African Women in the Media 2018 Conference Promises Visibility on Women

-Women, delegates have chance to win $1,000 By Wallace Mawire The African Women in the Media 2018 Conference, an event organised  by award-winning journalist, Dr Yemisi Akinbobola, has Visibility as  its theme and promises to empower delegates through panels, workshops and networking. It is reported that attendees will experience keynote presentations, industry panels with leading names like Eugenia Abu, Lola Shoneyin,  Stephanie Busari, Kunle Afoayan and much more, as well as academic panels and numerous training workshops. “There are three tracks running simultaneously at any one time during  the conference”, said Dr Akinbobola. “We don’t want to just talk about  the issues, but through the workshops, pitch zone and networking  opportunities, we are putting actions into place to empower attendees”. The African Women in the Media group aims to impact positively the way  media functions in relation to women, both in the industry and media’s  representation of gender issues. “Action is key here and we are so grateful to all our sponsors for  their support”, adds Dr Akinbobola. “We are particularly excited to  launch the AWIM/NRGI Award which comes with a $1,000 cash prize.” AWIM18 Conference Highlights include CNN’s Nima Elbagir as Keynote  Speaker,Prof Abigail Ogwezzy as academic Keynote Speaker.Three industry panels: Gender, Security and Election Coverage; Women in Media Leadership; Role of Fictional Content on Society’s Perspective of Women in Leadership. Three academic panels: Break the Silence: Health, Violence and  Media; Women Behind and In-Front of Camera; Women in Media: Participation, Advocacy and Youth 10 Training workshops: Data Journalism, Digital Marketing, Reporting in Conflict Zones, Newsroom Leadership, Vlogging for Change, to listen, engage and tell stories on social media to grow female audiences Pitch Zone: Hosted by BBC and the Natural Resource Governance  Institute who is funding the AWIM/NRGI Award where delegates can win  £1,000 to produce their gender focused natural resources story Dinner parties and networking on both nights  Roundtable discussions with speakers African Women in the Media (AWiM) is a Facebook group that convenes  annually. The first convening event took place in Birmingham, UK with  panels from both academia and industry. The AWiM17 keynote speaker was  Minna Salami. The group wants to challenge the way media functions in  relation to African women, and seeks to inspire, support and empower  its members. Dr Yemisi Akinbobola is an award-winning journalist, academic, and  media entrepreneur. A Nigerian living in UK, her work is Africa focused, covering stories from rape culture in Nigeria, to an  investigative and data story on the trafficking of young West African  football hopefuls by fake agents. The latter won the CNN African  Journalist Award 2016 (Sports Reporting). Yemisi holds a PhD in Media  and Cultural Studies from Birmingham City University where she is the  Course Director for MA Global Media Management, and her research interest is in digital journalism and African feminism. She is the founder of Stringers Africa, which connects freelance journalists in African countries with newsrooms worldwide, and she  runs the African Women in the Media group. Founder also of IQ4News, a  multimedia production company, she has freelanced for publications including the UN Africa Renewal magazine. Yemisi she has several  years’ experience in communication management for charities.