The Gathering Media Edition - 3 August, brought to you by Daily Maverick

The Gathering Media Edition aims to bring the importance of media to the fore of South African society by highlighting its role at the intersection of business, politics, advertising and civil society.

This is not a media conference but rather a conference about media, tackling the issues of government regulatory attempts, fake news, waning business models and the duty of business to support local independent media in a time of dominance by global players.

The full-day event will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Thursday, 3 August 2017.

The event will feature powerful speakers like Pravin Gordhan, Mcebisi Jonas, Jay Naidoo, Branko Brkic, Mark Heywood, Sam Sole, Phumzile van Damme, and a special panel on #GuptaLeaks. Other speakers include Save SA’s Sipho Pityana, Independent Media’s Iqbal Survé, the EFF’s Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, broadcaster Redi Thlabi, Luke McKend from Google and businesswoman Wendy Applebaum discussing fake news, state attempts at regulation, the global demise of business models and the impact of all of this on South African society.

Daily Maverick puts on great events that dominate the news agenda and with the experience from past years, we’ve managed to make this profitable at the first go because of the track record we can provide to our headline sponsors, Nandos. The objective of the conference ultimately is to change people’s mindsets from the notion that all is well in the South African media. It aims to inform stakeholders and debate their role in the media landscape, as well as to motivate people in business and government with the power to take action.

A ‘hands-off’ approach to supporting independent voices is no longer an option. The country is being pillaged, and yet people can’t or won’t support truly independent outlets for fear of protecting their bottom line. We need to change that thinking, because credit downgrades, emigration, disinvestment and negative growth costs way more.

Panels will be moderated by renowned Daily Maverick journalists Marianne Thamm and Ranjeni Munusami and media partner EWN’s Xolani GWala, Stephen Grootes and Redi Thlabi.

For more information visit www.dmgathering.co.za and to book tickets, click here.

For sponsorship and event logistics enquiries, contact Gerald Schreiner - az.oc.kcirevamyliad@dlareg.