(foto: Jan Gunnar Furuly) Here is the main conference hall, for keynotes. The hall can take more than 1200 people. (Foto: John Bones) John Bones, Jan Gunnar Furuly and Jens Egil Heftoy are already in the bar. Please join us next year. Jan Gunnar in the bar where «Muckrackers» was founded. Next year he hopes you join him at the reunion for the original cast.

Lillehammer is a small city in the countryside north of Oslo. From the airport Gardermoen its one hour and 45 minutes with direct train to Lillehammer. From the train station at Lillehammer it’s walking distance to the conference venue.

But don’t worry, there will be shuttle busses to take you there.

Lillehammer is known as the host city of the Winter Olympic in 1994 and in recent years for the TV-series “Lilyhammer” with Little Steven (Steven van Zandt). One year from now the city can add two Global Investigative Journalism Conferences to its list of fame.

The Hotel, Radisson Blu Lillehammer, is the same as we used for the 5th GIJC in 2008. But since then the conference facilities are largely upgraded.

Compact games
The conference facilities include more than a dozen different rooms and halls. All located in the same building and on the same level.

The Radisson Blu Lillehammer hotel was built in 1911 and have been upgraded in several steps since then. The latest rebuilding, wich include the main conference hall, was finished just weeks after the GIJC 2008 was over. But despite all the rebuilding, the hotel have kept is old, cosy style. Here you will find wall to wall carpets, deep armchairs and wooden walls with old national romanic paintings. And the former hotel director’s Harley Davidson, is still standing in the bar.

Last week SKUP-chairman Jan Gunnar Furuly, board member John Bones and director Jens Egil Heftoy went to Lillehammer to inspect the venue in detail and to negotiate the final deals.

All included
In total we have more than 900 rooms available in the small city of Lillehammer. That gives us more than 1600 hotelbeds. And we can get more if needed.

The prices for single rooms will be NOK 6.110 (approximately $940 or €740) if your staying from Wednesday to Sunday. If you share room, you save about NOK 800 ($120 or €100) each.

Pricey you say?

Well, the price does include three daily meals, coffee, cakes and fruit during the day, and the galla dinner on Saturday evening. So the only cost you will have extra during the stay is what you pursue in the bar. Actually the hotel price is almost to the dime the same as it was in 2008, seven years ago.

The band are back
If you did visit the GIJC in 2008, you might remember the first appearance of the GIJN houseband “The Muckrackers”. The group was founded at the conference in 2008 and have played at all GIJCs since. Next year we bring them back to where it all started, right here in Baglern Pub. And there are confirmed rumours that the entire original cast will be there.