October 2024: Events, recognition, & conferences!
We celebrated our work through a small team retreat, received recognition for our work, and are planning for upcoming events & conferences!
Introduction
It is that time of the year again - the season of conferences and events.
From late September our team started traveling for some very exciting gatherings, with many more to come in October and November. We’re looking forward to the travel, co-working and meeting up with interesting people and collaborators.
Before we dive into details, a quick note:
Veditum team members will be in Bengaluru from 20th to 28th September, organising events, talks, etcetera, and we’d like to catch up with like minded folks while we’re there. If you’d like to meet with us or get updates about our Bengaluru plans, email us at asid@veditum.org and we’ll share details!
Read on to find out what we’ve been up to, and where we’ll be - we’d love it if you came by to say hello!
🏞️ South India Data Sprint
We are hosting an in-person data sprint with support from our venue collaborators Samagata Foundation, at their venue on Church Street in Bengaluru.
🗓️ Saturday, 26th October, 11am to 5pm IST
The data sprint is focused on rivers in South India and it will help build valuable evidence on sand mining from these rivers. You don’t have to be an expert on rivers or sand mining, your enthusiasm to participate is sufficient. Please note that registration is mandatory.
🔗 Register & see more details at this link - veditum.org/southsprint
You can read about our previous sprints (focused on River Chambal, North India, West India) at this link - http://veditum.org/datasprints
We look forward to seeing you there!
✨ INK Fellowship
We’re delighted to share that Veditum’s founder Siddharth Agarwal has been inducted as an INK Fellow by the INK Global Foundation in the 2024 cohort, along with outstanding co-fellows!
Recognition of the deep & foundational work we do at Veditum is slow to come, but we're happy when it's meaningful!
Sid will be delivering his INK Talk in Bengaluru on 17th October at the MAHE Campus in Yelahanka. He will speak about his experience of walking & documenting India’s riverine ecosystems, and utilising open data to develop evidence archives of illegal sand mining in India.
The event is open for all to attend. You can register at this link.
If you like the work we do at Veditum, do consider making a tax deductible donation to support out work. No amount is small! Click the button below to make a donation.
SCCS Bangalore ‘24
We’ll be in Bengaluru for the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) from 21st-24th October at the JN Tata Auditorium in IISc.
We’re hosting an interactive workshop on 24th October titled - ‘Using open data & collaborations for environmental accountability - learning with India Sand Watch’.
Besides that, we’ll also be at our Who’s Who stall on all the conference days, with some fun stories and photos on display, exciting Veditum merchandise to take / buy and postcards to post! Come by and say hi!
VMLS River Conference
The Veditum team is going to be at the International Conference on Rivers 2024 hosted by the Vinayaka Mission Law School on 18th and 19th October. Two team members - Rhea and Siddharth - are co-chairing different paper presentation sessions.
If you’re around, stop by to see our exhibit - Beyond Boundaries - of beautiful images from our Moving Upstream project and fellowship.
Agami residency
We participated in the OpenNYAI Makers Residency hosted by Agami at Tinkerhub, Kochi at the end of September. We had the opportunity to hang out with, ideate and work with people from the legal, environment and technology backgrounds.
Over 3 intensive and fun days, we created tools for better data accessibility, evidence building and representation in the environmental justice space. You will see some of these emerge soon in exciting ways!
Team retreat
Following the residency, the usually-remote, full-time Veditum team spent a couple of days at a team retreat in Fort Kochi. We spent relaxed time with each other, and enjoyed some amazing food, museums and sunsets in this seaside neighbourhood!
Volunteers
We have a lovely set of past and present volunteers who have been diligently working with us at Veditum, especially for India Sand Watch. Our team is grateful for these volunteers as they have reached out to us on their own accord and stuck around as well!
But if you’re someone seeing this note and thinking that you’d like to volunteer some of your time / skills towards Veditum’s work, just fill out the volunteering form at this link - https://veditum.org/work-with-veditum/ - and we will get back to you asap!
People/Groups to follow:
Check out the work being done by the folks at Agami for advancing justice in India, while supporting innovation in law and justice.
If you’re a change maker or aspire to be one, you should definitely checkout the upcoming Justice Makers Mela, happening in Bhopal on 29th & 30th November.
Find more details about the event & register here: http://mela24.agami.in
Support our work
If you like the work we do at Veditum, do consider making a tax deductible donation to support out work. No amount is small! Click the button below to make a donation.
Thank you for reading through! We’ll be back in a fortnight with a special update! Until then, take care and follow us on social media if you’re active on these platforms:
VEDITUM : Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube
MOVING UPSTREAM: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
INDIA SAND WATCH: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
Warmly,
Team Veditum