2021 SUMMIT SCHEDULE

The schedule for the 2021 Collaborative Journalism Summit will feature three half-days of panels, roundtables, workshops, networking, and socializing. Sessions marked with a 🖍️ will include graphic illustration, provided by artist Derrick Dent.

DOWNLOAD the full program here.

DOWNLOAD this one-page agenda for an overview of what to expect each day of the Summit!

DAY 1 — MAY 19, 2021

Sponsored by Knight Foundation

11 a.m.-noon EST
Co-creation session #1

Building a guide for collaboration project managers
In this interactive session, attendees will work together over the course of three days to discuss project management in collaborative journalism and begin to co-create the outline of a guide that could help strengthen themselves and the field. Attendees will need to apply and be selected in advance. Apply for the session here (register once for all three sessions).
Facilitator: Rachel Glickhouse, senior project manager, Audience at News Revenue Hub

12-12:30 p.m. EST
Welcome 🖍️
The 2021 State of Collaboration
Speaker: Stefanie Murray, Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University

12:30-1:30 p.m. EST
Opening session 🖍️
Collaboration as a key strategy: Why the Local Media Association chose to support collaboratives, plus a deep dive into Word in Black
Speakers: Nick Charles, Word in Black; Andrew Ramsammy, Local Media Association
Moderator: Shana Black, Black Girl Media

1:30-2:00 p.m. EST
Lightning Talks — Sponsored by American Press Institute 🖍️
The Collaborative Journalism Summit lightning talks, our most popular segment every year, are back! These are five-minute presentations. This year they’ll be pre-recorded. This session will be hosted by Amy Kovac-Ashley of the American Press Institute and speakers include:

- Patrick Boehler, Pangolin Reports
- Brit Harley, Newark News and Story Collaborative
- Claudia Hernández and Nissa Rhee, Borderless Magazine, Sharon McGowan, Institute for Nonprofit News
- Allison Kopicki, Climate Central
- Christina Noble, Stories of Atlantic City

2:00 p.m. EST
Collaborative meditation break
Relax and center yourself.
Facilitator: DaLyah Jones, Texas Observer

2:15 p.m. EST
Break
Step away from the computer for a few or hang out and listen to the Collaborative Journalism Summit custom playlist!

2:30-3:30 p.m. EST
Roundtable 🖍️
COVID-19 collaboration: Following up last year’s panel, a look at how journalists partnered in 2020/2021 to cover the global pandemic and lessons learned
Speakers: Jacquelyn Mason, First Draft; Alexis Madrigal, COVID Tracking Project; Marina Walker Guevara, Pulitzer Center; Betsy Abraham, Loved and Lost
Moderator: Sumi Aggarwal, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting

3:30-4:30 p.m. EST
Session 🖍️
At the halfway point: Liza Gross of The Local Media Project at Solutions Journalism Network shares lessons learned from her creation of 9 collaboratives
Speaker: Liza Gross, Solutions Journalism Network
Moderator: Amy Yee, independent journalist

4:30 p.m. EST
Asks + Offers Live! — Sponsored by BlueLena
We’ll wrap up Day 1 of the Collaborative Journalism Summit with a lightning round of Asks + Offers. To be eligible to speak to Summit attendees during this time, you’ll have to have posted your Ask or Offer on the board and then use the “Raise your hand” function in Zoom webinar so we can bring you up on stage!

5:00-6:00 p.m. EST
Solutions Journalism Network Collaborative Graduation
Join SJN and their three “graduating” collaboratives – Resolve Philly, the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, and the Granite State News Collaborative – for a festive evening. These three collaboratives have completed their two year residency with the Local Media Project, SJN’s collaboratives initiative. We’ll celebrate the time and effort of all of these collaboratives, but also look to the future and ask ourselves what comes next. SJN thanks the Knight Foundation and the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation for their generous support.

Thanks to our sponsors (day 2 continues below):

DAY 2 — MAY 20, 2021

Sponsored by the NC Local News Lab Fund

11 a.m.-noon EST
Co-creation session #2
Building a guide for collaboration project managers
In this interactive session, attendees will work together over the course of three days to discuss project management in collaborative journalism and begin to co-create the outline of a guide that could help strengthen themselves and the field. Attendees will need to apply and be selected in advance. Apply for the session here (register once for all three sessions).
Facilitator: Rachel Glickhouse, senior project manager, Audience at News Revenue Hub

12-12:05 p.m. EST
Sponsor welcome: Marquette University
Speaker: David Umhoefer, Director of the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism

12:05-1:15 p.m. EST
Opening session 🖍️
From Pulitzer to Nobel Peace prizes: How ICIJ became a global leader in collaborative investigations, including a look at its latest project The FinCEN Files
Speakers: Will Fitzgibbon and Jelena Cosic, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; Monica Almeida, El Universo in Ecuador
Moderator: Anya Schiffrin, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs

1:15-1:45 p.m. EST
Lightning talks — Sponsored by American Press Institute 🖍️
The Collaborative Journalism Summit lightning talks, our most popular segment every year, are back! These are five-minute presentations. This year they’ll be pre-recorded. This session will be hosted by John Hernandez of the American Press Institute and speakers include:

Sumi Aggarwal and Byard Duncan, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting
Sam Cholke, Solving for Chicago, Local Media Association
Gustavo Faleiros, Rainforest Investigations Network
Laura Frank, COLab, Colorado News Collaborative
Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism
Cheryl Smith, Texas Metro News; Jamie Hancock, Dallas Morning News

1:45 p.m. EST
Collaborative meditation break
Relax and center yourself.
Facilitator: DaLyah Jones, Texas Observer

2:00 p.m. EST
Break
Step away from the computer for a few or hang out and listen to the Collaborative Journalism Summit custom playlist!

2:15-3:15 p.m. EST
Session
Building just and equitable journalism partnerships in service of a reimagined shared future — Sponsored by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism 🖍️
Participants will share how they’ve designed partnerships with community members, local organizations, and fellow journalists that not only better meet the news and information needs of their communities, but also value and respect the knowledge, time, and experience of all involved.
Speakers: Eric Marsh Sr. and Chris Norris, WHYY/N.I.C.E; Mitra Kalita, URL Media/Epicenter NYC; Candice Fortman, Outlier Media
Moderator: Roxann Stafford, managing director of the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund

3:15-3:30 p.m. EST
Sponsor welcome: NC Local News Lab Fund
Speaker: Lizzy Hazeltine, NC Local News Lab Fund

3:30-4:30 p.m. EST
Roundtable: North Carolina, the state of collaboration 🖍️
A look at how the Tar Heel State has continued to lead the nation in partnership efforts, including an examination of recent successes and challenges
Speakers: Ju-Don Marshall, WFAE; Sherry Chisenhall, Charlotte Observer; Lovey Cooper, Scalawag Magazine; Angie Newsome, Carolina Public Press; Chris Rudisill, Charlotte Journalism Collaborative; Nate Morabito, WCNC-TV
Moderator: André Natta, President, Board of Directors, Tiny News Collective

4:30 p.m. EST
Asks + Offers Live! — Sponsored by BlueLena
We’ll wrap up Day 2 of the Collaborative Journalism Summit with a lightning round of Asks + Offers. To be eligible to speak to the Summit during this time, you’ll have to have posted your Ask or Offer on the board and then use the “Raise your hand” function in Zoom webinar so we can bring you up on stage!

DAY 3 — MAY 21, 2021

12:00-1:00 p.m. EST
Opening session 🖍️
Joining forces: How the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the National Association of Hispanic Publications and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia built a collaboration among 450+ local media with an initial focus on digital sustainability
Speakers: John Heaston, Association of Alternative Newsmedia; Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., National Newspaper Publishers Association; Fanny Miller, National Association of Hispanic Publications; Cheryl Smith, Dallas Monthly News and NABJ; Alvaro Gurdian, National Association of Hispanic Publications
Moderator: Larry Lee, publisher of the Sacramento Observer, LMA board member, and member of Word in Black

1:00-1:30 p.m. EST
Lightning talks — Sponsored by American Press Institute 🖍️
The Collaborative Journalism Summit lightning talks, our most popular segment every year, are back! These are five-minute presentations. This year they’ll be pre-recorded. This session will be moderated by Tom Huang, assistant managing editor for Journalism Initiatives for The Dallas Morning News, and speakers include:

Kathy Best and Sean Mussenden, Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
Rob Collins, Oklahoma Media Center, Local Media Association
Sami Edge, Nicole Foy, Latino Listening Project
Melanie Sill, Ju-Don Marshall and Rochelle Ford, NC Media Equity Project
Jamie Smith Hopkins, Center for Public Integrity; Kristen Lombardi from Columbia Journalism Investigations, Hidden Epidemics

1:30 p.m. EST
Collaborative meditation break
Relax and center yourself. Led by DaLyah Jones, Texas Observer

1:45 p.m. EST
Break
Step away from the computer for a few or hang out and listen to the Collaborative Journalism Summit custom playlist!

2:00-3:00 p.m. EST
Session: Collaboration at scale 🖍️
How the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project leverages a unique worldwide network of independent media centers and journalists to hold power to account
Speakers: Camille Eiss, Chief of Global Partnerships and Policy, OCCRP; Miranda Patrucic, Deputy Editor in Chief, Regional and Central Asia, OCCRP; Pavla Holcova, Central Europe Editor, OCCRP, and founder of investigace.cz
Moderator: Dana Priest, investigative reporter at The Washington Post

3:00-3:30 p.m. EST
Research update: Collaboration across fields 🖍️
An early look at research examining how journalists and civil-society organizations around the world are working together to achieve maximum impact
Speakers: Sarah Stonbely, Center for Cooperative Media; Heather Bryant, NewsCatalyst and Project Facet

3:30-4:30 p.m. EST
Roundtable: Beyond translation 🖍️
How bilingual collaborations work and how they can better engage diverse audiences
Speakers: Ju-Don Marshall, WFAE; Hilda H. Gurdian, La Noticia; Alana Casanova-Burgess, WNYC; Marlon Bishop, Futuro Studios; Alexis Terrazas, El Tecolote; Jacob Simas, The Oaklandside; Madeleine Bair, El Timpano
Moderator: Oni Advincula, Center for Cooperative Media

4:30 p.m. EST
Community Awards + Recognition
Join us as we close out the 2021 Collaborative Journalism Summit with a reflection on the last three days together and a fun “awards” ceremony to recognize the contributions of the community.