Could we make local news more relevant by using beacon technology to send silent alerts to people’s phones as they walk around town, without having an app involved? And could connected devices rebuild the link between journalism and community? Would context-aware news that suits a person’s needs based on their movements or behaviour in relation to their mobile devices at any given time provide a better flow of information throughout the day?

In a session powered by Google’s Digital News Initiative at newsrewired on 22 November, we will explore journalism projects using beacon technology and the “IoT” (Internet of Things) to develop a better news experience for readers.

We have now sold out of single day passes to newsrewired, but we still have a few 2-day tickets left, including access to the conference on 22 November and one training course of your choice on 23 November.

This will be our 20th conference, and as usual, we’re aiming to provide delegates with practical skills and ideas they can take home and explore in their own organisations.

Our upcoming newsrewired event is an exciting three weeks away, promising to be a jammed-packed day of practical learning through a mix of panels, workshops and spotlight talks.

The conference, which takes place on 22 November at Reuters in London, will see expert speakers discuss topics ranging from open-source tools for journalists to collaboration in the newsroom, and today we are please to add immersive storytelling to the list.

Virtual reality and 360-degree video has successfully arrived in newsrooms as a great way for publishers to engage audiences in a new way, transporting them to the centre of the story.

This immersive way of storytelling has seen the Guardian show viewers what it’s like to be in solitary confinement, how asylum seekers feel in the UK, and why parental interaction with a baby is so crucial in the first six months of its life.

In a workshop at newsrewired, Nicole Jackson, deputy editor, virtual reality, the Guardian, will talk through the publisher’s numerous award-winning VR projects, discussing how they have been creative with the 360-degree space, using various techniques from CGI to 3D scanning technology.

“Most successful organisations fail to look for new things their customers want because they’re afraid to hurt their core businesses,” Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, once said.

Disrupting your business may be the only way to ward off the threat of extinction. As a seasoned pioneer and trusted partner, Reuters has followed their clients’ journeys of transformation, reallocating resources from old models to the new, and developing new economic engines. In a spotlight talk at newsrewired on 22 November, Nick Cohen, director of video products at Reuters, will present the popular ways the organisation has seen them experiment to meet emerging realities.

Prior to joining Reuters, Nick built up nearly 20 years of experience in the news and entertainment industries as an award-winning digital producer, commissioner and product development specialist.

The next newsrewired takes place on 22 November 2017 at Reuters in Canary Wharf, London, followed by a day of hands-on training on 23 November. Tickets are selling out fast. We currently have only 4 tickets left for the conference on 22 November, and 12 for both 22 and 23 November.

With newsrewired (22 November, London) fast approaching, the Journalism.co.uk team is pleased to announce our keynote speaker for our 20th event is Peter Bale, launch editor at WikiTribune. 

WikiTribune is the evidence-based news initiative from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, where journalism is reimagined with community members and journalists on equal footing. Bale has been tasked with creating a journalistic team and process to work alongside a global community.

Bale has a history of international journalism projects. He is the former chief executive officer of the Center for Public Integrity, an investigative journalism non-profit in Washington D.C, which then incorporated the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, best known for the Panama Papers project. He has also worked at CNN International, MSN, Reuters and The Times and Sunday Times. In his keynote, Bale will highlight the progress his team has made so far, and explain how journalism at WikiTribune will work in practice. 

As we get closer to the next newsrewired event, which takes place on 22 November at Reuters in London, Journalism.co.uk is pleased to announce two more sessions from the agenda and additional speakers joining us on the day.

The event next month will be our 20th newsrewired, and, as always, we will be focusing on practical learning through a mix of panels, workshops and spotlight talks.

Tickets for newsrewired are available for £180+VAT.  Topics we will be discussing at the event include: storytelling for mobile audiences, collaboration in the newsroom, and graphic novel journalism, with experts from BuzzFeed, Wall Street Journal, Pop-Up Newsroom and more. Stay tuned for more speaker announcements over the coming weeks!