Robb Montgomery

The 10 week new media training tour depart soon and will feature a two day visit to the site of journalism’s most provocative new publishing experiment - FUTUROOM - in the Czech Republic.

This map mashup details the 10-week-long “New Media Training Tour” that starts in Norman Oklahoma this week and ends with a splash in the Red Sea the first week of December. In between there are training stops in London, Toronto, Moscow, Paris, Prague, Harrisburg, Cairo, and Berlin.

I will try to blog some of the highlights from the road, but would never attempt to compete with Charles Apple’s excellent blow-by-blow reportage from his recent trip to Cape Town.
I tend to make short documentary films, Annotated still photo slideshows and Google map mashups to take readers along with me.

After the Sept 25-26 APME Newstrain workshop in Oklahoma I will finally be seeing much more about a new working model for journalism and newsroom structure at the FUTUROOM in Prague, Czech Republic on the 1st & 2nd October 2009.

I have worked as a consultant to FUTUROOM this year and finally we can show our colleagues a new model for journalism that inverts many of the dynamics of production and community engagement.
It’s a fast trip over there and then quickly back to Toronto.

But, before leave Prague, I will also deliver a new presentation on visual literacy and managing multiple narratives for visiting editors in-chief from European media houses.

I’ll join fellow design and visual narrative colleagues Mario R. Garcia, Ph.D. and Jördis Guzmán-Bulla in the Second Session.

OCTOBER 1
Second Session (14H00 – 15H30)
Visual journalism: the rise of non-narrative news
Newspaper design and infographics are more and more important in an increasingly visual world. Participants will learn from the best examples of 2009’s print and online redesigns and get an in-depth look at the best in the future of non-narrative news. Speakers will explain how infographics and visual journalism can indeed be cost-effective (speakers to be confirmed).

With:
Mario Garcia, Ph.D, CEO and Founder, Garcia Media, USA
Joerdis Guzman Bulla голова болит секс , Art Director, Welt am Sonntag, Germany
Robb Montgomery, Editor-in-Chief and Founder, visualeditors.com, USA

Here’s a more detailed look at the conference programme:

The 2015 newsroom:
High quality standards & low cost solutions

The World Editors Forum wants to set up a conference based on a new concept: high quality, but low cost.

Because editors need to be updated about the latest trends, we will offer them the most relevant speakers. We are also aware that in their daily work, they are looking for low cost solutions that won’t damage their journalistic standards.

WEF understands the latest management constraints and financial restraints. Editors cannot take long trips and their budgets have shrunk… So, this conference - with two panels and five sessions - will also be a low cost conference in all senses. And for the first time, we will maintain the connections made between participants after the conference and speakers will continue to answer questions from the audience on a dedicated wiki.

WEF hopes that – as a print or a web editor-in-chief – you will enjoy this new concept. Don’t miss our Prague rendez-vous with PPF media and its recently inaugurated FUTUROOM: the newsroom of the future in the heart of the historical city of Prague!

PROGRAMME

All conference sessions will take place at the Futuroom and in the PPF Media building

Simultaneous translation will be provided in English and Czech.

THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER

Panel 1 (8H45 – 10H15)
Free internet vs paid online content? Which business model to choose for news?
Many consider the free flow of news online as responsible for the current crisis. Thus the paid-for model appears to be a potential solution. But very little news has so far been successfully monetized in this way. Will digital consumers pay for news? Should they accept paywalls? Where are the hidden golden nuggets of the information flow? How will be shaped the new news ecosystem framework? (panelists to be confirmed).

With:
Lydia Aguirre, Editor-in-Chief, elpais.com, Spain
Martin Moore, Director, Media Standards Trust, UK
Matt Kelly, Associate Editor, Daily Mirror and mirror.co.uk, UK
Santiago de la Mora, Head of Print Content Partnerships for Europe, Google News, UK

COFFEE BREAK – 10H15

First Session (10H30 – 12H00)
The mobile / twitter revolution: how the real-time web is changing the news process
It is difficult for a journalist not to ‘tweet’ and difficult for a news addict not to use the latest social network. In fact “mobile news” will improve the journalistic workflow – even if the immediacy itself is a risk - and will help with cost savings. Do ‘mojos’ – mobile journalists – represent the future of the profession ? Traditional media can also connect with new audiences and, in some cases, will have the possibility to monetize content more effectively.

With
Martha Stone, Shaping the Future of Newspapers, WAN-IFRA, USA
Pawel Stremski, Chief editor of the integrated online newsroom, Gazeta.pl & radio TOK FM – Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
Artur Karda, Deputy Director of News Websites & Tomasz Krawczyk, New Media Deputy Director, Media Regionalne, Poland

LUNCH (12H15 – 14H00)

Second Session (14H00 – 15H30)
Visual journalism: the rise of non-narrative news
Newspaper design and infographics are more and more important in an increasingly visual world. Participants will learn from the best examples of 2009’s print and online redesigns and get an in-depth look at the best in the future of non-narrative news. Speakers will explain how infographics and visual journalism can indeed be cost-effective (speakers to be confirmed).

With:
Mario Garcia, Ph.D, CEO and Founder, Garcia Media, USA
Joerdis Guzman Bulla, Art Director, Welt am Sonntag, Germany
Robb Montgomery, Editor-in-Chief and Founder, visualeditors.com, USA

COFFEE BREAK – 15H30

Third Session (15H45 – 17H00)
How to set up a web TV team within your newsroom
Will video become essential in news websites? Tips for getting quality production without spending a fortune, from newspapers that have already launched their own Web TV products. In some competitive markets, Web TV services are a solution. What does it take to set one up? (speakers to be confirmed)

With :
Anders Refnov, Web TV manager, Ekstrabladet, Denmark
Natalia Loseva, First Deputy Head of Integrated News room, RIA-Novosti, Russia
Other speaker to be announced

FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER

Fourth Session (9H00 – 10H15)
Hyperlocal News: the explosion of traditional regional media
The time for theorizing is behind us: until 2006, hyperlocal information was a theme for conferences and academic studies. Now, new players have understood that a mix of print and online news financed by local advertisers is in fact a profitable business. The problem is that traditional media companies have not yet caught up!

With:
Roman Gallo, Director for media strategies, PPF, Czech Republic
Werner Eggert, Editor in Chief, Tide, Germany

Other speakers to be announced

COFFEE BREAK – 10H15

Fifth Session (10H30 – 12h00)
Personalized news and the semantic web: what added value for journalism?
Forget mass media products. Think niches and personalization to keep your readers tuned in. Some new technological developments allow readers to receive only the news they want. But is personalized news the future of information? Is it only big media groups who can develop these services? (speakers to be confirmed)

With:
Stefan Lechere, VP, Business Development EMEA, Netvibes, France
Reynald Lemaire, Partner, Anaïs-IT, Belgium
Jérôme Laredo, Director for Europe, Atex, UK

LUNCH (12H15 – 13H45)

KEYNOTE SPEECH (13h45 – 14H15):
« La Repubblica versus Berlusconi : why it is important for press freedom in Europe »
By Ezio Mauro, Editor-in-Chief, La Repubblica, Italy

Panel 2 (14H15 – 15H45)
How editors foresee the 2015 newsroom
Integrated, non-integrated or disintegrated? The debate about print and online integration is still raging. But it’s time to go beyond this debate. Maybe the 2015 newsroom itself will be almost empty because its journalists will work in the field where events and news happen. It would be another sort of “collective intelligence,” more so if user-generated- content finds its role in the news process…

With:
Ezio Mauro, Editor-in-Chief, La Repubblica, Italy
Espen Egil Hansen, Editor-in-Chief, VG Multimedia, Norway
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, Editor-in-Chief, Der Standard, Austria George Brock, Head of Journalism, City University of London, UK (and former managing editor of The Times)