We invited our readers into our newsroom for a day

DoR hosted around 100 readers in the newsroom on 16 March for an event called Open DoR. The idea behind the day was to forge better connections with our community of subscribers to the print magazine, readers, collaborators and people who were curious about what we were doing.

We also wanted to make the event open to all, so we shared information about it through our Facebook page, where anyone who followed us and their friends could see the news about the event.

From the beginning, we realised we had to give structure to the day so participants know what to expect. We organised four separate events to give people pointers about when to drop by and a better idea of the activities available.

1. A panel discussion about how to tell personal stories, with DoR editor Cristian Lupșa, reporter Ioana Burtea, who wrote about her journey returning home to Suceava to find out more about her family, and reporter Ana Maria Ciobanu, who wrote an essay about reconnecting with her sister.

I moderated our conversation about how to write personal essays in front of a crowd of 30-some people huddled in our conference room. Together with writers Ana Maria Ciobanu and Ioana Burtea we had decided on two essays they had written about coming to terms with their family’s past, and we dissected the process in conversation: from how the idea came about, to how you report on the self, to what happened after publication. Then the writers answered questions with tips and tricks about how others could take the leap and write about their own experiences.

It was a reminder of how rare we get to dissect the process of making a story, especially a personal one, and how interested some of our community is in the mechanics of this type of creative work. Being transparent about the process, as well as its ups and downs can create bonds, and build trust.

— Cristian Lupșa, editor, DoR

2. An active listening workshop designed to underline the importance of listening attentively to other people’s stories.

We organized and facilitated a session on how to become better listeners for a group of 15 people. Some of them had been to past events of ours, some were there for the first time. We went for a listening and storytelling exercise that we borrowed from psychologist, writer and performer Murray Nossel, who was a speaker at two of our The Power of Storytelling conference editions. He and his team had run the session with our team in October — it was powerful and stayed with us ever since, so we thought to try it with the group.

We asked each participant to let us know what stands in the way of being fully present in the room, then we did a one-minute listening exercise with our eyes closed (we asked them to focus and try to identify all the sounds in the room, in the building and on the street). Afterwards, each of us shared a story in two minutes — the life story of one of our grandparents, in first person. In the end, we all shared our experience as listeners (what was it like to listen to the other stories?, was it difficult to focus?) and as storytellers (what did we need from the other listeners, in order to continue sharing?).

We did worry that such personal sharing would make some of them uncomfortable and want to leave the room, but that didn’t happen. Everyone was happy to share, some were tear-eyed and all appreciated the safe space and connection we managed to create. Immersing themselves into the lives of their grandparents and listening to the others made them realise how connected and similar our stories of the past are and how freeing it is to share them with the world. We then invited them to write the full story of their grandparents and offered to edit and publish them. A couple of them already agreed.

— Sorana Stănescu, managing editor, DoR, and Irina Tacu, reporter, DoR

3. A meeting for listeners of the Pe Bune podcast, a series with interviews about the challenges and opportunities of creative work.

I moderated a group conversation about the challenges people working in creative fields face today (burnout, work-life balance, self-doubts, fears and anxieties). The attendees were listeners of Pe Bune (For Real), a talk-show podcast that I produce and host and that deals with the same topics, but also two of my previous podcast guests, social entrepreneur Laura Leonte and composer Sabina Ulubeanu. Although the group was rather small (nine people), the discussion lasted more than the allotted time and it continued during drinks.

The key take-away from this experiment was that people who listen to Pe Bune podcast are interested not only in listening to the life stories of people who they admire and learning from them, but also in having their own struggles and dilemmas heard.

— Andreea Vrabie, host, Pe Bune

4. Școala9, DoR’s journalism platform on education, put together a storytelling workshop for high-school students.

We brought to our newsroom 8 young people aged 15 to 18 in an attempt to help them write personal essays about their lives and school experience. Some had been to creative writing workshops before, some were not interested in writing but felt like storytelling was a tool they might need in their future careers, and some were simply following recommendations from a teacher who suggested the workshop might be interesting.

At first, we asked them to write about their smartphones, and their short stories spoke of anxiety, friendship, escapism and the need for information. We talked about what makes a story, why we need personal stories and what topics they would like to write about. In the last part of the workshop, participants wrote beginning scenes for their personal essays — about the inner life of young women in high school, special needs children in public schools or the hunt for good grades — and read them out loud.

For some of them, it was the first time they felt confident sharing a piece or writing (other than school homework). To us, it was one more reminder that children have important things to say — and that we, at Școala9, can help their voices be heard.

— Maria Bercea, editor, Școala9.

4. An informal celebration of the launch of the spring issue of DoR, with wine and cheeses.

The event was penciled in from the beginning of February, but we only announced it in early March because we had been organising a series of workshops and meet-ups around that time, including a community gathering to discuss the future of the organization, and we didn’t want people to feel overwhelmed with invites from DoR.

We also had a conversation internally about whether we should announce the event publicly on Facebook or keep it via invitation only, which would have made it more predictable and easier to manage in terms of numbers and planning.

But we decided to stick to the "Open DoR" plan and announced it primarily via Facebook, where DoR has just over 124,000 likes.

We set up RSVP through Google Forms for each session so we could get an idea of the numbers and make sure we have enough spaces for everyone. We had a very full house at the first one, with places fully booked in just two hours from the time we published the event.

The majority of DoR staff participated on the day, either hosting sessions or helping with logistics, doing newsroom tours and talking to readers.

The editor’s office was set up with drafts, fact-checking lists, the flat plan for the magazine, and other materials that show several steps in the production of the print magazine.

The podcast studio was also open and readers could find out more about how recording a podcast works.

We had several walls signposted for people to stick post-its and tell us who they thought was an interesting person they would like to read about, or to tell us more about a challenge they are currently struggling with or recently overcame.

We had a shop set up where people could buy the magazine and the DoR journal. We were luckily supported by Aqua Carpatica with wine from Sâmburești and bottled water, and we bought snacks for the day and some finger food for the evening. These costs were covered from purchases on the night.

Creating and organising an event means pursuing the same process, technically speaking — budget — content — participants — experience (not necessarily in this order, but every piece is as important as the others).

But creating an event for the close community means that the experience part becomes the most important. For me it was a bit like inviting friends over for dinner to my house. The context is more personal, and therefore the interactions also.

At a bigger event, or when the content is on the stage, there is no time to have close, meaningful conversations with the audience. But when there is no stage, no microphones or sound amplifiers, everything becomes more personal: the conversations, the interactions, and the general vibe of the gathering. You get to know your public, and the public gets to know you as you are, without any script to follow, or flow of the event.

It’s a really great feeling to talk to the people who read you or who come to your events and find out who they are, what they like, and all sorts of insights they tell you. It’s nice to see people’s expressions when they also find out insights from you.

— Laura Trocan, event coordinator, DoR