Hamburg – a Center of the international media industry

INMA Media Innovation Week (International News Media Association) took place 23 – 27 September, and the Global Investigative Journalism Conference was held just a couple of days later (26-29 September). The two events, attracting nearly 2,000 delegates between them, took place in just one week in Hamburg, further cementing the city’s reputation as a media hub for the industry.

Sell-out GIJC expands across Hamburg

A quarter of the events across the four days focused on data journalism with 11 Pulitzer Prize winners among the speakers along with journalists and editors from the BBC, Reuters, NBC News, the New York Times, Buzzfeed and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. There were 1723 attendees and, for the first time, demand for tickets was far higher than expected. As a result, the organisers Network Research had to find additional space near the main venues to accommodate additional attendees.

Jim Steele, an award-winning investigative journalist from Ghana, comments: “I just want to add my voice to what I’m sure is a chorus by now of those who thought GIJC19 was an incredible experience. I know the unexpectedly large turnout put some real pressure on your operation, but for those of us who didn’t have to deal with the influx our memories will be of what an inspiring, really uplifting experience it was to see and hear that many people from so many places come together for a common purpose. “I had so many spontaneous conversations with so many different journalists. One of the last was with an managing editor, a classy dedicated fellow who fights a lonely battle back in Ghana. When I asked him how he liked the conference and what it meant to him, he said: ‘Being here, I know that I am not alone.’”