YOUTH MEDIA SUMMIT 2014 - LYDIA WILLGRESS (11/08/2014)

#LoveYouthMedia - a hashtag created by the Youth Media Agency,and a slogan that dominated the 2014 Youth Media Summit. Five years after the first summit, the event was held at the British Film Institute and brought together 450 delegates from over 150 different youth media platforms.

Look up the definition of summit and you might expect a conference where industry experts talk at the audience aided by bland PowerPoints.  From the keynote speech - an inspiring insight into SBTV’s Liam Tootill’s climb to the top - the Youth Media Summit fought against this stereotype with young, energetic entrepreneurs and members of the youth media scene encouraging the audience that young journalists are the future. “The time is now,” Louis John, founder of What’s Good?, reminded us.  

The highlight of the day, for me, were the masterclasses we attended both before and after lunch. The first I went to was with a panel from The Guardian (Time Out and BBC ran two sessions at the same time) who drilled down into the key question of the day; how can mainstream media collaborate with youth media. The five journalists, from a variety of desks including social media and comment, spoke about how The Guardian uses community journalism to broaden its coverage. Examples included using Flickr to find a wide range of sources during the London riots and collaborating with the Everyday Sexism project to create video content. The panel then opened the floor for pitches and gave advice to individuals who wished to collaborate with them. (For those that want to pitch in the future, send an email to the relevant desk, Tweet them, use the You Told Us page or write in the comment box on Comment is Free.)

The second masterclass I attended was hosted by Nick Peitre, one of the founders of Wannabe Hacks and Deputy Head of News Development at The Times and Sunday Times. He spoke about digital strategy, advising those in the room that choosing what not to do is as important as knowing exactly what the long-term goals are. Nick also talked us through completing a SWOT analysis - the ability to know what your site’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are (worksheets can be found here) - and gave valuable advice to individual bloggers who wanted to know what they could do to improve.

After some lunch and great live music (a particular favourite was India Graye, a ukelele player and blogger), the afternoon consisted of a Q&A with three industry experts from the BBC, Channel 4 and Creative Skillset. Although heated at times (just why doesn’t the industry represent content from youth media?), the sessions contained useful advice including how to pitch to Channel 4 (email in, Tweet @Cilla4Talent or just start a conversation), a reminder that YouTube channels are a great way to showcase your presenting skills and advice from the BBC on interviews - attitude, approach and passion are the most important things. 

One of the last speeches of the day was given by Al Brown, head of video at VICE. As he told the room that we, as young journalists, have a responsibility to be angry at the world and how it represents Generation Y, the room erupted into applause. A fitting end to a day that celebrated Youth Culture.