The Society for News Design is thrilled to announce our inaugural SNDMakes Invitational — and our fifth SNDMakes event — to take place in Chicago, February 5-7, 2016. Enrollment registrations are due ASAP and will close by end-of-day, Friday, January 29, 2016.
The details
‘SNDMakes’ is the Society’s boutique, rapid prototyping event that uses principles of design-thinking for the challenges that face modern journalists, news and media companies. However, this one will be a bit different than our first four events in Indianapolis, Boston, D.C. and most recently in Austin. This February, and in partnership with Cards Against Humanity and event hosts Pitchfork Media and Northwestern University Knight Lab, SNDMakes Chicago will be thinking about:
“How might we grow community around games, the artists who make them, the fans that love them?”
We suspect that some teams might focus on ways to strengthen relationships between media organizations and the audiences they serve. And, some teams might try out ideas for tools that make it easier to explain and showcase a new game’s release, or a current games new features. We are not sure what exactly will come out of this event, but we can’t wait to start.
Over 2.5 days, we’ll not only build prototypes, but we’ll also build relationships with some of the brightest minds in both game design and news media. The invitees include artists, designers, engineers, journalists and product managers alike.
Invitations went out this week and we’ll be announcing the participants list within the next week. Like our previous events, registration is considered complete after invitees purchase an event ticket. Note, we also offer partial scholarships for students and professionals that can demonstrate need.
For news about future SNDMakes and other events, follow SND on Twitter or Facebook and consider supporting programs like this one by becoming a member.
Where, and more
On the weekend of Feb. 5-7, we will be working out of Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood at Cards Against Humanity amazing office space, with a kick-off hosted by Pitchfork Media.
We are excited to report that SNDMakesChi found an excellent partnership with the amazing Cards Against Humanity team and, currently, the event hosts include Northwestern University Knight Lab, Medill School, Codepen and Pitchfork Media. There are still a few slots open for food and beverage sponsorships for the Chicago event, we’d love for more to get involved. Please contact us at sndmakes [at] gmail for more information on how to get involved.
And, finally, we are so grateful for the ongoing SNDMakes program support from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and our scholarship funders: Dow Jones News Fund, Scripps Howard Foundation, and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. The SNDMakes community would not exist without their support.
The Society’s SNDMakes events are about community, not competition. Our events are not hackathons, though we do produce workable prototypes by the close of less than three days. Read our FAQs or check out some great posts from our makers such as Codepen founder Chris Coyier, Upstatement’s Mike Swartz, TheSkimm’s Dheerja Kaur, and plenty on the Vox Product team blog.
Contact us:
Find us out in the wild and follow along: #SNDMakes, Instagram, Facebook. Send us an email at sndmakes [at] gmail, or directly to:
- Ramla Mahmood, Designer at Vox Media. SND board member and SNDMakes co-director.
- Miranda Mulligan, Digital specialist, news design veteran, SND board member and SNDMakes co-director.
- Kyle Ellis, Director of Strategic Programs, Society For News Design.
- Stephen Komives, Executive Director, Society For News Design.