Hacks/Hackers Connect, the launchpad event series for news-media entrepreneurs developed in partnership with Google News Labs, is on the road again. Mark your calendars now for the next three events:

• San Francisco: Jan. 22-23,
• London: Feb. 5-7,
• New York City: Feb. 26-27

Until then…

The week ahead:

• Hacks/Hackers Vancouver holds its inaugural media startup showcase.
• The São Paulo group discusses infographics with Beatriz Blanco at its next gathering.  
• Hacks/Hackers Santiago hosts a day-long event about using public government spending data. 
• In New York, the group holds lightning talks and panel discussion on “the challenges of encouraging civil discourse: the product decisions, the engineering challenges and the whole crazy ball of wax that is human conversation.”
• Hacks/Hackers London’s November meetup includes hearing from Buzzfeed UK editor-in-chief Janine Gibson. 
• As part of the WordCamp US Community Summit, Hacks/Hackers **Philly **is co-hosting a meetup about the intersections of WordPress and media. 
• Another new group launching (woohoo!) – this one in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Now try saying “Hacks/Hackers Halifax” five times fast.)

Job openings:

None to report this week. If you have an open position, send it our way!

Group spotlight: Hacks/Hackers Los Angeles

The LA group began its reboot just a few weeks ago, and already held a great event where people from the L.A. Times data desk talked through their process for a few projects. You can see the slides or watch a few videos from the event (thanks to Ben Welsh for sharing). 

• Slides: bit.ly/hh_latdatadesk
• Video: Nicole Santa Cruz on “The Homicide Report”
• Video: Zahira Torres and Ryan Menezes on “Grading the Arts”

Worth a read:

• In Argentina, a Quiet Data Cruncher Aims to Bring Sense to a Raucous Election (NYTimes)
• Bringing you up to speed on AMP (David Besbris and Richard Gingras of Google)
• First Draft Coalition launches a site to help journalists verify social content (Nieman Lab)
• Is The Washington Post’s Martin Baron the Best News Editor of All Time? (Esquire)
• Social media drove more referrals than search for 2015’s biggest news stories (VentureBeat)

**Call to action: **

In honor of U.S. Thanksgiving, today’s call to action is simply this: Say thanks to whoever makes your Hacks/Hackers experience wonderful. Maybe that’s an organizer, or a coworker who invited you to your first event, or someone who always shows up smiling. Our Hacks/Hackers community is made up of thousands of thoughtful, dedicated people, and thanks to each of you for being a part of it.

See you next week. 

Produced by Julia Haslanger. Say hi: @JuliaJRH

To sign up for this weekly newsletter: http://hackshackers.com/blog/2015/09/18/sign-hackshackers-new-newsletter/