Outriders Summit 2018
Concluded 2018–2019

European
Meetup Tour

The tour that built Mixer. Ten cities, hundreds of journalists, one mission: to rethink how we tell stories.

Before Mixer existed as a platform, there was a tour.

Between October 2018 and late 2019, the Outriders network organised journalism meetups in eight European cities. Each one brought together local journalists and media workers around a single topic. No keynotes. No panels. Practitioners in a room.

The Cities

2018Warsaw

Outriders Summit: Story Begins

Participant models, impactful storytelling, and audience-centric journalism.

Key Speakers

Ann Marie Lipinski, Tina Rosenberg, Natalia Żaba

2018Warsaw

Meetup: Membership Models

Membership models and audience engagement strategies.

Key Speakers

Katharine Quarmby, Emily Goligoski, Sebastian Esser

2018Bucharest

Meetup: Serve and Engage

Building real relationships with your audience.

Key Speakers

Dr. Dimitris Xenakis, Madalina Ciobanu

2019Athens

Meetup: Social Impact

How journalism creates social impact. 80+ journalists gathered.

Key Speakers

Eva Constantaras, Blanka Zöldi, Vlad Ursulean

2019Zagreb

Meetup: Cross-border

Cross-border stories and remote newsroom management.

Key Speakers

Local & regional practitioners

2019Sarajevo

Meetup: Investigative

Investigative journalism in the Balkans.

Key Speakers

Regional investigative reporters

2019Budapest

Meetup: Independent Media

Independent media under political pressure.

Key Speakers

Local independent editors

2019Lviv

Meetup: Ukrainian Journalism

Ukrainian journalism and cross-border reporting.

Key Speakers

Cross-border reporting experts

2019Minsk

Meetup: Belarus Media

Independent media in Belarus before the 2020 crackdown.

Key Speakers

Belarusian independent journalists

2019Warsaw

Outriders Stage

The future of storytelling and global perspectives.

Key Speakers

Darren Long, Sonny Swe, Emma Lacey-Bordeaux, Bidhya Chapagain

Meetup BucharestMeetup Athens
Meetup BudapestOutriders Stage 2019

What it became

This tour led directly to the creation of Mixer. The community built through these shared rooms across Warsaw, Bucharest, Athens, and Minsk became the foundation for a platform that would support European journalism for the next five years.