New Bellingcat Workshops Announced for Amsterdam and Copenhagen

Bellingcat will hold a series of workshops this summer and autumn, with the new workshops being Amsterdam (two in August) and Copenhagen (October/November).

  • Munich: July 22-26 (Full, with no wait-list)
  • London: July 29-August 2 (Full, with short wait-list)
  • Amsterdam: August 12-16
  • Amsterdam: August 19-23
  • Berkeley (San Francisco): August 19-23 (Full, with lengthy wait-list)
  • Zurich: August 26-30 (Full, with lengthy wait-list)
  • Copenhagen: October 28 – November 1 (Full, with no wait-list)

Please email us at workshops@bellingcat.com with the information requested at the bottom of this post if you would like to attend.

The participation fee for our five-day workshops is €2200 per person, receivable by Bellingcat. Conversion rates from other currencies and credit card fees are for the expense of the participant, with payment methods that include direct transfer to IBAN of Bellingcat, or payment by credit card. It does not cover participants accommodation or travel costs. These workshop fees fund the salaries of Bellingcat’s researchers around the world and initiatives that include our newly-launched Yemen Project. This workshop, like all others, will have multiple Bellingcat trainers present.

If you would like to be considered for multiple workshop spots — for example, to be added onto the London wait-list and attend one of the Amsterdam workshops as a back-up plan — please indicate this preference to us.

Participants are required to bring their own laptops, and Google Earth Pro (free to download here) should be installed ahead of the workshop. We strongly recommend having a Facebook account during the workshop (does not need to be your real, personal account) in order to participate in a number of exercises that build Facebook research skills. WiFi will be provided at the workshop for all participants.

The workshop will be split into two main sections. The first three days will be dedicated to teaching participants a range of open source investigation skills, with case studies and practical examples focused on topics including conflict, crime, corruption, and verification. The first two days will focus on investigations of videos and photographic content, and the third day will focus on social media investigation.

The last two days allow participant to apply those skills to topics of their choice, with assistance from the workshop leaders and Bellingcat team members. On the final day, the progress of these projects will be presented to the group and future steps in the investigation will be discussed. Where possible and desirable for the participants, Bellingcat will provide additional help with those investigations after the workshop is concluded.

The intention of the workshop is to teach participants the core skills required for open source investigation, giving them sufficient time with practical examples to develop solid investigative experience, and teach a range of tools and methodologies that can be applied to their own work.

More information on our workshops can be found in this article from The New Yorker. Additional details on our workshops and training agendas can be found in a document here. If you wish to participate, please send the following information to workshops@bellingcat.com:

  • Name
  • Organisation
  • Billing address
  • Contact email
  • Contact phone number
  • Food allergies/intolerance
  • What three things would you like to learn on this course?
  • Any special requests, information, etc.

Due to high demand, workshop spaces fill up quickly. We anticipate holding additional workshops in Europe throughout the year, along with three workshops on the east coast of the U.S. (likely Washington D.C. twice and Boston once).

Again, please don’t hesitate to message us at workshops@bellingcat.com if you have any questions.

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