The Global Investigative Journalism Conference: A Preview

See the full conference agenda here.

Join us this November 1-5 for the premier international conference on watchdog journalism: the 12th Global Investigative Journalism Conference. For the first time, the GIJC will be held entirely online. See the full agenda here.

As with our in-person conferences, we’re planning an extraordinary lineup of the world’s most enterprising journalists, focused on giving you the tools to expose wrongdoing and abuses of power. Here’s a sneak preview of what GIJN and its partners have in store:

A Week of Cutting-Edge Workshops, Panels, and Networking: From Monday through Friday, we’ve got programs planned every day. They include panel discussions and hands-on workshops by the best in the business, plus networking sessions to get you connected. 

Reporting Tips, Tools, and Tech: We’ve got sessions planned on techniques (online searching, data journalism, satellite imagery, cross-border projects, video forensics, podcasts, and documentaries); on issues (climate change, corruption, organized crime, health and medicine, Indigenous issues, women and muckraking); plus workshops (dealing with burnout, flight tracking, fundraising, the latest security tips); and much more.

Data, Data, and More Data: Fully a quarter of the conference is focused on data journalism. We’ve got the world’s best data journalists offering talks and workshops, ranging from the basics (spreadsheets) to the intermediate (database managers, SQL) to the advanced (R, Python) plus demonstrations on mapping, data visualization, data cleaning, and web scraping.

A Global Schedule: Each day, our schedule shifts around the world, as we move from the Americas on Tuesday to Europe/Africa/Middle East on Wednesday to Asia/Pacific on Thursday. Asia/Pacific day is co-hosted by Australia’s Judith Neilson Institute, which will offer a preview of our in-person conference in Sydney next year. 

Translation: We’re working to host lots of simultaneous translating, with languages keyed to our regions. So look for Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas; Arabic, French, and Russian in Europe/Africa/Middle East; and Chinese and Japanese in Asia/Pacific. (Donors: We could use help on this! Please contact us here.)

Networking: GIJCs are renowned for their networking. We’re doing our best to repeat that online, with meet-ups by region on cross-border reporting, plus special sessions for academics and brainstorming on next year’s Global Conference in Sydney. We’ve arranged a platform so any attendee can contact another and organize your own meetings. Our last conference featured journalists from 131 countries, so here’s your chance to get connected.

Exhibitors Hall: We’re setting up an online marketplace of media outlets, nonprofits, resource centers, donors, and other groups at GIJC21. Attendees can set up a virtual stall for free, so you can scroll through a global directory of who’s doing important work on accountability, transparency, and watchdog journalism.

Fellowships: Until August 17 we’re offering fellowships to journalists from developing and transitioning countries to attend the full week for free, with access to all conference videos for six months. To apply, check out our page here. 

Sponsorships: Interested in becoming a GIJC21 co-sponsor? Sponsorships start at $2500 (and just $1,000 or 10 tickets for GIJN member organizations). Sponsors get their logos prominently displayed, free passes, and other benefits. Join Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Australia’s Neilson Institute, Norway’s SKUP, UNESCO, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, and others. For more info, contact us here. 

We know you’re Zoomed out, but check out what we’re offering:

• Cyber Investigation Workshops with online sleuths Paul Myers and Henk van Ess.
• Video Forensics with the New York Times visual investigations team.
• Following the Money with ICIJ and OCCRP.
• The Best of Data Journalism: spreadsheets, scraping, structured queries, data viz, NodeXL, Python, Tableau, and R.
• Managing stress and burnout with the Dart Center.
• Documentaries with the BBC and Sundance Institute.
• Podcasts & Radio.
• Flight Tracking with C4ADS.
• Satellite Imagery and Mapping.
• Climate Change. Health and Medicine. Afghanistan.
• Disinformation. Indigenous issues. Femicide.
• Security tips in the Pegasus Age.
• Fundraising and Survival Strategies.
• Networking: for women, teachers and trainers, and cross-border reporting by region.

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Hope to see you at #GIJC21!