ABSW Community Assembly: What do you think our profession will look like in 2030 and beyond?
To enable maximum participation there are two opportunities to take part: In person on 02 July in London, or online on 09 July. Booking essential.
Bookings for the in person event are now closed as we needed to provide final dietary and access requirements to the venue, but we do have some wriggle room so please make contact with [email protected] to see if we can allocate further places. Bookings for the online event remain open below.
ABSW Community Assembly: What do you think our profession will look like in 2030 and beyond?
Introduced by Wolfgang Blau, cofounder of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network and former President, International and Chief Operating Officer, Condé Nast.
Join together with fellow science writers and journalists in a community assembly where we will explore the state of the science journalism profession and how we should respond to it.
This community assembly will be held as two two-hour facilitated events on different days, in person and online, to enable maximum participation.
NB: Please book for either the in-person July 2 event OR the online July 9 event; the intention is NOT that you attend both, but that we provide for as many individuals as possible either at the in-person event or the online event.
- 2 July 2026 - For the in-person event, we will assemble at UCL Institute of Education (20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL) from 18:00 for food, drink and networking, before the assembly from 18:30-20:30
- 9 July 2026 - The online event runs from 12:00-14:00
Booking is essential and is free for ABSW members. For non-members wishing to attend, the event costs £10. Please book by noon on Thursday, June 11, 2026, for the in-person event, as we need to provide final numbers and diets to the venue.
Tickets are limited to 50 maximum for both the online and in-person events.
The event begins with Wolfgang Blau giving a scene-setting provocation to outline challenges facing our profession, including the ongoing transformation of digital communication and journalism, misinformation produced by some outlets, and the potential threat to creators from AI.
Then, with the help of Exeter Community Assembly, we will ask a key question: What do you think our profession will look like in 2030 and beyond?
To respond to this provocation and question, we will gather in groups of around six, with a facilitator joining each group. The groups then discuss their perspectives on the issues, documenting them as they do so. The facilitators will use an AI tool called Dembrane. This records the discussions and pulls out themes. The organisers will review these during a break for further refreshments. They then feed back to the overall assembly.
There is then a second round of discussion in the same groups, focusing on solutions to issues raised in the first round. There will be a second question: How could our community prepare for these changes? Again, the groups report back. Finally, the organisers will synthesise the actions proposed to address the issues, and attendees will vote on them.
We hope that this community assembly will set a forward-looking agenda for the ABSW.
Could you be a voluntary facilitator for this event?
This event will also need voluntary facilitators. Facilitators won't be able to participate fully in the discussions but will focus on ensuring everyone gets a say. This will help boost your skills at running inclusive meetings. If you would like to do this, please email us at [email protected].
Wolfgang Blau
Wolfgang Blau is Global Managing Partner Sustainable Business Practice at Brunswick Group. Together with Oxford University, he co-founded the Oxford Climate Journalism Network. He was previously President International and Global Chief Operating Officer of the US media company Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue, Wired, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair. Before that he served as the Executive Director of Digital Strategy of The Guardian. Prior to that, he was Editor-in-Chief of the national news organization ZEIT ONLINE, which earned him Germany’s “Editor-in-Chief of the Year” award.
What is a Community Assembly?
In case you’ve never been to a community assembly before, many groups see them as a way to make democracy more participatory.
They’re often held in local communities.
You can visit the Exeter Community Assembly website for more information about what they are and how they work
https://www.exetercommunityassembly.org/faq
Image Credit: Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
