Conversation and connection is what SRCCON is all about. (photo/Erik Westra)

We’re a month out from SRCCON and we can’t wait to meet with 300 folks who are working to change how we do journalism, and how leadership functions in this industry. If that’s of interest to you, you’re in luck because we still have tickets available.

At SRCCON, we have the chance to envision how we want to see journalism operate, and what kind of leadership we need to get there.

Not just one community, but a web of connections

Who do you talk to about that vision? At SRCCON, they’re people who care about journalism, tech, and social change: pick any two of those and you’ll find folks working at that intersection, and frequently you’ll also find people working between all three.

SRCCON is a place where a network of networks comes together: folks connecting across those intersections and a range of identities and experiences. Journalists of color, journalists from local and regional publications, immigrant journalists, journalists working in product, and many other subcommunities have a chance to connect and re-energize their work at SRCCON.

These networks help each other to keep going in this work and to imagine transformative leadership and change. Sometimes that vision is aided from outside of journalism, with folks from adjacent fields like mapping, civic tech, libraries, and academia providing important alternate perspectives, and bringing back insights from journalism to their work, too.

Shifting cultures by building connections

At SRCCON, we have the chance to talk about what it takes to do the work of making change a reality, of shifting the cultures of organizations. We create space to do this work by convening an intentionally inclusive space. It’s possible because all participants work together to make our time together as welcoming as it can be. This means everything from considering dietary and access needs to providing free childcare and social settings that focus on people and conversation, not alcohol.

With long breaks, group meals, and social activities, there’s ample opportunity to meet new people and catch up with your core network. We’re adding a group meetup component to Thursday evening and will have more information about that soon. Everything about SRCCON is structured to make it easier to find your network and strengthen your relationship to it. As one attendee put it: “SRCCON is the place for conversations you can’t have anywhere else.”

We need YOU to create this space

Creating an inclusive space requires proactively including everyone, in particular people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, and members of other marginalized groups who for generations have been leading the work for change to ensure that journalism does serve everyone. This leadership has shown that the journalism ecosystem must be diverse, inclusive, and interdependent.

Lewis Wallace of Press On will be hosting a pre-conference session that will share some of this historic grounding, which will carry forward in sessions throughout SRCCON.

SRCCON is made special by everyone who participates. Each year, our conference plan is informed by feedback from the prior year and the leadership and session proposals of community members. Your feedback helped us create a new approach to tickets and to create new parts of the schedule like a science fair to share about a bunch of community projects and gather your feedback about how they can better support your work.

Let’s build this space together

Word of mouth has been the number one way that SRCCON has grown and taken shape, so we’re asking for your help. We have a set of tickets left: could you ask the friends and colleagues you want to be there to consider attending? Please encourage them to fill out the form, and let us know about any questions, or anything we can do to make the event more accessible to them.

Over two days, we create space to reflect and connect about how we are in community together. We take the time for planning about our future and how we support each other, care for one another, and continue pushing for change in how we lead and how we work. We hope you can join in.