Photo: Erik Westra

SRCCON 2019 • July 11 & 12 in MPLS Support the SRCCON team

Participation at SRCCON

SRCCON is a hands-on conference that works best when it’s rather small. We’ll have about 300 attendees this year, and everyone actively participates, whether they’re facilitating a session, contributing to a conversation over lunch, or meeting new colleagues and supporting their work. This guide is here to help you figure out how you’d like to take part in the SRCCON program, to share some things we do to help people participate fully, and (we hope!) to answer any questions on your mind.

You can also check out our logistics page for details on hotel and transit to help you get to SRCCON.

Things You Can Do at SRCCON

At SRCCON, we all build the program together. There are lots of ways to get involved—starting right now!

Lightning talks: This year’s theme is “Celebrate good times,” and we want you to tell us about a win you’re proud of. Whether it’s a big professional project launch or the tiniest personal victory, let’s inspire each other to get better about celebrating moments like these. Lightning talks are informal and only 5 minutes long—they can be a great way to try out speaking at a conference (in a super supportive room). Share your story!

Game night: We’ll also open up a bunch of tables Thursday night for attendees to play card, board, and even roleplaying games together. If you can bring any of your favorite board games, you can list them right here. And if you see someone bringing a game you want to play, let them know you’re interested!

Hobby workshops and open chats: We set aside tables and rooms throughout Thursday evening so people can gather informally and connect over things they’re passionate about. (Evenings at SRCCONs past have been full of breakdancing, career advice, origami, camping tips, knitting, open sharing about fears and frustrations, DIY electronics, meditation, skateboarding, and more.) Do you have a hobby to teach? An interesting skill to share? An open conversation you want to have with a bunch of energized, smart folks? Help us make this year’s evening program awesome!

Bring your partner to Thursday night: If you have partners or friends who’ll be in Minneapolis, feel free to invite them to join you for Thursday evening at SRCCON. We offer a special partner ticket, and we’re happy to welcome them for dinner and the activities afterward.

Gather a lunch conversation: We want our program to respond to new topics as well, so we leave room for emergent conversations. If there’s something on your mind that’s not on our schedule, you can use our signup board at SRCCON to choose a space, grab a meal, and explore those ideas with other attendees.

Check out Minneapolis: If you’re looking for things to before, after, or during SRCCON, a group of local news nerds have compiled this guide to wonderful things in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area.

Organize a field trip or a group outing: We have a signup board at SRCCON to make it easy to gather a group, get out, and have a great time. Attendees have used our activity boards to set up outings to concerts and baseball games, brewery tours, and restaurant visits for karaoke.

A New Approach to Ticket Prices

This year we’re 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 the conference with keeping prices as manageable for attendees as possible. We also continue to offer scholarships to attend.

Here are the tiers (plus Eventbrite ticketing fees):

These tiers will be shared on an honor system. We’ll ask attendees to register for their ticket by picking the tier that best reflects their situation, with the descriptions as guidelines not requirements. This system is not meant to imply people should feel obligated to pay a higher price. It’s our attempt at responding to community feedback encouraging us to find ways to share event costs.

These ticket sales are part of what enables us to organize an event with 40 event scholarships, free childcare, live transcription, two lunches, dinner, and ample snacks and drinks, and the support of a skilled event team in preparing sessions and constructing a schedule that lets attendees focus on learning and talking together.

Not Just Attendees, But Participants

At SRCCON, everyone participates in some way. Our hands-on sessions rely on participants who are ready to share their experiences and perspectives. Check out the schedule for SRCCON 2019!

Tickets were allocated to participants via a call for participation form, which is now closed.

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, folks help make SRCCON an inclusive, welcoming place by leading fun group activities like knitting or book clubs, volunteering, and saying hi to new potential friends and collaborators over meals and coffee/tea/hot beverages.

Welcome, First-timers

We think SRCCON is best when there’s a mix of folks new to SRCCON and veterans of the conference. 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 balance 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.

Financial & Family Assistance

We offered a limited number of travel scholarships to SRCCON 2019 to help people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. In addition to financial assistance, we know that making sure you have coverage for your children is important, so we also offer attendees free childcare run by providers we trust with our own kids. There’s a question on the form to let us know you’d like more information about childcare.