The International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) kicks off this year with The Texas Tribune/PBS MediaShift Mixer on Thursday, April 18. The party will be held at the Hole in the Wall on 2538 Guadalupe St. in Austin.

“We’re impressed to have about 120 RSVPs already for the mixer,” said Mark Glaser of PBS MediaShift. “There’s a really diverse group of attendees, from speakers at ISOJ to local media people to academics from around the world.”

The mixer’s sponsor, Digital First Media, will provide the first round of drinks and appetizers. The kickoff party, which is organized by PBS MediaShift and The Texas Tribune, will begin at 6 p.m. Although attendance to ISOJ is not required, please RSVP to join the celebration.

“MediaShift started doing mixers like this a few years ago to help bring our community together in real life, face-to-face events,” Glaser said. “We all live virtual lives online with Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. and rarely get to meet those ‘friends’ in person. Our mixers and events have given people the chance to see each other and connect in deeper ways.”

ISOJ will hold another night of festivities at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 19, at Scholz Garten, located at 1607 San Jacinto Blvd. Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab and the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas will sponsor the party, as they have for the last two years. The event is exclusively for ISOJ attendees, who will receive their first round of drinks free of charge.

“We are delighted to have these social events around ISOJ for the first time in a more organized way,” said Professor Rosental Alves, director of the Knight Center and ISOJ. “We work hard at ISOJ. It’s about 10 hours of working sessions per day, so it is great to have this complementary social program to celebrate this productive conference.”