Strap in, journalism nerds and avid readers. Storyology 2017 is coming, and there are some real bangers on the lineup.

Never heard of Storyology? It’s an annual festival of journalism and media run by the Walkley Foundation, which you may also know from their annual journalism awards. Storyology 2017 will run from August 24-31 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with a bunch of incredible journalists, writers and creatives sharing their wisdom.

Feeling spoilt for choice? Here are our five top picks from the schedule, in no particular order.

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Streets Of Your Town

Any Queenslander with creative ambitions used to have an exit strategy to the bright lights of Australia’s larger cities. But the tides have turned and young writers, musicians and artists of all kinds are opting to stay put and make their dreams come true in the Sunshine State. In this panel, you can catch everyone from singer-songwriter Airling to indie band The Grates and comedian Mel Buttle explain why they’re still proud to live (and work) in Brisbane.

Saturday August 26, Brisbane. More information and tickets available here.

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Media In Full Colour: Reflecting The Real Community

A panel of journalists of colour from Australia and beyond will join to discuss representation and diversity in media, and how the industry can do better at representing the community it’s meant to reflect. The speakers include Allan Clarke, an investigative reporter at NITV (and formerly Indigenous Affairs reporter at BuzzFeed); Isabel Lo, a freelance journalist and founder of Media Diversity Australia; Michele Fonseca, the ABC’s Head of Community Engagement, and Tonya Mosley, the senior Silicon Valley correspondent for KQED in San Francisco.

Wednesday August 30, Sydney. More information and tickets available here.

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The Edit With Andrew Quilty 

Andrew Quilty is a freelance photojournalist who has won many awards, including the prestigious Gold Walkley, for his work in Afghanistan. In a special Melbourne event aimed at students and young journalists, he’ll talk through his process and take audience questions. It’s a a not-to-be-missed opportunity to learn from one of the best in photojournalism.

And if you don’t live in Melbourne, don’t fret — Quilty will be appearing in Sydney and Brisbane as well for a number of different events throughout the festival. You can see his full schedule here.

Tuesday August 29, Melbourne. More information and tickets available here.

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The New Reporting Toolkit

Irene Jay Liu leads Google News Lab in the Asia-Pacific Region, and was previously an investigative and data reporter at Reuters. In 2017, she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in National Reporting. She’ll be presenting in Brisbane and Sydney on new storytelling formats that are becoming accessible to journalists — everything from VR to mobile to new opportunities for data journalism and interactives. This is a good one for data nerds, which should be everyone tbh.

Friday August 25 in Brisbane, Thursday August 31 in Sydney. More information and tickets available here.

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BuzzFeed’s Misinformation Expert Craig Silverman Talks Fake News

Craig Silverman is Buzzfeed’s Media Editor, and one of the world’s leading experts on all things fake news and content verification. He’ll be presenting on exactly that, talking about the ways the internet has facilitated fake and misleading news, and how the industry can combat that. Given that Silverman literally edited the Verification Handbook for Investigative Reporting, this is the best talk on fake news and rumour verification you’re ever gonna get.

Anyway, that’s our wrap-up of five of the top picks from Storyology 2017, but the entire program is pretty solid and full of gems we’ve missed here. Do yourself a favour and have a gander before the sessions all sell out. You can see the full program here.

Friday August 25 in Brisbane. More information and tickets available here.

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Storyology is on in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne from August 24-31. Check out the full program and purchase tickets here.