Stories are the oldest form of communication. Successful leaders in business, governments, politics, nonprofits, and philanthropy understand the power of storytelling, to educate and inspire people. We are exposed to and interact with an incredible amount of content every day. The basics of storytelling haven’t changed, but the mediums through which we tell the stories have. How can people and organizations break through the noise and tell their stories effectively, via digital channels? How do storytellers adjust their techniques and stories to reflect the specificities of new tools and platforms?

Digital Storytelling for Impact is a two-day event which brings together representatives of civic organizations, politics, government and private sector, entrepreneurs, as well as new media, content creators, designers, and developers for a forum exploring how media adjusts content and its delivery in the new and complex information map.

The Forum will address several issues, meant to help achieving influence:

• Impactful Digital Storytelling in Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

• Changing Journalistic Narratives in the Digital Age

• Digital Storytelling Tools for Impact

• Making Complicated Content Become Accessible

• Original Content, User-Generated Content, Interaction with Audiences

• Respect for Facts and Ethics while Designing Stories with Purpose and Emotion

• Documentary Storytelling

• Storytelling with Data, Making Data Compelling

• Brand Storytelling on Social Media

• Use of Humor to Create Powerful Narratives

• Gaming and Gamification: Maximizing Story Interactivity

• VR, AI and what the Future of Technology Holds for Storytellers

• Becoming A Changemaker

All discussions will be in English.

Venue: Hilton Hotel, Sofia

Free Admission

1 DAY

11:00 - 13:00 Registration.

Participants collect badges, register for unconference and ideathon.

12:00 – 13:00 Official opening of the Telling our Stories room, dedicated to illustrating ideas and values, associated with 30 years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The room will remain open throughout the event, showing videos on multiple screens and hosting events. The room and activities during the forum will be coordinated by members of the 1989 exchange group, using storytelling for introspection and exploration of past, present and future

13:00 - 13:10 Introduction speech. Reinventing Storytelling with Digital Tools

Franak Viacorka, moderator and host

13:10-13:30 Welcoming Remarks by honorable guests

DECONSTRUCTION

13:30-14:30 Fishbowl session: Traditional storytelling in the era of digital. Storytelling in media and activism.

Participants:

Dr. Shawn Powers, Chief Strategy Officer of U.S. Agency for Global Media, USA

Prof. Nikos Panagiotou, Aristotle University, Greece

Evie Hantzopoulos, Global Kids, USA

Jakub Gornicki, Outriders, Poland

Andres Archila, Mutante, Colombia

Alexa Volland, MediaWise (Poynter Institute), USA

FREE CHAIR (FISHBOWL FORMAT)

14:30-14:50 Coffee Break

LEARNING FROM DIFFERENT SECTORS

15:00-16:00 Lightning talks:

Brands storytelling by Ionna Dandelia, University of Macedonia, Greece

Influencers storytelling by Predrag Puac, Agency Drive, Serbia

Roles & capabilities - Storytelling in classroom by Annamária Sinka, Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary

Key ingredients of storytelling that resonates by Tolee Fotitzidis, Digital Communication Consultant, Greece

EXPLORING NEW TECHNIQUES

16:00-17:00 Lightning talks.

Social conversation and citizen knowledge building by Andres Archila, Mutante, Colombia

Stories as campaigns as a way to engage audiences by Jakub Gornicki, Outriders, Poland

Stories like games, Marko Gregovic, BRODOTO, Croatia

Telling the stories through Hybrid Technologies by Panagiotis Rottas, Greek Public television, Greece

17:00-17:20 Coffee Break

(RE)DESIGNING STORIES

17:20-18:20 Lightning talks.

Making stories engaging, Carlos Coelho, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

Writing for digital by Liviana Tane, “The Writing School”; “The Storytailors”

Designing your content around your audience, multimedia storytelling for academia, Matthew Langthorne, European University Institute, Italy

Short Stories as a Cultural & Brand Identity Yiannis Mylopoulos, FABRIKA STORYTELLING IDEAS, Greece

How tech changes storytelling by Lukasz Krol, College of Europe, Poland

SELECTING TOOLS

18:20-19:20 Presentations.

Tools for building Narrative design by Agnieszka Mulak, MoaCube, Poland

Google Tools for storytelling by Marek Miller, Google News Lab, Poland

Open Source Tools (OSINT) for investigative journalism by Aisha Kehoe Down, OCCRP, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Storytelling in AR, Why people love it by Arman Atoyan, Arloopa, Armenia

EMBRACING EMERGING PLATFORMS

19:20- 19:50 Presentations

Storytelling through Instagram and TikTok by Alexa Volland, MediaWise, USA

From social video to podcasting by Glenn Kates, Journalist/entrepreneur, USA

Virtual Reality in healthcare, helping those in need by Shachar Weis, VR Developer, entrepreneur

FUTURE OF STORYTELLING

19:50 – 20:20. Panel discussion

Georgi Malchev, Xplora.bg, Bulgaria

Sertac Tasdelen, Co-Founder of Faladdin, Turkey

Arturs Mednis, the head of “New Black”, Latvia

2 DAY

IDEATHON. Building Storytelling campaigns

Participants form 8-12 teams and develop minimum viable ideas for storytelling campaigns and compete for USD 5000 mini-grant for implementation. All speakers and participants of the event are encouraged to participate.

IDEATHON AGENDA

9:30-10:00 Ideathon kick-off

10:30-11:00 Registering teams for Storytelling Ideathon

Topics to select from:

1989 - learning from the past to build the future

Disinformation and resilient communities

Combating divisions / building bridges

11:00-11:30 Pitching concepts for Storytelling campaigns

· Mentors:

Arturs Mednis, the head of “New Black”, Latvia;

Dimitris Dimitriadis, Managing Partner The FutureCats.

Lukasz Krol, College of Europe, Poland

11:30 - 13:00 Teams work with mentors

13:00-14:00 Ideathon Check-in. Pitching the draft concepts

14:00-16:00 Work on campaigns with supervision of mentors.

16:00-17:00 Preparing presentation

17:00-19:00 Presentations of Storytelling campaigns

WORKSHOPS

10:00-12:00 Workshops

Creating a compelling interactive story by Agnieszka Mulak

A twine workshop to show how even one person or a small team can create a compelling interactive story for social impact. It would include: 1. choosing the type of narrative to your goal, 2. simple (1-person) tools overview 3. Designing choices 4. Creating a piece of your narrative in Twine

Creating stories with Google tools by Marek Miller

Marek Miller is Google News Lab Teaching Fellow, CEE, Poland

Designing for VR by Shachar "Vice" Weis or Storytelling with InstaStories and Gifs. Jakub Gornicki (TBC)

14:00-15:30 Unconference.

15:30-17:00 Workshops

Creating projects iality n Augmented Reby Arman Atoyan, Arloopa, Armenia

17:00-19:00 Presentations of Storytelling campaigns

This forum is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Office of Citizen Exchanges and organized by the Digital Communication Network (DCN) and World Learning.