Dear Dataharvest community,
A whopping 538 participants from 48 nationalities gathered from across Europe (and beyond) in Mechelen from Thursday, May 30, to Sunday, June 2, turning the little Flemish city into a vibrant cross-border, investigative editorial office.
We are very grateful to every single attendee who made the 14th edition of Dataharvest possible. Thanks to the speakers and trainers, who shared their skills and know-how so generously; to our funders and partners, for their invaluable support; to our hosts – the city of Mechelen and the Thomas More University – for giving our community a wonderful space to meet in person; and to all the volunteers, without whose dedicated hard work, the conference wouldn’t be possible!
With more than 130 panels across 12 tracks featuring presentations, hands-on sessions, as well as a hackday, masterclasses, OSINT challenges, and network meetings, there was a huge interest and buzz around Dataharvest this year. For the third year in a row, the conference was sold out – this time, three months before the beginning with many people on the waiting list.
The whole Arena for Journalism team was happy to welcome you. We believe that sharing methods at the forefront of investigative work is pivotal for advancing cross-border, collaborative journalism.
The networking only started: there is more to come!
Remember: Dataharvest is not only about knowledge exchange but also about community, resilience, and networking.
While this year’s conference is behind us, please take advantage of the momentum to build on the connections you made and the ideas you had.
Arena for Journalism in Europe, which organises Dataharvest, exists to support cross-border collaborations across Europe. Arena hosts several thematic networks which you can join:
- the Climate Network, which is hosting a Climate Arena, a climate-focused Dataharvest-style conference in Bologna, Italy, on 18-19 October (get your tickets here)
- the Labour Network, which had an open session to meet and come up with ideas and project proposals
- The Food & Water Network, which also had an open session to connect and share ideas about the next steps
Get in touch if you want to join Arena Labour or Arena Food & Water Signal groups!
Additionally, the Collaborative Desk provides your cross-border project with secure and customised technical infrastructure, together with mentoring opportunities. If your team is looking for a safe digital space for cross-border investigations, get in touch!
What made this edition special
This year, two new side activities delighted the participants on Friday afternoon: the Dataharvest Ultimate Quiz and Game Night and the Dataharvest OSINT- Challenge!
The participants of the challenge engaged in a series of OSINT exercises that took them all around Mechelen until the last day of the conference. Congratulations to the winner: “The Teacher’s Lounge” team! The three members have won Masterclasses tickets for the next edition of Dataharvest! You can check the final table here.
Some of you have been wondering about the beautiful drawings hanging in the Campus de Ham hall during the conference.
The artist is Pieter Fannes, a Belgian illustrator based in Bruxelles who made sketches of many of the sessions. Here you can check out more of his beautiful work!
Pictures, Slides, Program
You can find this year’s program archived here, along with the programs of the previous editions of Dataharvest. If you’re looking for the slides and the presentation of the sessions, you can find some here.
To all speakers at this year’s Dataharvest: If you used slides, distributed tip sheets or have links to share with participants, please send them to media@journalismarena.eu, and we can publish them on our website.
Were you already looking for the pictures of last weekend? We got you covered! The gallery of the 2024 conference pictures is available here.
Looking ahead
Dataharvest 2024 is behind us and we are already looking forward to Dataharvest 2025.
To keep up-to-date with updates about Dataharvest such as the call for pitches, sign up for the Dataharvest newsletter or stay in touch on a platform of your choice: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Also, if you know of investigations hatched at Dataharvest (this year or in previous years), we’d love to hear more – write us at info@dataharvest.eu.
And if you haven’t done so already, please send us your feedback via this evaluation form.
Thank you for being part of the Dataharvest community. We’re already looking forward to next year’s edition: we hope that with your help, we can make it even better!