Broadcast journalists Matt Chorley and Jeanette Kwakye MBE to headline JournoFest – full lineup revealed
Matt Chorley and Jeanette Kwakye MBE are headlining our 11th annual journalism conference alongside two panels of amazing speakers, celebrating 20 years of News Associates.
Every year we host a journalism conference packed with notable journalists from national newspapers and broadcasters and emerging digital platforms. JournoFest brings together trainees and alumni from all our courses including our BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism degree and prospective members of #TeamNA.
Our 2026 event coincides with our 20th anniversary of journalism training – marked with a special panel of fantastic graduates.
This year’s event is taking place at The Exchange in Twickenham on Saturday March 14. Keep reading to see the full lineup…
Our first keynote speaker kicking off the day is broadcaster and journalist Matt Chorley.
Matt began his career as a trainee reporter on the Taunton Times. His career journey took him to the Western Morning News, Press Association, MailOnline, The Times and Times Radio from where he was poached by the BBC two years ago.
Alongside journalism, Matt is a stand-up comedian who regularly tours the UK. He received rave reviews for his book ‘Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors: 50 Places That Changed British Politics’ which focussed on unique places outside Whitehall that changed the course of British politics.
He hosts a daily show on BBC Radio 5 Live and is a presenter on Newsnight.
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Our second keynote speaker is Jeanette Kwakye MBE. Jeanette is a former Olympic sprinter turned broadcaster. She is a five-time British champion and was the first British woman in 24 years to compete in an Olympic 100m final, in Beijing in 2008 – and the only British person to do it since.
After an injury in 2013, she pivoted into sports journalism, gaining her NCTJ at News Associates, and since has become a familiar face across TV and radio, including The One Show and BBC 5 Live Breakfast. She has covered World Athletics Championships, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Paris 2024 Olympics and most recently the Olympic Winter Games in Milano Cortina.
Jeanette was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2021 for services to Sport and Sports Broadcasting..
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Our ‘Celebrating 20 years of News Associates’ panel will bring together four fabulous News Associates alumni working across the industry from newspapers and magazines to broadcast, who all #StartedHere.
Our panelists are ITV News head of content Ed Saunt, Sky News presenter Mhari Aurora, FourFourTwo editor James Andrew and The Sun home affairs correspondent Julia Atherley.
Ed is the head of content at ITV News and leads teams across digital, social and broadcast. His career began as a trainee, producing shows such as ITV West Country and ITV Granada.
He has helped develop shows including ITV News London and News at Ten. He has also edited a range of special programming including the UK General Election 2019 and the US Presidential Election 2020 overnight coverage.
Mhari started her career as a multimedia journalist at Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, covering a range of business and finance stories. After that she was a reporter for The Times’ political newsletter Red Box.
She then moved to Sky News where she was a political correspondent and regularly co-hosted the Breakfast programme. She is now a presenter for Sky News. She has covered national events such as the UK General Election 2024 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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James is the editor of football brand FourFourTwo, leading the magazine, website, video channels and social media teams. He is an experienced sports journalist and has interviewed some of the biggest names in football, including Mo Salah, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland.
Previously he was editor at Beat Media Group, working with The FA, Premiership Rugby, NatWest Six Nations, PRO14, British & Irish Lions, the British Olympic Association and more.
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Julia is home affairs correspondent at The Sun specialising in stories on immigration, justice, and crime. She has covered exclusive stories such as Labour’s early release scheme and regularly reports on Britain’s prisons. She has also covered national stories including the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Infected Blood Inquiry.
She has been named in the Press 30 Under 30 for her contributions to journalism, particularly the ‘Justice for Joanne’ campaign that prevented the early release of murderer Robert Brown.
I got released from Wormwood Scrubs last week…
Looking at how new reforms will see prisoners tagged before they get let out. Read here:https://t.co/ojJiK8BmBZ pic.twitter.com/oPxLZICJfV
— Julia Atherley (@julia_atherley) September 2, 2025
On our ‘How to be successful in the newsroom’ panel, trainees will hear from Daily Mail chief news correspondent Inderdeep Bains, The Telegraph senior data journalist Ollie Corfe and BBC South online journalist Charlotte Coles.
Inderdeep specialises in human-interest features, investigations, and public-interest reporting. She has been shortlisted for several of the industry’s top honours, including Journalist of the Year at the Society of Editors’ Awards and News Reporter of the Year at the Press Awards.
In 2024, she was highly commended in Features at the British Journalism Awards and won Best Investigation at the Asian Media Awards for her reporting on a teenager at the centre of a landmark right-to-life case. Her exposé on abuse and misogyny in the Royal Navy’s Submarine Service – shortlisted for Best Investigation at the 2025 Press Awards – led to a major inquiry and a string of dismissals.
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Ollie joined News Associates’ fast-track multimedia journalism course in early 2022. With a background in economics, that summer he went on to a data journalism position at the Daily Express. Over a year and a half on the tabloid’s Special Projects Team, he crunched numbers on the cost-of-living crisis, energy and crime. In late 2023, he started on the data desk at The Daily Telegraph, just in time for the 2024 general election. He has racked up 300 bylines for the title since, across politics, personal finance, property, education and much more.
In 2025 he was highly commended in the Rising Star category at the AOP Digital Publishing Awards and shortlisted for Young Journalist of the Year by the London Press Club.
Charlotte is an online journalist for BBC South, covering Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset. Until February 2026 she worked for nearly two years at the Oxford Mail, a daily regional newspaper with seven associated weekly titles, where she reported on a wide range of stories including court, crime and politics.
Her work at the Oxford Mail has earned her nominations for Young Journalist of the Year at the Regional Press Awards 2026 and Newcomer of the Year at the Midlands Media Awards 2025. She holds a gold-standard NCTJ diploma and a first-class BA (Hons) in Multimedia Journalism from Bournemouth University.
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Previous JournoFest keynote speakers include Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford, The Times editor Tony Gallagher, Good Morning Britain presenter Ranvir Singh and ITV Loose Women panellist and The Sun columnist Jane Moore.
See our highlights from previous JournoFest events here.