Calling all news:rewired – beyond the story delegates: are you up for the #newsrw QR Code Challenge?
On Thursday 16 December news:rewired is running its next journalism event. During the day you will get to hear from industry leaders and those at the edges of innovation in all forms of news media and also have the opportunity to network with media representatives from a range of organisations. But that is not all.
During the day news:rewired will also be running an exclusive competition for its delegates to enter: the #newsrw QR Code Challenge. We’ll be announcing prizes for the challenge in the coming weeks.
The #newsrw QR Code Challenge
What on earth are QR Codes?
QR stands for Quick Response. The codes are like a square barcode which can be scanned in using a code reader on your mobile phone (you may need to download one of these in advance if your phone does not already have one – QRstuff.com has a great list of reader software for guidance). If you don’t have access to a phone with this capability you may need to find someone to buddy-up with. Each code will transport you (or at least your screen) to a specific destination, such as a website URL or someone’s Twitter account.
Interested in using QR codes yourself? Over on the 10,000 Words blog Lauren Rabaino offers some useful ideas on how journalists can make use of these codes, outside of the events arena.
How will the #newsrw challenge work?
With our final session focusing on gaming in journalism we thought we would set our delegates an exciting challenge using this technology. When you arrive on the day you will receive your delegate packs once you enter the venue. In those packs you will find your first QR code. Using your code reader simply hold your phone over the code and it should automatically take you to our first secret web destination.
Here you will find clues and instructions to lead you to the next code, and so on. Along the way you will be asked to make a note of a phrase or two and send us a message on Twitter. It’s important you do this so we know you are playing along.
The winners of the challenge will be the first people who send news:rewired a direct message on Twitter with the correct final phrase.
If you have not yet bought a ticket for news:rewired, and don’t want to miss out, you can get tickets by following this link.
Want to practice? Here’s a tester code you can play with in preparation for the #newsrw challenge. It should take you to the Journalism.co.uk homepage. (Note: this is a test code and is not part of the #newsrw QR Code Challenge)
