Participation at SRCCON 2022
SRCCON 2022 is a hands-on conference, where everyone who attends actively participates throughout the event. Our call for participation form is now open. If you’d like to be part of SRCCON 2022, use that form to let us know how.
Making the schedule together
We’ll be gathering over three days, with generous breaks. Reserve these 3-hour blocks on your calendar now:
| Date | Blocks (all in ET) |
|---|---|
| June 22 (Wed) |
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| June 23 (Thurs) |
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| June 24 (Fri) |
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You can also browse this year’s program or check out the official conference schedule to see what we have planned for this year.
Having SRCCON online means that we’ll be able to make the event accessible across time zones and differing circumstances. Each 3-hour block will include some combination of one talk with Q&A, one 75-minute session, and a hobby discussion or social meetup. Not everyone will be able to attend every session, and that’s okay. As a participant, we want you to be able to come when you can, and step back when you need.
In addition to live sessions, we’ll also have a few pre-recorded, asynchronous talks and sessions as well as a chat space we’ll keep open throughout the event. To help all our participants feel comfortable bringing their whole selves—including their vulnerabilities—none of our sessions, pre-recorded or live, will be publicly available after SRCCON.
Not just attendees, but participants
At SRCCON 2022, 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 2022 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 2022 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 three 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.”
Inviting participants and allocating tickets
We keep SRCCON events intentionally small, and this online event will be no different. We’re planning for about 300 participants. Even though a physical venue isn’t constraining the size of the crowd this year, the collaborative, interactive nature of SRCCON just doesn’t scale in the same way a talks-only conference can. The relatively small size of SRCCON 2022 means we need to be intentional about equitably distributing tickets and ensuring that there are a mix of perspectives and skills at SRCCON 2022. Our call for participation form will help us understand who would like to take part and what you want to get out of it. With those responses, we’ll work to create a schedule and audience that reflects the dynamic interests and needs of this community.
We review the call for participation forms on a rolling basis, and within a week or so we will let applicants know whether they will be invited to attend. If invited, you will have the chance to purchase a ticket starting at $125 plus fees.
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 our events with keeping prices as manageable for attendees as possible. We adjusted our pricing structure a bit in response to going virtual in 2020, and we’re keeping that structure this year.
Here are the tiers for tickets to SRCCON 2022 (plus Eventbrite ticketing fees):
- $125: This is 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.
- $275: This tier is for people from medium-sized news organizations of 51-250 employees, nonprofits with budgets $750,000-$2 million, and other similar-sized organizations.
- $450: This ticket tier reflects very nearly the actual cost for each attendee of SRCCON 2022 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 2022. 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 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 stipends 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 an event with scholarship tickets, stipends, live transcription, 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.
Financial and family assistance
We’re offering two types of financial assistance to support your ability to join us for SRCCON 2022:
- Free scholarship tickets for anyone who otherwise would not be able to attend.
- Stipends to support attendees whose employers aren’t compensating them for the time they spend participating, or for people who need to pay for support such as caregiving so they can participate.
Get more information on who should apply and how to apply on our Stipends and Scholarships page.
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—the deadline for proposals this year has passed, but we’d love to hear your ideas for the program next time!
Welcome, first-timers
We think SRCCON events are best when there’s a mix of new folks and veterans. 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 mix 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.
Accessibility and access
Accessibility will take shape in this online format in a few different ways:
- Financial access: We have a limited number of free scholarship tickets and a limited number of participation stipends available to help people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. To apply for a stipend, just let us know on the call for participation form.
- Language access: SRCCON will be conducted in English, with all talks and a portion of sessions transcribed by a professional stenographer. We’re also exploring automated closed captioning for other sessions. As there is attendee interest, we’d be thrilled to support meetups in languages other than English. Let us know about any meetup ideas by email or in the call for participation form.
- Timing access: We’ve planned to have a mix of asynchronous sessions and timed sessions taking place largely between 9am-9pm ET, to make it easier for people from a variety of time zones to participate as well as for all participants to manage attending sessions alongside other responsibilities.
If you have other access needs, please let us know. We’re doing our best to accommodate as many accessibility needs as we can and will keep attendees updated about adjustments to the program, details about platforms, and how to access all aspects of the event.