In an era defined by disruption, resilience is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. This interactive session, co-led by Ashir Badami (Medill School of Journalism, former VP at venture-backed startups) and product strategy expert Robert Hoekman, explores how media leaders can build organizational resilience through adaptive strategy and rapid experimentation. Participants will learn the core principles that define resilient news organizations: flexibility, continuous learning, and responsiveness to change, as well as gain hands-on experience using a practical framework for rapid experimentation to practice decision-making under uncertainty. Together, we’ll unpack how to build nimble teams, reimagine workflows for speed and adaptability, and identify emerging market opportunities before competitors do.
Speakers:
- Ashir Badami is a senior lecturer at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, where he leads the Media Management and Leadership specialization where he equips emerging media leaders to navigate complexity and build sustainable, audience-centered ventures through real-world experimentation, systems thinking, and cross-functional leadership. His professional experience spans editorial, product, and business strategy, with extensive experience in dynamic, high-growth environments.
- Robert Hoekman brings 25 years of experience leading the development of consumer- & business-facing products at dozens of tech companies & several news companies. Hoekman has served as Director of Product Design for CNN digital (Politics/Elections, Breaking News, Business/Markets, more), Process Innovation Director at Akamai, and Senior Innovation Strategist at Tangible.
Anyone is welcome to attend. Tickets are free.
Where will the meetup take place?
This event will be hosted on Zoom. For this particular event, you’ll have the best experience if you join via the Zoom app on a desktop or laptop computer so that you can see the presentation on a larger screen. You can also join using the mobile app, although the presentation may be harder to view.
Can I dial in by phone?
We recommend joining from your computer, tablet or phone using the Zoom app. You won’t be able to access the presentation slides, chat and exercises if you’re dialed in via phone only. If you’re unfamiliar with Zoom, we’ll have staff on hand to troubleshoot, and we also suggest checking out the Zoom support site for more help.
Will this event be recorded?
Yes, this event will be recorded. We will send the recording to everyone who registered after the event, regardless of whether or not they attended.
Will closed captioning be available?
Yes, we will enable Zoom’s closed captioning tool, which now supports closed captioning in both the main room and breakout rooms.