The Fourth GlocalNews, from 19 to 22 November

Four days of meetings, workshops and events. A look at the journalism of today and tomorrow, with speakers, journalists, entrepreneurs, experts from every part of Italy and Europe. The very full program includes training events, such as the BlogLab, a digital journalism laboratory dedicated to students at middle and high schools, and university, a project that is being promoted by Lombardy Regional Council.

The fourth year of Glocalnews, the festival of local digital journalism, organised by VareseNews, which will start on Thursday 19 November in Varese, and conclude the following Sunday, was presented on Wednesday 11 at Palazzo Pirelli, in the scenic Belvedere Jannacci, on the 31st floor. The President of the Regional Council, Raffaele Cattaneo, the Vice-Presidents, Fabrizio Cecchetti and Sara Valmaggi, the Councillor and Secretary, Daniela Maroni, the Councillors, Carolina Toia, Luca Marsico and Fabio Pizzul, and the President of the Lombardy Order of Journalists, Gabriele Dossena, were all present.

“We wanted to be at Glocalnews, with a special project for young people,” said Raffaele Cattaneo, “because of their growing interest in the issue of digital communication. The Regional Council has to be in the frontline in spreading tools that allow greater participation and collaboration by the people. Digital communication provides an important opportunity that the various organisations must be able to grasp. For a long time, the Regional Council, too, has been following this path; more digital communication for public communication that pays particular attention to contents, and is much more captivating,” President Cattaneo concluded.

The most important event of the Festival will be the moment dedicated to young people (BlogLab), the digital journalism laboratory and team challenge among bloggers, the project promoted by Lombardy Regional Council. Last year, this hunt for scoops had 120 young people taking part. The award ceremony for the compositions will be on Saturday at 6 p.m., in the Sala Campiotti, at the Chamber of Commerce, in Varese.

“This year is an important achievement, because it also allows us to see what developments there have been since 2012,” said Marco Giovannelli, the Director of Varenews.it, and organiser of the Festival. “Glocalnews confirms our intuition, even in the name we chose. It’s a word that is being increasingly used, because it combines global with local, and we know how much this characterises the current moment in history. Moreover, we are broadening the territorial areas, organising events on specific topics. Varese remains central to taking stock of local journalism and, at the same time, to experiencing a genuine moment of learning.”

Also this year, the initiatives will be open to everyone, those who work in this sector and those who do not. The workshops, which are recognised by the National Order of Journalists, will provide course credits, as the regulations requires. The meetings will examine, in depth, specific contents, and useful tools of general interest, from ethics to the use of social networks (Instagram, to provide information about the territories; storytelling, with Google Advanced Search; smartphones and data visualisation for “mobile” journalism, Twitter and sports). One meeting will be dedicated to the most important new features and to the trends involving the world of information and of digital journalism from the Online News Association Conference (ONA) in Los Angeles. Among the journalists at the Glocalnews, there will be Roberto Barnabò (the director for local newspapers, L’Espresso), Massimo Russo (Assistant Director of La Stampa), Dario Di Vico (Corriere della Sera), Luca De Biase (Il Sole 24 Ore), Luca Sofri, Giorgio Gandola (Director of Eco Bergamo), Marco Bardazzi. The Presidents of the Lombardy and Tuscany Orders of Journalists, Gabriele Dosseno and Carlo Bartoli will also be present. For media and communication, there will be Simona Panzeri, of Google, and Anna Masera (the head of communication for the Chamber of Deputies). The Mayor of Bergamo, Giorgio Gori, the sociologist, Aldo Bonomi, the Chairman of SEA, Pietro Modiano and the Secretary of the Feltrinelli Foundation, Massimiliano Tarantino, are also expected to attend.

The festival will begin on Thursday 19 November, with an ideal follow on from EXPO; at the Varese Chamber of Commerce, there will be the meeting “From Expo, there’s no turning back. The Charter of Milan, innovation and the metropolitan area”, in which, among others, the Minister of Agriculture, Maurizio Martina and the Lombardy President, Roberto Maroni, will take part. On Friday 20th, at 9 p.m., there will be a concert by Davide Van De Sfroos, “Terra & Acqua”, in the Sala Napoleonica, in Villa Ponti. Sunday 22nd will be dedicated entirely to wine and food, the environment and the territories. Glocalnews will be held in the centre of Varese, in the Chamber of Commerce, the Santuccio Theatre, the Salone Estense, Villa Ponti and Villa Panza, which is owned by the Italian Environmental Fund.

In 2014, Glocalnews recorded 8000 visitors to the fifty events, the liveblog of the event was followed by 3000 single users, for a total of 35,000 minutes of involvement. The live broadcast was shown by more than 80 local and national newspapers. There were 14,000 tweets and 2400 photos on Instagram, with the festival hashtag (this year, it is #glocal15).