A free, fun and engaging event for creative & investigative journalists, designers & technologists organised by The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, in partnership with the Google News Lab.

What is it about?

TechRaking is a series of events that brings together journalists, designers, technologists and artists to develop solutions for public service journalism.

We want to encourage imaginative and ambitious thinking about journalism and storytelling; to inspire discussions that lead to exciting collaborations; to connect people with different skills and perspectives to develop transformative ideas and solutions to complex issues.

Organised as part conference and part design sprint we hope to develop innovative thinking around journalism that serves the public and to start important conversations and contacts that continue beyond the event.

The Challenge

The year 2016 will be huge for politics – there’s the prospect of massive change for and throughout the UK. But are journalists stuck too much in their old ways of reporting the subject? Could they be doing more to engage and inform the electorate?

In the run-up to the EU referendum, several city mayoral elections and significant change in the Scottish Parliament, Techraking London 16 will examine the way journalists and news outlets cover elections. We will try to address big questions: Why is turnout so low at important elections? Why is it so poor among younger voters? Why are older generations more active when it comes to the ballot box?

Is the conversation worn out before people get to the polling stations? As journalists, technologists and artists can we design a smarter approach to engage the public in the political process?

The CHALLENGE is to develop a solution to provide the public with facts and information that will encourage more to take part.

The solution can be technological, story-based or design in nature. But we will encourage you to think differently, to be innovative and to work collaboratively to come up with something unique. At the end of the day the projects will be judged and a winner announced. TechRaking winning concepts are then developed by The Center for Investigative Reporting, the Bureau and the participants.