Participants chatting at SRCCON 2016. (photo/Erik Westra)

Today is the start of SRCCON:WORK, our conference that explores how we as a community can make journalism more inclusive, representative, and responsive. Our second SRCCON of 2017, and our first to focus exclusively on the topic of changing newsroom culture, SRCCON:WORK brings 125 journalists to Philadelphia to do the work of making journalism better, together.

SRCCON:WORK, builds on the success of SRCCON’s community-driven conversations and focuses on topics that are core to the creating an inclusive journalism community: growth, care, and collaboration. The result is a more focused schedule than previous SRCCONs while still putting people and conversations first. We’ve kept the size of the conference more intimate so you can spend more time building friendships and getting to know one another.

If you won’t be at SRCCON:WORK in person, we’ll be live transcribing all of the talks. Sessions won't be shared live, but about a third of the sessions will also be transcribed, for review and possible later publishing. In addition, our publication Source has been puiblishing Q & As with SRCCON:WORK speakers, giving vital background to the people and concepts that anchor the conference.

Like SRCCON, SRCCON:WORK is a space where you don’t have to push away the parts of yourself that make you who you are. We aim to build a space where you are comfortable to bring your whole selves. We took some inspiration for how to design this inclusive setting from the AdaCamp Toolkit. To have a space where you can talk about your reality without being doubted, where your life experiences aren’t being questioned every moment. SRCCON:WORK is a space where you can trust others to see and respect all of what makes you, you.

SRCCON:WORK comes at a hard moment to be a journalist, even as it feels like our work is more important than ever. The endless news cycle somehow keeps intensifying, with near-daily attacks on a free press from the executive branch, newsrooms shuttered in retaliation for journalists unionizing or to be replaced by free labor, and serial harassers uncovered everywhere. 2017 never let up, even for a moment.

That’s why SRCCON:WORK feels like the conference we need right now. At a time when public trust in our work is at a low—especially in marginalized communities who who are poorly covered by our newsrooms—we need to address the inequities in our own workplace if we are to be effective in supporting our teams and the communities we serve.

It feels good to return to Philadelphia, where SRCCON first started, to kick off this new kind of SRCCON. Again, we find ourselves grateful for this community’s generosity, thoughtfulness, dedication to taking care of one another. We are grateful for these two days as we strategize and build equity for the communities we serve. Let’s do this.