Category: Suggestion Box

This is the third in a three-part series of posts on our Suggestion Box — your opportunity to pitch session ideas and presenters for ONA16. Check out part 1 to find out what makes for a great pitch, and part 2 to see what kinds of conversations we hope to host this year. 

Our Suggestion Box, which closes March 31, is your opportunity to pitch ideas to ONA to ensure we cover the most important trends and topics in digital journalism. It also represents the best opportunity to present at ONA16, as most of our sessions are selected through this process.

We’re often asked what the process is for selecting sessions for our annual conference. If you’re interested to know what happens to the hundreds of ideas we receive, read on!

Step 1: Read Every Idea and Nominate The Best

April

Ideas come to us from staff, ONA Board members, our Program Team, and our Suggestion Box. The Program Team — a diverse, volunteer group of professionals and students — reviews each and every idea. We had nearly 400 ideas last year, so this is not an easy task!

The group is looking for the best and most innovative ideas and presenters to help move digital journalism forward. They review the proposals based on the criteria outlined here. We ask the Program Team to come up with a “short list” of sessions. In the end, this list usually accounts for roughly two-thirds of our final conference programming.

Step 2: Create a Draft Program

May

Once the Program Team completes its review, ONA staff go through the list of recommended sessions and speakers and begin selecting ideas. We give the pitches a deeper look for quality and speaker diversity. We sometimes combine sessions on similar issues or ask submitters to add another presenter to their roster.

By the end of May, the conference schedule is 80 percent complete. We’ll leave a few slots for breaking news, emerging issues and any gaps identified by a final review committee.

Step 3: Ask Some Experts: What Are We Missing?

Early June

In the final stage, a Review Team gives the proposed schedule a fresh look and identifies any overlooked topics or speakers. Usually, the committee approves the proposed schedule, with suggested tweaks to presenters for five or six sessions, and proposes new ideas for two to three more sessions.

Step 4: Confirm Speakers and Post Initial Conference Schedule

Mid June

Assuming the Review Team’s approval, we confirm speaker availability and post as much scheduling information as we can to the conference website. A few more sessions may still be added before the schedule is finalized, but we are no longer looking for submissions on speakers or topics. We do add sessions around breaking topical news as deemed critical by ONA staff.

Step 5: Final Conference Schedule

July

This is when we post the final schedule of core programming. We may still have a surprise or two, based on confirming a great keynote speaker or an urgent breaking news issue. The Midway, our collaborative, interactive forum, also gets programmed at this point. But by this time we’re more or less finished, and looking forward to conversations with all of you at ONA16!

This is the second in a three-part series of posts on our Suggestion Box — your opportunity to pitch session ideas and presenters for ONA16. Check out part 1 to find out what makes for a great pitch. Part 3 describes what happens to pitches once they are received.

Our Suggestion Box, which closes March 31, is your opportunity to pitch ideas to ONA to ensure we cover the most important trends and topics in digital journalism. It also represents the best opportunity to present at ONA16, as most of our sessions are selected through this process.

We’re often asked, “What will you talk about at ONA16?” Even in three days of wall-to-wall programming, there’s no shortage of issues to cover.

While we don’t have formal conference themes, we do recognize that certain issues are timely and likely will warrant specific consideration in our conversations this year.

We’ll be looking to make sure these topic areas are covered at ONA16 … and will, of course, be including many, many more of your ideas, as submitted through our Suggestion Box.

• Web video: Online video consumption has exploded in the past couple of years, and we suspect there’s more growth potential ahead. We’ll discuss how best to craft engaging web videos, as well as how people are using various platforms like Periscope and Facebook Live video to reach a real-time audience.
• Innovative revenue models: Have a creative idea for revenue for newsrooms? We’re looking to include your voice at ONA16. We want to build on the successful revenue sessions held at ONA16 by looking at new ways to diversify.
• Virtual reality / augmented reality: This year we’d like to host more conversations around virtual reality and augmented reality; the community is robust and a number of newsrooms have been doing dramatically different, innovative projects, so it’s time to take stock and see what we’ve learned.
• Elections: There’s no escaping it; the 2016 Presidential election season has been one of the wildest in recent memory. We’ll look at how newsrooms have been approaching some of the more unique aspects of the campaigns.

These are just a few examples of issues we hope to cover at ONA16, and we’ll include so much more. Be sure to submit ideas relevant to your work to our Suggestion Box.

This is the first in a three-part series of posts on our Suggestion Box — your opportunity to pitch session ideas and presenters for ONA16. Check out part 2 to find out what we’ll discuss at ONA16. Part 3 describes what happens to pitches once they are received.

Our Suggestion Box, which closes March 31, is your opportunity to pitch ideas to ONA to ensure we cover the most important trends and topics in digital journalism. It also represents the best opportunity to present at ONA16, as most of our sessions are selected through this process.

Have you dreamed of presenting at the Online News Association Conference, sharing inspiring ideas or best practices with your favorite colleagues? Now is your moment to shine! Let us know what important topics and trends you’d like to discuss at ONA16. The Suggestion Box is open through Thursday, March 31, so be sure to submit early and often.

Everyone is welcome to submit — journalists, executives, educators, students, technologists, Beyoncé (please?) — we’ll take good ideas anywhere we can find them. Submissions will account for the majority of our ONA16 educational programming, so this is your best chance to get involved.

Once the Suggestion Box closes, ONA staff and a volunteer Program Team will review each submission and select the very best to be included at ONA16.

We are often asked, “What makes for a good pitch?” Below, we’ve outlined tips for creating a strong proposal.

Top 10 tips for proposing ideas to ONA16:

1. Your idea is inspiring, instructional or both. We think most good pitches fall into one of two categories:

• They should be inspirational or aspirational, representing emerging trends in journalism, or describing our field at its absolute best.

OR

• Ideas should be about sharing expertise, with clear, specific aims for what attendees might learn.

Inspirational or aspirational sessions make up about ⅓ of ONA programming. For examples from last year, see Amy O’Leary’s talk on ancient storytelling practices and how they can inform writing for the web or our review of what’s working in current revenue models. Practical tips and training elements make up the remaining ⅔ of our programming. For examples, see how to create interactive graphics on the fly or a workshop on creating your first podcast.

2. Your idea is specific and solutions-oriented.

There are many intractable problems in any field, journalism included. We look for people proposing solutions to these problems, even if they are imperfect. Simply saying, “long-form stories don’t get enough social media traction” isn’t enough. Complaining about an issue for an hour doesn’t make it go away. Instead, we’d be more likely to accept an idea like, “3 basic improvements to your audience engagement tools can boost traffic to long-form pieces.”

3. Your chief aim is to share knowledge with the community.

Newsrooms create hundreds of cool digital projects every year. We already have a mechanism for rewarding the best ones with our Online Journalism Awards. The conference itself is focused on learning and networking with peers. What did you learn in creating your tool that others might be able to replicate? Better, what didn’t work at all — can you spare others this pain point?

4. You and any co-presenters represent diversity.

We ask our program team to consider 30 factors related to diversity. Chief among these are race, gender, age and professional experience of presenters. But this list also includes geographic diversity, fresh faces v. past presenters, size of newsroom or team, and other factors. Describe how your proposal will contribute to the overall diversity of the conference.

5. You have remembered there will be an audience.

Nobody wants to sit through a conference session with someone droning on about their accolades or reciting a list of talking points. You will have a live audience before you, so tailor your message to a target group and engage with them! We’ve seen presenters create games or quizzes for the audience to complete, field questions via Twitter, ask the audience for specific ideas or input into certain topics, or offer to provide constructive advice on how to make news stories go viral. Be creative. Sessions that include any kind of interactive component are given a higher priority.

6. You have included peers from other organizations.

ONA is about community and collaboration. Submissions that have multiple speakers from the same organization are often perceived as sales pitches by both ONA and conference attendees, and are usually categorically denied. Submissions including presenters from multiple organizations have a significantly higher likelihood of being accepted. Solo speakers, of course, are exempt from this requirement. Note: If you have presenters from two organizations within the same parent company, such as NPR member stations or Gannett publications, this is fine. Just remember, we do look for diversity in terms of region and medium that you work in.

7. Your idea feels inspired.

We hear the same topics proposed year after year. It makes it difficult to distinguish between some submissions. There are certainly ongoing challenges in journalism, but what makes your idea a fresh approach? A new technical tool? New research? A potential new revenue stream? A different framework for thinking about an issue?

8. Your pitch is specific.

We often get vague pitches. For example, “New ways to address managing social media traffic.” This sounds like it might be fresh and solutions-oriented … but how? Can you share examples? Is there research you’ll draw from? Have you been testing something but feel the results are replicable? A vague proposal makes us worry you’ll wing it on the day of the conference, whereas specifics suggest you’ve thought this through and will prepare.

9. You are including resources for reference and sharing.

Let us know if you’ll be creating resources, such as slides, a list of references or a guide book. These are seen as high value by the community and as such make for a strong proposal.

10. Your proposed presenters are experienced speakers or trainers.

We are continually revising our requirements for presenters to ensure session quality. If you have a great idea but are not a strong presenter or have limited training experience, consider inviting a colleague with this strength to join you.