How can media startups break through, survive and thrive? That will be the focus of the upcoming Collab/Space Atlanta workshop on October 16, 2013, the day before the ONA13 conference. It will be an all-day, hands-on workshop focused on media innovation and spotlighting 9 cutting-edge media startups — both in Atlanta and outside Atlanta. We’ve chosen nine innovative media startups, which will present their startups in lightning fashion, with questions from the audience. We’ll later do collaborative exercises to learn how to work better together in the digital age, and then break out into groups to help the startups get past their challenges. But we’ll also be learning how to take those solutions back to our own workplaces. Plus, we’ll be collaborating with a diverse group of participants, including entrepreneurs, journalists, technologists, designers, marketers, investors and major players in the tech and media scene.
The nine presenting startups are:
AdGlue
Carolina Public Press
Clear Health Costs
FlashIssue
Groundsource
Meograph
San Francisco Public Press
Social News Desk
Voices on the Record
Register for the workshop now!
Collab/Space Atlanta is a production of PBS MediaShift, with sponsorship from the John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford and the Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University.
Atlanta Tech Village
The workshop will take place at the perfect spot: The vibrant Atlanta Tech Village. The Village was started last year, and is a community of innovators housed in a 103,000 square foot building. The Village is designed to service technology-related companies that have a unique set of needs in their quest to make a difference. The Village’s mission is to support and inspire entrepreneurs and founding teams to achieve success through a community that promotes faster connections between talent, ideas and capital.
How It Will Work
Media-related startups in Atlanta and beyond can apply to present at the workshop. We’ll choose 8 startups at various stages of development, who will do presentations for the group and answer questions. They will list their 5 biggest challenges, whether that’s financial, technological, marketing, distribution or something else. Later in the day, we’ll get into breakout groups around the 8 startups and help them come up with solutions for their challenges. Those will be presented to the group, and we’ll set up pages for each startup on the MediaShift Idea Lab site to follow their progress after the workshop.
The goal will be to collaborate to help those startups succeed in the long run, creating interest groups for them on the spot (and afterwards), while also networking between the tech and media communities.
Registration
Registration will be free for presenting startups (up to two people per startup), but will cost $99 for participants. We will invite key people in the media and tech scenes both in Atlanta and around the country, and open up registration to the public as well. Please go to this Eventbrite page to register! There will also be a Mixer open to the public after the workshop, in association with StartupChicks Atlanta!
Who?
You’ll get to hear from media innovators, and work with them on teams, too! Highlighted speakers and participants include:
Mark Glaser, PBS MediaShift
Robin Evans, Knight Fellowships at Stanford
Tim Regan-Porter, Center for Collaborative Journalism
Victor Hernandez, CNN
Dorian Benkoil, PBS MediaShift
John C. Yates, Morris, Manning & Martin
Johnson Cook, Atlanta Tech Village and Atlanta Ventures
Jan Schaffer, J-Lab
Meghann Farnsworth, CIR
Dan Pacheco, Newhouse School of Journalism at Syracuse
Josh Stearns, Free Press
Allison McCartney, PBS NewsHour
Rodney Gibbs, Texas Tribune
John Clark, UNC’s Reese News Lab
Also, we expect key people to attend from local media organizations, journalism and communication schools, investment firms and other people active in the entrepreneurial and media scenes.
When?
October 16, 2013, from 9 am to 5 pm for the workshop, and 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm for the mixer.
Where?
Atlanta Tech Village
3423 Piedmont Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305
Detailed directions here.
Free parking on site, and also easily reachable from downtown via MARTA train. Registrants will also receive a coupon code for a discount to use Uber to get there. Both the workshop and the mixer will take place at the same spot at the Atlanta Tech Village in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta.
See you there!
Agenda
October 16
> Collab/Space Atlanta at Atlanta Tech Vilage
> Targeted talks on collaboration and media innovation.
> Selected media startups present their work and list their challenges.
> Networking lunch
> Collaboration exercise
> Breakout into teams: Work collaboratively to help solve challenges for the startups, and present that to the group.
> Follow up: MediaShift will set up pages on its site to follow the progress of the startups.
And a Mixer Too?
Yes! After the workshop, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, we’ll invite the public in to join us for a MediaShift & StartupChicks Mixer, with drinks and snacks for all. It will be a chance to share what we’ve learned with our friends and colleagues in a great setting at the Atlanta Tech Village. We are joining forces with the Atlanta StartupChicks chapter, and will cap attendance to the Mixer at 200 people. If you are not attending the workshop, but would like to attend the Mixer, please RSVP here! MediaShift will provide free drinks and the StartupChicks Atlanta chapter will provide snacks.
Note: Collab/Space Atlanta is not associated with the ONA13 conference.
Top photo taken from the roof of Atlanta Tech Village by James W. Hill on Twitter.