The first-ever joint conference between the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and The Media Consortium begins Thursday at the Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco.

The conference kicks off early with two half-day workshops: an editorial workshop on Police and the Media and a sales workshop on Social Selling with Amie Stein. EFF technologists will be in house all day to offer one-on-one advice on protecting sources and tools for avoiding police surveillance.

Thursday afternoon attendees will hear from Cenk Uygur, the host and founder of “The Young Turks” which has become one of the top online news shows with more than 75 million views per month on YouTube.

Friday morning features a one-two punch with back-to-back talks on audience engagement and development by ChartBeat’s Stephanie Brower and Facebook’s Meghan Peters.

Friday afternoon we’re unconferencing. What’s an unconference? We’re glad you asked.

Friday closes with The Media Consortium’s Impact Awards introduced by Toby Thompkins, Vice President of the Tides Foundation. This year the Media Consortium opened up the awards to AAN … and you won’t believe what happened next.

Saturday’s keynote speaker is Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of Re/code. Swisher has been covering the tech industry since 1997, and she will share some of what she’s seen as the businesses of digital and publishing have converged.

Visit AANDigital.com for the most up-to-date schedule and speaker list. If you couldn’t make it to San Francisco this year, you can follow the action and/or crash the party at #AANTMC on Twitter.

This conference would not be possible without our sponsors and exhibitors. All of them offer valuable services to AAN and TMC publications, so whether you are here with us in San Francisco or viewing from afar, please take a moment to check them out.