There are a variety of ways to get involved with ONA’s annual conference, detailed below. Some include complimentary registration.
Subscribe to the ONA26 Newsletter for regular updates about the annual conference.
Open opportunities
Sponsor the conference
If your organization is looking to connect with innovators in digital media, we provide a wide variety of compelling sponsorship opportunities and can craft something to meet your goals and needs. Reach out to Head of Strategic Partnerships Hanaa Rifaey: hanaa@journalists.org.
Present at ONA26
Most of the programming for the annual conference comes together through the Suggestion Box, our public call for session and speaker ideas. Our volunteer Program Committee reviews all submissions.
Because of ONA26’s compressed planning window, a group of strong session ideas pitched for ONA25 have been updated to form the foundation of the ONA26 program.
Now we need to hear from you! Check out what’s on the schedule so far, and tell us what’s missing via our simplified Suggestion Box: Conference Breakouts.
We’ll review these suggestions on a rolling basis and are particularly looking for sessions on:
- Adaptive leadership: Skills and strategies leaders need to navigate rapid change, shifting audience needs and evolving business demands
- Revenue and operations: Creative approaches to building sustainable, resilient news organizations
- Skills-building workshops: Participatory sessions with concrete, actionable takeaways
- Civic journalism and supporting democracy, including meeting voting and election information needs
- Strategies for building resilience in a fast changing public media landscape
- Podcasting, audio production and distribution and video journalism in an attention economy
- Actionable sessions tailored to executives and newsroom leadership
There are a very limited number of in-person session slots still available, but more opportunities to contribute to ONA26 will open as we get closer to gathering in Chicago, including for Unconference sessions, Table Talk discussions and informal community meetups.
Upcoming opportunities
ONA is grateful to the dedicated volunteers who help make our annual conference a warm and welcoming environment. Please be sure to subscribe to our conference newsletter for the latest details on when to expect volunteer opportunities to open for ONA26.
The MJ Bear Fellowship is a year-long opportunity that honors ambitious journalists under 30 years old from around the world and supports them as they lead a digital journalism project.
MJ Bear Fellows receive:
Complimentary registration and travel scholarships to attend ONA25 in New Orleans and connect with the industry’s leading thinkers and doers
Three coaching sessions tailored to the fellowship cohort’s interests and goals
ONA membership for three years.
The MJ Bear Fellowship is made possible through generous contributions by the MJ Bear Estate, friends of MJ Bear and ONA, MSN International and Microsoft.
The ONA Midway is the destination for our community to learn about emerging and established tools and products through direct interaction with companies and organizations – including start-ups – and complemented by curated programming. ONA conference attendees come to the Midway for opportunities to learn about and try new products, to dive deeper into the tools they already use and bring back fresh ideas to amplify their news work.
ONA26 will feature several Midway learning sessions, highlighting topics of importance to the ONA community and featuring experts offering perspectives from inside and outside of the global newsroom.
The Start-Up Alley is part of the ONA26 Midway, bringing together the best thinking in the media technology, tools and workforce space.
ONA is interested in introducing start-ups to our global community of digital innovators in the journalism space.
ONA defines start-ups as ventures that have not been operating for more than 24 months and we offer those groups a deeply discounted rate to support participation at our annual conference. Start-ups are allowed to participate in the ONA Start-Up Alley a maximum of two times.