This form is for submitting pitches for the
ONA26 annual conference, running March 30 - April 1, 2026, at the Hilton Chicago.
There are three types of programming for which we are accepting pitches, none of which entitle submitters to complimentary conference registration:
Table Talks are highly-participatory conversations tackling major issues in digital journalism. As many as 75 simultaneous Talks will run over sequential hour blocks from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, March 30, with each successful pitcher expected to "host" a Table of up to 10 attendees.
Compelling Table Talks ideas can be discursive or tightly-focused, light in tone or deadly-serious, should be accessible to participants of all backgrounds and experience, and must not be lectures, advertisements, free consultations.
Successful Table Talk pitchers are not entitled to complimentary conference registration and must be registered attendees.
Unconference sessions are attendee-generated and voted-upon programming that are less formal and require less planning than traditional conference offerings. Running in sequential 60-minute blocks 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM and 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM on Wednesday, April 1, these open-source concepts will close the ONA26 conference.
Great Unconference sessions tend to be participatory and responsive to ideas generated closer to and during the conference. Think of this as extra space and time to dive into a particular issue or topic that you'd like to discuss in more depth during ONA26.
Successful Unconference Sessions pitchers are not entitled to complimentary conference registration and must be registered attendees.
Cohort meetups are open, unstructured spaces scheduled throughout the conference for you to meet your people at ONA26, organized by role, interest area, or affiliation, designed to spark new connections with fellow attendees you might otherwise not meet.
This Cohort Meetups pitch form is strictly to source ideas and gauge interest in specific meetups, submitters are not expected to "host" their pitched meetup ideas, but should intend to attend.