. So nice to see so many of you. I’m the editor of SOURCE, which is our community site. And it’s another place, another structure, for everyone to share their work and ideas. So please come find me any time you’d like to talk about that. I’m just gonna talk really quickly about documentation for SRCCON. So we have stenographers here, which is always wonderful. And they’ll be in about 16 of the sessions. So those transcripts will be happening and we’ll tweet them out, but one important thing to remember is, if there’s something you want to be off the record, just say “off the record”, and the stenographers will do that. Another quick documentation thing. We have a community member, Elaine Wong, is here somewhere. There she is, waving. Waving to us. She’s going to be doing video and photo for SRCCON, and we’re gonna learn more about that at lunch. Thanks, Elaine! And so one quick thing about privacy for photos. So there’s two colors of photo lanyards. Two colors of lanyards. One is black. One is red. So if you’re wearing a black lanyard, that’s communicating that you’re cool for photos. If you’re wearing a red lanyard, that’s saying: Please don’t take my photo. If you have any questions about that, just come talk to us. And there’s a hashtag for SRCCON. It is #SRCCON.
(laughter)
So hopefully you can remember that. Great to see everyone, and I’m gonna give it back to Erika!
ERIKA: Thanks, Lindsay! And thanks to all of you. Just want to wrap up with a round of appreciation, and then we’ll meet one another and head into the sessions. So I’m really grateful to all of you for taking these days to spend together with each other. Also want to shout thanks out to our advisory board who helps us shape the vision and programming around Open News. Also want to thank the community review board that worked alongside Ryan in helping select this amazing slate of sessions that we’re gonna be participating in. And a moment to thank our sponsors, which – one of the nice things about this really fascinating open space is they’re projected on that wall! And we can look at them at all times, if we would like!
(laughter)
And our partnership sponsors are The New York Times, WordPress.com VIP, Facebook Journalism Project, and Google News Initiative. We also have a couple of accessibility sponsors. The Knight Foundation and all of our sponsors and your ticket purchases helped us give out 50 scholarships this year. So really, really excited about that.
(applause)
So thanks to the Knight Foundation for attendee scholarship support and to the Lenfest Foundation for supporting the stenographers you’ll see around the event as well. So thank you so much for coming and spending these two days. And now I just want to take a moment for you to meet maybe someone new at your table. So we want to just take a minute, turn to your neighbor, say hi, ask them a little about themselves, and we’ll come together in just a minute.
So that was just a minute and just an introduction to your time for the next two days. Because that is SRCCON in a nutshell! You don’t want your conversations to end! You have 15 minutes to wrap up these conversations, and move to the first sessions that start at 9:30 this morning. Thanks, everyone!
(applause)