On January 27th and 28th, a free virtual international youth media conference “Opportunities and Challenges” will be streamed live from Riga, Latvia, where foreign and local media experts will share their experience and 9 years research in the media field. The conference speakers will include media professionals, policy makers, university lecturers and youth digital content makers from 8 countries: Latvia, USA, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany and Belgium.
The focus of the conference is to promote dialogue between the media, policy makers and young people (age 14-25) to raise awareness of the importance of young people’s involvement in media content and information space creation. The conference will be live streamed on Young Media Sharks YouTube channel and available worldwide also in Latvian public broadcaster www.lsm.lv free of charge. Main sessions will be held in English, but separate national discussions and youth master classes will be held in Latvian. In order to participate in the conference or read more about the event, please register by January 26 by visiting www.youngmediasharks.eu. By registering, you will gain access to the Q&A’s, sessions and workshops that have limited capacity.
The organizer of the conference, a representative of the youth organization “Avantis”, Ilona Bičevska emphasizes that the main task of the event is to illustrate real examples of success stories on how young people helped to create the content of media organizations in an innovative way. “In the meantime, it is an encouragement for young people to be active and courageous, as well as a call for the leaders of media organizations to appreciate the valuable potential of young people’s creative contribution to the big media picture.”
Speakers of the conference include professionals and policy makers such as associate professor Stefan Geiss of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) , representatives of the Finnish broadcaster Yle Kioski producer Anna-Maria Talvio and CCO of creative content Antti Hirvonen, director of studio productionJim Jacoby from Arizona State University (USA) as well as members of the European Parliament Dace Melbārde and Mathieu Orphanides and Anna Lilla Havasi from the European Commission on the European Union opportunities for young people.
Additionally several workshops will take place, such as a masterclass by the podcast master Paolo Destilo from ‘’Europe Matters’’ and How to Protect your Format – by Lisette van Diepen, Management Board Frapa
The subject matters covered in the conference will include the impact on social media use on well-being, how young media creators can gain a significant audience, how easy (or difficult) it is for students to get an Emmy award, as well as an overview on the opportunities and programs that the European Union can offer to the young people.
The conference is proudly supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The conference is organized by the youth NGO ‘’Avantis’’ and its youth media educational initiative ‘’Young Media Sharks’’. ‘’Avantis’’ was founded in 2002 and its field of work include variety of media projects such as broadcasts and documentaries, creative workshops, seminars, camps and large-scale cultural events and concerts. ‘’Young Media Sharks’’ is a project that addresses media literacy, inequality and unemployment issues among youth, and it is aimed at young media talent development.
Additional information:
www.youngmediasharks.eu
FB/ YoungMediaSharks
Press coordinator : Anna Brokane
+371 27863881
email: anna.brokane@avantis.lv