← SRCCON 2019 Session Transcripts

SRCCON Closing

Session facilitator(s): Erika Owens

Day & Time: Friday, 5:30pm

Room: Memorial

ERIKA: And it’s not — you’re not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. And I feel like that spirit has been very present over the past two days in what Ryan touched on this morning echoing from Louis’s session about the work that we all have to do.

And the fact that I also heard in many conversations that the past two days were work — qere really tiring. We were getting into deep and challenging things and many people might be ready to fall over right now so I’m definitely going to keep this brief. But we are also here to support one another. I was really struck by seeing the hashtag that came out of Sydette and Cordelia’s session which is what is that one thing that you need from this community to do your work? Which is a recognition that we have the obligation to do this work and we need things and support from one another to be able to do it. And another piece of that support is also the side of celebration and I heard so much wonderful things about the celebration in lightning talks last night. I’m so sorry I missed them; they sounded really phenomenal and thanks to all of the speakers and to Amy for organizing them. And so I’ll close this out after a few lines of thanks. With the moment for some celebrations but before that I just want to move to some appreciations. I want to say thank you to our volunteers, in the green shirts who were always helping, running around, doing tasks today.

[ Applause ]

Also, wanna say thank you to our documentation team, the stenographers, Stan and Mirabai, and Elaine for photos and videos. Also want to say thank you to the venue staff who let us use this amazing building and kept us well fed and hydrated and really took care of us over the past two days and an additional note which Erik touched on yesterday but we did an additional move around sustainability this year. Things like using reusable cups and cutlery and plates. And along those lines, there’s a box at registration for you to put your name tags if you don’t want them as a memento but we will recycle them and use them again next year in a bid to be more conscious of the footprint of this event. We would also like to thank the childcare staff and the parents who brought their kids and were onsite with us for the past few days.

[ Applause ]

I would also like to thank the OpenNews staff who made this possible. You’ve seen us all on this stage over the past few days but thanks to Erik for the event planning and really detailed knowledge about what we needed to make these two days possible and knowledge about how to appreciate and acknowledge what each and every person did and contributed to the event in a really succinct and kind way. Also, thank you to Ryan who, again, managed the entire sessions process: the two days of sessions, the evening sessions, and took a lot of great care of that!

[ Applause ]

He also brought to his communication with you to the stage and was supporting all the facilitators in the amazing sessions. Also, thank you to Lindsay for the documentation that happens all year around on Source and for being our eyes and ears during SRCCON to let us know what was happening in sessions and keeping up with all of you about what you all want to document coming forward from the event, as well.

[ Applause ]

So thanks also to our sponsors, which are up there on that part of the building. Our partnership sponsors who are part of what make this event possible, the New York Times, WordPress VIP, Facebook Journalism Project — oh, I could have timed it — I’m sorry. And Google News Initiative. Also thank you to our accessibility sponsors, transcription was sponsored by the Lenfest Institute and attendee sponsorship was sponsored by the Knight Foundation. The tasty food and snacks. Lunch was sponsored by Vox Media, and news by Ally, and deserts by JSK Fellowships. We also thank our sponsors the Democracy Fund, as well as our local sponsors, the Minnesota Journalism Center. And our local media sponsor, the Star Tribune, and the Accountability Project. Really grateful for all these sponsors for allowing us to have all the of pieces and detail and accessibility that really make this event possible.

Another piece of that that’s new this year is attendees and the tickets that many of you purchased are a big part of what contributed to making this possible and I mentioned this before but I’ll mention it again but it’s really exciting. 50 scholarships and ticket scholarships which helped such a tremendous number of people get to this event. So thank you all for contributing and supporting one another, as well!

[ Cheers & Applause ]

So you brought that energy as attendees to activities organized Thursday evening and thank you to all the people who led sessions teaching people how to do hobbies, led people on walks and bike rides and thank you, as well, to our facilitators who built this entire program and created the conversations and spaces for us all to really dig in and have a really productive conversations over the last two days!

[ Applause ]

Thank you.

So we’ve had two days of those conversations. What comes next? Emma developed this after party toolkit that’s available at srccon.org/share which is an amazing resource for you to plan how you’re going to take what you learned in your conversations back to your newsroom. We’re going to be doing a lot of planning and digesting of so many Post-It notes over the past two days and thanks to Britt for her help in organizing the network-mapping board and that process that we’ll be doing. We’re also gonna have some additional convenings as you might expect from OpenNews. So SRCCON:LEAD which is the next one in the SRCCON:WORK/SRCCON:POWER series will be in Philly. And also if you have names for leadership and how we can do it differently that doesn’t require enunciation, that no one comprehends when I first say it, totally open to ideas, that would be really helpful. Already with a lot of momentum behind it and a very clear name is SRCCON:PRODUCT and we’re looking at that at early 2020 to convene the portion of this community that works around product and product design.

So we’re also looking for your help to shape OpenNews and shape what comes next from the conversations that you had. That’s what this space that we create together is all about. Also, we’re hiring someone to join our team to do that. And so we’re hiring a Director of Programs. There’s information on our website and I’m really excited to talk with anyone else about that if you’d like to be a part of the team that makes this all possible.

So as we take a moment and close things out, just offer an invitation to turn to your neighbor as we’re gathering up and leaving this great space, and share a moment of appreciation or celebration or a reflection from things on the last two days. On the celebration point one of the things that I was really struck by when Amy was doing the outreach around the lightning talks was that there was a conversation on Twitter are where people were like, ah I don’t know what I could celebrate what I’ve done. And I think sometimes it can be hard, at least for me to think about that for myself. But having reflections from other people makes that a little easier. So maybe there’s something that you’ve been celebrating about what someone else did that you’d like to tell them about. If that person is here, you could tell them maybe before you leave. Or as you’re leaving, maybe send an email or just share with the person that you’re thinking of, something they is did that you’ve been celebrating maybe in just in your own head and now it’s going to take either physical or digital form. But just helping building that culture of celebration and acknowledgment of the great things that folks are doing and that we see each other doing emits a lot of challenges, as well. So thank you, again, for these two days. We will be in touch with a lot more information and next steps. But hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Minneapolis, your trip home if you’re local, and, yeah, thanks, everybody!

[ Cheers & Applause ]

AUDIENCE: Thank you, Erika!