The Beta 2023 program
Welcome home to Beta, and three days with the kindest, smartest media community in the world. This was the Beta program across November 8, 9, and 10, 2023.
About the formats
Each day has different session formats for you to choose from so you can make Beta your own.
Clinics are for one-on-one coaching
Workshops are for one-to-few training
Presentations and Conversations are few-to-many
Each time-slot will have several concurrent sessions, so pick the ones you want to attend.
Lunches are long so that you can take the time to hang out and get to know people away from the program.
Have a happy time, and remember — be Beta, be tuktuk ❤️
About the venue
All the sessions are in different rooms at the same venue.
All Beta sessions will be at the new CIC building at Chiang Mai University (map this) EXCEPT for the 3 plenary sessions marked in yellow, which will be at the Old Auditorium, Faculty of Mass Communication, Chiang Mai University (map this) a few meters away.
Why are we doing this? Because the opening session needs a different venue to hold all of us together 🥳
Day 0
Wednesday, November 8
All day People fly in
5 pm
Beta registration opens at Old Chiang Mai Cultural Center
6 pm - late o’clock
Dinner and drinks at Old Chiang Mai Cultural Center feat. Shh…Diam!
Day 1
Thursday, November 9
All Beta sessions will be at the new CIC building at Chiang Mai University (map this) EXCEPT for the 3 plenary sessions marked in yellow, which will be at the Old Auditorium, Faculty of Mass Communication, Chiang Mai University (map this) a few meters away.
8 - 9 am
Burmese breakfast at CMU Cafeteria
9.15 am
Auditorium, Faculty of Mass Communication,
Chiang Mai University (map this)
Plenary session, Old Auditorium
Let’s get this thing started! Welcome to Beta!
Alan and Rishad , Splice
10 - 10.45 am
Room 1A
10 - 10.45 am
How to define success and failure as a media startup founder
Phillip Smith, Journalism Growth Lab
Clinics
10 - 10.45 am
Room 3A
10 - 10.45 am
You can’t serve a community alone. This is how we work with NGOs and publishers to solve problems for young people in India
Varun Khera, Josh Talks
Social
10 am - 10.45 am
Get your profile photo taken by Zakaria Zainal
Room 1B
10 - 10.45 am
How to build a winning strategy with YouTube Shorts
Stephanie Park, YouTube
11 - 11.45 am
Room 1A
11 - 11.45 am
The best thing we did when we started Pumapodcast was to find an angel investor who believed in our work. Here’s how
Roby Alampay, Pumapodcast + James Pacaba, Morningtide Capital Partners
Clinics
11 - 11.45 am
Room 1B
11 - 11.45 am
How transitioning genders and joining a startup after 60 helped me rethink news, newsrooms, and covering marginalised communities
Gina Chua, Semafor
Room 3A
11 - 11.45 am
We pivoted our careers to the creator space — and this is what we learned
Anubha Bhonsle, Newsworthy + Kanta Hara
Room MA
11 am - 11.45 am
Speed networking with Mili Semlani, Planet Splice
12.30 - 2 pm
Lunch
2 - 2.45 pm
Room 1A
2 - 2.45 pm
Not all money is the same. Here's what you need to know about investments and grants.
Koreel Lahiri, MDIF
Clinics
2 - 2.45 pm
Room 1B
2 - 2.45 pm
Where is media funding headed in 2024?
Irene Liu, International Fund for Public Interest Media + Alexandra Buccianti, Luminate
Room 3A
2 - 2.45 pm
How I build products for my mental health journalism startup
Tanmoy Goswami, Sanity
3 - 3.45 pm
Room 1A
3 - 3.45 pm
How to build and run your own training course
Yan Oak, Sanne Breimer, Kuek Ser Kuang Keng
Clinics
3 - 3.45 pm
Room 1B
3 - 3.45 pm
How we can help exile media together
Ole Chavannes, Mon Mon Myat, DVB + Sudeshna Chanda, Radio Zamaneh
Room 3A
3 - 3.45 pm
How to acquire media companies… as a media company
Joey Chung, TNL Mediagene
Social
3 - 3.45 pm
Get your profile photo taken by Zakaria Zainal
4 - 4.45 pm
Room 1A
4 - 4.45 pm
I left a newsroom to start a newsletter. This is how my creator journey is going
Maya Misikir, Sifter
Clinics
4 - 4.45 pm
Room 1B
4 - 4.45 pm
How to pitch a media investor (like me)
Sasa Vucinic, North Base Media
Room 3A
4 - 4.45 pm
Let’s Noodle! Join a movement to transform reporting on women and gender minorities
Tan Hui Yee + Ankita Anand, The Gender Beat
5 - 5.45 pm
Plenary session, Old Auditorium
5 - 5.45 pm
The AI in Journalism Challenge Demo Day
The AI in Journalism Challenge (AIJC), operated by the Open Society Foundations, is a global competition that provides participating newsrooms with the training, mentoring, and funding to develop new ways of applying generative AI to journalism.
The challenge concluded on stage at Splice Beta 2023, where the five finalist teams from The Conversation, Agência Pública, Zamaneh Media, Cuestión Pública, and Rappler demonstrated their projects. Congratulations to the Rappler team with their TL;DR project on winning the £25,000 award!
The judges were: Gina Chua, executive editor of Semafor; Marina Walker Guevara, executive editor of the Pulitzer Center; and Valer Kot, Senior Media Advisor at the Media Development Investment Fund.
6 pm
Dinner and drinks at DooDoi Cafe
Day 2
Friday, November 10
All Beta sessions will be at the new CIC building at Chiang Mai University (map this) EXCEPT for the 3 plenary sessions marked in yellow, which will be at the Old Auditorium, Faculty of Mass Communication, Chiang Mai University (map this) a few meters away.
9 - 10 am
Mohinga breakfast at CMU Cafeteria
10 - 10.45 am
Room 1A
10 - 10.45 am
Cambodia's tiny media startup Kiripost needs to diversify away from grants to survive. This is how they're doing it
Tharum Bun, Kiripost
Clinics
10 - 10.45 am
Room 1B
10 - 10.45 am
I'm the new CEO of Initium. These are tools I’m using to map out our global strategy
Jin Ding, Initium
Room 3A
10 - 10.45 am
How journalists and a drag content creator are working together to fight disinfo in the Philippines
Your Tita Baby + Jen Aquino, Probe
Social
10 am - 10.45 am
Get your profile photo taken by Zakaria Zainal
11 - 11.45 am
Room 1A
11 - 11.45 am
An AI-led transformation of media needs fresh constructs. Let’s imagine what this could look like 5 years from now
Gina Chua, Semafor + David Caswell, StoryFlow + Mary Fitzgerald, Open Society Foundations
Clinics
11 - 11.45 am
Room 1B
11 - 11.45 am
How we run a nine-person newsroom in Hong Kong on monthly donations
Tom Grundy, Hillary Leung, Mercedes Hutton, Hong Kong Free Press
Room 3A
11 - 11.45 am
We have a voice-first approach to serving our rural communities in India. This is how Gram Vaani works
Sayonee Chatterjee, Gram Vaani
12.30 - 2 pm
Lunch 🔥
2 - 2.45 pm
Room 1A
2 - 2.45 pm
Creators, this is how you cover the next election. Here are some of the best journalism practices out there
Nattakorn “Tii” Ploddee, AFP
Clinics
2 - 2.45 pm
Room 1B
2 - 2.45 pm
How we’re building a membership program for our 35-year-old newsroom
Roman Gautam, Himal Southasian
Room 3A
2 - 2.45 pm
Myanmar journalists in exile still need support. Here's what you can do
December Khaing, Exile Hub
3-3.45 pm
Room 1A
3 - 3.45 pm
Let’s get you started on creating that podcast you’ve always wanted. We have a tool for that
Jack Aung, Pwint Hlwar, Adam Bemma, DW Akademie
Clinics
3 - 3.45 pm
Room 1B
3 - 3.45 pm
I started queerbeat to serve India's LGBTQ+ community. This is how I'm building it as a business
Ankur Paliwal, queerbeat
Room 3A
3 - 3.45 pm
I was a Turkish political science student. This is my journey from translator to journalist to comedian to YouTube sensation…in Korea
Alpago Şinasi
Social
3 - 3.45 pm
Get your profile photo taken by Zakaria Zainal
4 - 5.45 pm
Plenary session, Old Auditorium
Startup Pitch Stage
4 - 5.45 pm
Ten pitchers. Five-minute pitches. Five slides. And a five-thousand-dollar prize.
Hosted by Rishad and Alan, Splice
Sponsored by GNI