Arena organizes and hosts the annual Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference, usually held in May. In 2020 it was transformed to a three-month digital event because of the coronavirus. In 2021 to a 3-week event, supplemented by pop-up sessions and masterclasses over the whole year. For 2022, we expect a meet-up conference in Mechelen, Belgium, on May 19-22.
Journalists play a key role when it comes to assisting the public discourse on national issues, which are increasingly connected to regional and global developments. Hence, in order to cover issues with greater accuracy, journalists are more and more compelled to establish sound networks with their peers, to exchange data and experiences, and together develop and learn cutting-edge methodologies.
Dataharvest – The European Investigative Journalism Conference – provides a space for such networking, sharing, learning and innovation. The growing number of participants (from 35 in 2011 to 470 in 2018) indicates both a need and interest in such a meeting place from the European journalism community.
The Dataharvest conference wishes to provide a European Newsroom Moment for its participants. It is a meeting point where networks are established and nurtured, interesting data and documents shared, new cross-border projects conceived and teams established, necessary skills taught and pressing issues discussed.