Media Blend Hackathon

• Eligibility Criteria
  – Applicants and their organisations must be based in one of the following countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine.
  – Applicants must have a vision for a project idea they wish to develop and pitch;
  – Applicants must have a project idea related to freedom of expression;
  – Availability for a 3-hour online ideation session, a key part of the selection process;
  – Ability to travel to Sarajevo for the 19-21st of May (travel costs will be covered ahead).
• Type of Funding: Programmatic
• Target Region: Europe
• Application Language: English

Media Development Foundation, together with International Press Institute, launches an open call for teams of media-related professionals who seek an opportunity to explore business models in journalism and enhance media integrity in emerging or struggling democracies to participate in the Media Blend Hackathon 2024.

Media Blend is a three-day offline event in Sarajevo, gathering media professionals and innovators from across Europe to delve into diverse business models in the industry. The chosen hackathon format guarantees 72 hours of creative problem-solving, allowing the participants to develop their project ideas through collaboration with experts and media professionals. This process leads up to the competition: a pitching session where ideas are presented and assessed.

Who is it for?

Teams / individual participants are welcome to apply if they have:

• A vision of a challenge they want to approach/opportunities they want to create;
• A rough plan on how to develop a solution to the challenge/problem addressed;
• A project idea within the main categories – Analytics and monetization; Media research and data analytics; Content production and distribution.
• An ability to travel to Vienna in May (travel costs will be covered once your participation is confirmed).

What should my team look like?

• The team consists of 2-4 people focused on the media sector;
• Your team has to include at least one company decision-maker;
• Should include members representing two different organizations and countries. If this isn’t the case, you are still encouraged to apply. However, this team will be considered partially complete and will need to find an additional team member.

What will be provided?

• Comfortable setting in Sarajevo for collaboration with teammates, fostering the development of the team’s aspirational project.
• Mentorship and ideation support for product development; business, action, promo-plan creation; and presentation of the project;
• Kick-off grants of €5,000 to support sustainable media projects based on Hackathon competition results;
• Networking opportunity with the most innovative media start-ups from all over Europe;
• Access to the 2024 IPI World Congress and Media Innovation Festival, happening in Sarajevo from May 22 to 24, 2024.

The deadline for applications is March 10, 2024.

See here to learn more and apply.

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