Photo credit: Flickr user S. Kaiser.

In two days, Knight Foundation is heading to the land of peaches and peanuts to attend the annual Online News Association conference in Atlanta.  We are looking forward to meeting up with old friends and making new ones!

Want to check out Knight-funded projects and hear more about Knight? Be sure to stop by our booth on the midway, what ONA is calling the “conference playground.” You’ll have a chance to learn about some of the latest tech in journalism–and to give some of the tools a try. Many Knight-supported projects plan to showcase their work. Be sure to view our schedule to find out when their creators will be giving lightning talks and holding office hours at our booth on the midway:

• Census Reporter
• Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer University

• Data Docs
• Drone Journalism Lab
• GroundSource
• Knight-Mozilla Open News
• Sunlight Foundation
• Tor Project
• Videolicious
• Watchup
• WITNESS

Also on the midway, author and Knight Senior Adviser Eric Newton will launch a new digital book, “Searchlights and Sunglasses,” a history of the future of news that in one click turns into a classroom tool. Please join us for his lightning talk on the midway at 1:00 p.m. Thursday.

You’ll also have a chance to hear two Knight staffers talk on two panels:

• Eric Newton will participate in “Hack the Curriculum,” a brainstorming session on how to develop new classroom curricula, taking place Friday, Oct. 18, from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m. in International 4.
• Michael Maness, vice president for journalism and media innovation, will talk to Mozilla’s Dan Sinker for “Open Source in the Newsroom,” a discussion on the ethos of open source, Friday, Oct. 18, from 4:15 to 5 p.m. in Ballroom C.

We look forward to announcing this year’s winners of the Knight Award for Public Journalism at the ONA awards banquet Saturday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. in Ballroom BCD.  The award recognizes a news organization that has demonstrated true community immersion in its reporting. The finalists are:

• “68 Blocks,” The Boston Globe
• “Crime in Chicago,” Chicago Tribune
• “Deals for Developers,” WAMU 88.5 News
• “Justice Denied: Bronx Courts,” The New York Times

Finally, because we don’t want the conference to be all work and no play, we will be holding a happy hour from 5  to 7 pm on Thursday, Oct. 17, at Max Lager’s Wood-Fired Grill & Brewery. If you want to join us, please RSVP at https://onaknightfoundation.eventbrite.com/.

By Megan Zimroth, media innovation assistant at Knight Foundation