NewsWhip CEO Paul Quigley announces WhipSmart, NewsWhip’s inaugural media conference.
On June 7 at the Bowery Hotel in NYC, we’re gathering some of the finest minds working at the intersection of media, audience development and brand publishing for a one-day summit.
We organised this event because we see our customers doing incredible things with data and technology every day, and we wanted to create a forum where they could share their insights with one another.
What’s the Big Idea?
The common thread is all of the speakers are at the cutting edge of integrating data and technology into content creation.
Some are doing it strategically, looking at long term data to find opportunities, assign resources, and develop editorial strategies. They observe, refine and develop editorial approaches that influence the media diets of hundreds of millions of people. Other speakers are the masters at spotting trends and stories early, and maximising their impact and reach.
Who will be there?
Many of our speakers are the pioneers of using data within their organisations, and are driving an agenda of change.
Associated Press Global Newsroom Editor Mark Davies will talk about how the Associated Press is integrating real time feedback of story usage to inform their day-to-day editorial strategy. We’ll learn about the amazing audience data-based strategies employed by NowThis, with their SVP Audience Development, Ashish Patel.
We’ve seen special-interest digital publishers show us how inspirational, uplifting content that sparks emotion in audiences can inspire super-sharing. Editor-in-Chief Maia McCann of LittleThings will tell us how finding the silver linings led to the publication’s massive success on social.
Social media has also transformed from entertainment to news source, which has raised some interesting debate. Fake news was revealed to have played a bigger role in politics and readers’ views than ever anticipated. I’ll be sitting down with Jestin Coler, dubbed the “Fake-News King” by NPR to talk about how publishers are moving forward in the wake of disreputable news.
As brands embrace a new role as publishers, some brands telling successful stories are emerging. We’ll talk to Steve Rubel of Edelman and Dan Mazei of Reebok about building a brand newsroom and how topic-specific stories can create strong social communities.
We’re going to zero in on some trends too, such as video and image-based storytelling, and the rise of the second wave of social-niche publishers.
Our team has prepared rich data-based presentations on two critical topics: the rise of political partisan publishers with our strategist Gabriele Boland, and a multi-year analysis of the changes and future directions for social publishing with our editor Liam Corcoran.
Technology in the newsroom presents challenges too, which I’m looking forward to discussing — too much audience data applied incorrectly might cause an organisation to chase it’s tail. (Or chase the tail of others.) As many of our speakers are the change agents within their own companies, we’ll learn a bit about the challenges they face, winning hearts and minds to what can be accomplished through smart use of data.
I’m looking forward to having my mind changed plenty. I hope to leave with it spinning with new ideas and approaches.
We’ll ensure plenty of audience interaction too, and opportunities to mingle and share ideas off-stage.
Whether you’re in the world of digital media and journalism or in revolutionary brand storytelling, we’d love to have you along. You’ll learn from some great people at the cutting edge and make a few new friends during the day and at cocktail hour afterwards. All the details are here.
See you there.
– Paul
(If you’re a NewsWhip customer, reach out to your contact on our team for a customer discount, available through May 10.)
