The Mario Blog

06.14.2016—2am    Post #2449
Speaking at WAN IFRA World Congress today

Cartagena, Colombia—Publishers, editors, designers, engineers and media types from around the globe are gathered here in Cartagena de las Indias for the WAN IFRA  68th World News Media Congress, which also includes the  23rd World Editors Forum and the 26th World Advertising Forum.

Cartagena, Colombia—First, what a scenic environment and great city in which to have this annual conference of  WAN IFRA.  Cartagena de las Indias, a city on the northern coast of Colombia ,is full of visual surprises. The city was founded on June 1, 1533, and named after Cartagena, Spain. I love the view of the beach from my hotel room in the Bocagrande, Malecon area, not too far from the old town, the historic district, where the architecture ranges from colonial mansions to centuries-old monasteries.

The annual WAN IFFRA Congress is always an amazing gathering, including a tech show where vendors bring in their products to market. Just walking through the exhibits is a bit of an education.

I am honored to be part of this program again as a speaker.  Today I will lead a session,   Next Level Storytelling.

Here is the summary of the presentation, a panel that I will moderate and that includes  two prominent colleagues, Liz Heron, Executive Editor, The Huffington Post, USA and Sasha Koren, Editor, Mobile Innovation Lab, Guardian News & Media.

The premise of our panel is : 

How should journalism change to meet the needs of the times? A visit to the frontline of digital and mobile storytelling to show how the shift of new platforms and formats is bringing new dimensions to journalism – and how print products are responding.

I will present an overview of trends in storytelling today, from mobile to virtual reality experiments, but with a mention of exciting things happening in print as well.

Liz Heron will talk about Video and Engagement at the Huffington Post​ and Sasha Koren will deal with the topic of Small Screen Journalism.

I plan to provide summaries of this presentations in the Wednesday blog post.

TheMarioBlog post # 2449

The Mario Blog