Journalism conferences, talks, festivals and symposiums are always a good excuse to exchange ideas and catch up on the work of colleagues in other countries.
Now, it’s not necessary to invest a lot of money in travel and accommodations because many of these meetings have adopted hybrid formats, without losing out on quality and participation opportunities.
For the second consecutive year, LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) has compiled a list of some of the most important events for journalists from Latin America.
Have an important event that’s not on this list? Send information to latamjournalismreview@austin.utexas.edu.
We start our list with an event close to home. Since 2008, the Ibero-American Colloquium on Digital Journalism has been held the day after the conclusion of the International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ). Each year, it brings together journalists who attended ISOJ and are from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The event, held online and at the University of Texas in Austin, includes discussions about the present and future of digital journalism in the region.
The Ibero-American Colloquium is held in Spanish and, like the Symposium, is organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. This year it will take place on April 14.
The speakers for the colloquium have not yet been announced, but those interested in attending can stay informed by subscribing to the newsletter of the 25th International Symposium on Online Journalism.
The full recording of last year's colloquium is available on the event's website.
Digital Media LATAM 2024, organized by WAN-IFRA, is considered an important event for leaders of the media industry in Latin America.
The eleventh edition of Digital Media LATAM is planned for April 11 and 12 and will address topics such as new sources of income, challenges and opportunities offered by artificial intelligence and digital transformation, among others.
The winners of the Digital Media Awards 2024 for the entire region will be announced at Digital Media LATAM 2024. The deadline to apply for these awards is Feb. 9, 2024.
Although World Press Freedom Day is celebrated globally, this year the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) chose Chile to host the thirty-first World Press Freedom Day Conference.
Between May 2 and 4, 2024, Santiago, Chile will be the setting to discuss the press, journalism and access and dissemination of information.
The inauguration of the World Press Freedom Day Conference will take place on May 2 with the presentation ceremony of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize that celebrates the defense or promotion of press freedom worldwide.
If there is an event that must be on this list, it is the Gabo Festival. Since 2013, this event organized by the Gabo Foundation has become the largest annual meeting on Ibero-American journalism.
The twelfth edition of the festival will take place in Bogota, Colombia, for the third consecutive year, from July 5 to 7, 2024.
At the end of 2023, the Bogotá Council approved recognizing the Gabo Festival as a city cultural event. The event currently has the support of the SURA and Bancolombia groups.
During the Gabo Festival, the winners of the Gabo Award are announced and various activities are held, including conferences, talks, exhibitions and musical concerts. The Gabo Foundation has already opened the call for the twelfth edition of the Gabo Journalism Prize and works can be submitted through the registration platform until Feb. 29.
For three years, the Global Summit on Disinformation has been held online and free of charge. It’s an event organized by the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), the Foundation for Journalism of Bolivia, and the Distrust Project of Argentina.
“We devised this event because we understand that disinformation has become a challenge that destabilizes societies, companies, organizations, governments and communities,” the organizers say on the event's website. “This summit is designed to become a space for meeting, for communion of efforts, to share knowledge, to build alliances and networks between the different actors dedicated to combating disinformation.”
The dates for the fourth edition of the summit, to take place in 2024, have not yet been announced. However, it is customary to hold it at the end of the year.
The International Congress of Migration and Development Journalism has been held for six years and aims to promote quality debate around journalistic coverage of migration.
The event is organized by Fundación Por Causa and is based in Mérida, Spain. Although it is not held in Latin America, it is held in Spanish with the participation of leading Latin American journalists who specialize in the topic.
The official dates of the event for 2024 have not yet been announced, but it usually takes place in the month of April in person and online.
COLPIN is considered the most important meeting of investigative journalists in the region. The event organized by the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) takes place for 4 days every year in a different city in Latin America.
This year COLPIN will cross the Atlantic Ocean for the first time and will take place in Madrid, Spain, but exact dates have not been announced.
During this conference, journalists from the region have the opportunity to learn about the behind-the-scenes or investigation processes of the most notable reports from the past year.
The Festival of Innovative, Inspiring and Independent Journalism in Brazil was born as an initiative of 13 independent digital journalism platforms in Brazil: ((o))eco, Agência Lupa, Agência Pública, Congresso em Foco, Énois, JOTA, Marco Zero Conteúdo, Nexo, Nova Escola, Poder360, Ponte Jornalismo, Projeto #Colabora and Repórter Brasil.
This festival has been held since 2017. On two occasions it was held in Rio de Janeiro but it has also passed through Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte and Recife. Since 2022, Ajor (Digital Journalism Association) has organized the 3i festival.
This year the festival will be in Rio de Janeiro from June 13 to 15.
Media Party organized by Hacks/Hackers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the meeting space par excellence between the media and technology industries.
Media Party has been held 11 times in Buenos Aires and, last year, the organizing team decided to expand its horizons and a Media Party was held in Chicago in June 2023.
In the event's organizing team's search for innovation, the first network of Media Party advisors was created in November 2023 to bring together professionals and experts in the media industry who can provide guidance and perspectives for future Media Party events.
The dates for the Media Party 2024 have not been announced. However, it is common for it to take place between the months of August and September.
For almost two decades, Abraji has held the International Congress of Investigative Journalism. In 2024, it will celebrate its 19th edition.
The headquarters of this congress is São Paulo, Brazil, but since the COVID-19 pandemic they have opted for a hybrid format and there is the option to attend virtually.
The Abraji congress is held every year between the months of June and August and includes courses, conferences, debates and interviews on topics relevant to the region.
In recent years, more and more debates have been opened around gender perspectives, the LGBTQ+ community, anti-racism and other issues related to diversity.
The Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism from the Network for Diversity in Latin American Journalism (Redipe, for its acronym in Spanish) brings together journalists and activists from the region to bring these issues to the table while promoting greater participation within journalism.
All three editions to date have been held online and are offered for free. The fourth edition is expected to be held between September and October 2024.
The LATAM Festival was previously known as the Latin American Forum for Digital Media and Journalism. Its first edition was held in 2012 and has always been organized by the organization Factual and Distintas Latitudes in Mexico.
“Journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean are the protagonists of the conversation [at the festival]. The challenges experienced by most digital media in Latin America are incomparable – in scale and context – to their peers in the United States or Europe. That is why at the LATAM Festival we focus on the former and not the latter,” Distintas Latitudes explained.
In addition to workshops, talks and project presentations, this festival has an interesting space called Speed Dating that is used so that journalists can connect with donors and representatives of organizations that support freedom of expression.
The LATAM Festival is celebrated in the last quarter of the year.
