The IRE Conference will have something for everyone, but we’ve put together several themed tracks to address key issues, skills and challenges facing the industry.
For more details on these sessions, use the IRE18 online schedule.
Special for IRE18:
- SHOWCASE: Doubling down on investigative reporting
- SHOWCASE: Investigating sexual misconduct and #MeToo
- A conversation with Seymour Hersh: Tips from a life in journalism
Timely for 2018…
- Covering hate in America (Sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center)
- Covering the protest line
- Meet you at the bar: Sourcing while female
- Reporting on the opioid epidemic
- Using drug databases: Tips for avoiding pitfalls (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- #MeToo U: Sexual assault on campus
- Aiming for impact and dealing with the fallout
- Localizing the investigation: Sexual misconduct
- Investigating climate change
- When the world comes to town: Managing large-scale breaking news stories
- Mass shooting “contagion” and media coverage: Minimizing the risks
- Covering natural disasters
- Investigating worker exploitation
- Reporting on guns
- Looking for accountability on the recovery efforts In Puerto Rico
If you’re new to investigative reporting...
- Finding, nurturing and protecting sources
- Using data and documents in your reporting
- Beyond numbers: Finding characters and stories in data
- Afflicting the comfortable
- Under pressure: Real life in real time with breaking news (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Rolling investigations
If you want to hone your research skills...
- Backgrounding like a boss: Perfecting your 15-minute background check and why you should do it every time (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- The wizarding world of investigative research (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- How to find, read and use 990s
- Better journalism through memory: The Wayback Machine and the history of the Web (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- How to find secrets and story ideas in bankruptcy court records (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
If you need story ideas...
- Finding the story: Immigration
- Finding the story: Murder, you wrote (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Local watchdog showcase
- Corrupt acts and autocrats: The year in international investigations
- Hidden gems in international data (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Year in investigations
If you’re a beat reporter...
- Blue force tracker: Notes from the field for successful military reporting and investigations
- Consumer investigations: Stories that make a difference
- Uncovering national security stories in your community
- Tunnel vision: Finding great stories about transportation
- Behind the story: Schools without rules
- Criminal justice and mental health issues
- Crooked cops and crime labs
- Finding fraud on your beat (Sponsored by Bloomberg)
- On the beat: Charter schools and vouchers
- On the beat: Financial hurdles to higher education (Sponsored by Lumina Foundation)
- On the beat: Harvesting stories from Big Ag
- On the beat: How to ferret out government contracting abuse
- On the beat: Investigating healthcare in your town and across the country
- On the beat: Police who cross the line
- On the beat: Sports business stories you should be covering
- On the beat: Stories hidden in the courts
- On the beat: The data sets every government reporter should have
If you’re a broadcaster...
- Broadcast Track: 10 of the most important lessons I've learned (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: 50 Years of 60 Minutes (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: 60 ideas in 60 minutes (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Anatomy of an investigation (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Art of accountability (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Art of the interview (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Behind bulletproofing (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Best of broadcast (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Deep dive 1 (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Deep dive 2 (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Deep dive 3 (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Digital for dummies (and smarties) (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Going undercover: Hidden cameras, methods and ethics (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Investigating breaking news (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: State of the industry (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
- Broadcast Track: Visual storytelling: A new perspective (Sponsored by National Association of Broadcasters)
If you need advice...
- Career roundtable
- Fellowships & grants for freelancers
- How to have "the talk" with your editor
- Make your move: Career advice for climbing the investigative ladder
- Media lawyers brownbag (Sponsored by TEGNA Foundation)
- How pros can help reinvent college media (Sponsored by Facebook)
If you’re interested in diversity inside and outside the newsroom...
- Diversity & Management Tracks: Diversity that makes a difference
- Diversity Track: Covering immigrant communities
- Diversity Track: Covering the Muslim community
- Diversity Track: Finding stories in hidden communities
- Diversity Track: Investigating bias: From courts to the classroom
- Diversity Track: Investigating inequality
- Diversity Track: Journalists of color in the newsroom (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Diversity Track: What does federal policy really mean for communities of color?
- Diversity Track: Women in the newsroom (Sponsored by Facebook)
If you cover politics or elections….
- Election & Politics Track: Finding the story: Campaign finance
- Election & Politics Track: From fake fraud to lame laws: Investigating voting rights in America
- Election & Politics Track: Getting the goods on members of Congress without a D.C. bureau
- Election & Politics Track: Prepping for the midterms
- Election & Politics Track: The documents you’re not using to investigate your state capitol
- Election & Politics Track: Tracking outside spending in elections (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Election & Politics Track: Trumping norms: Tracking the Trump Administration’s conflicts of interest
- Election & Politics Track: What is that politician hiding? And other backgrounding tips
If you’re a manager…
- Management Track: Do I want to be a boss? Making the transition from reporter to editor
- Management Track: Keeping everything straight: Managing a newsroom-wide investigation
- Management Track: Partnerships: Pros/cons and how to dive in
- Management Track: Vetting story ideas and knowing when to cut bait
- Management Track: Why don’t you just do what I want? Improving the editor/reporter relationship
- Diversity & Management Tracks: Diversity that makes a difference
- Long-distance relationships: how to manage and collaborate with a remote staff
- Pulling off big projects in small(er) newsrooms
- A field guide to attracting and retaining a news nerd
- When the world comes to town: Managing large-scale breaking news stories
If you want to up your FOIA game...
- Public Records Track: 50 records to request right now
- Public Records Track: A conversation on how to build a beat on public records
- Public Records Track: FOI Jedi moves: Psychological tactics to get public records and increase public support for FOI
- Public Records Track: FOIA appeals and disputes (Sponsored by TEGNA Foundation)
- Public Records Track: Free the docs: Organizing large-scale public records projects from start to finish (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Public Records Track: Insider secrets about your open records requests
- Public Records Track: Mastering the law to overcome roadblocks to access (Sponsored by TEGNA Foundation)
- Handling your next big email or document dump, FBI-style
- Legal workshop: Understanding libel and copyright
If you want to tell a better story...
- Storytelling Track: How to outline for stories big and small
- Storytelling Track: How to turn your investigation into a narrative: Getting them to read to the very last word
- Storytelling Track: Immersion: Making the most of a long deadline
- Storytelling Track: Self-editing moves you can start today
- Storytelling Track: The nitty gritty, down & dirty truth about doing investigations for radio and podcasts
If you want to meet new people...
- Students' roundtable (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Educators' roundtable (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Freelancers' roundtable (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Diversity Track: Journalists of color in the newsroom (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Diversity Track: Women in the newsroom (Sponsored by Facebook)
If you want to pick up new tools and tech skills...
- Technology and Tools Track: Amazing online investigative tools (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Technology and Tools Track: Bring your investigative reporting to life using animation and comics
- Technology and Tools Track: Digital security risks — and what you can do about them (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Technology and Tools Track: Emerging tools for investigative journalists
- Technology and Tools Track: Online security for journalists
- Technology and Tools Track: Social media verification
- Technology and Tools Track: Who’s your audience? Building investigative stories with impact.
- Technology and Tools Track: Free Google tools for deep reporting, analysis and visualization
- Tools for mining federal court documents (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Lock it down: Protecting yourself, your data and your sources
- The tools and apps every reporter should know
If you want to improve your workflow...
- Work Better Track: Family life and investigative journalism: It's not a balance, it's a see-saw
- Work Better Track: How to learn from a fail
- Work Better Track: One journalist, multiple hats
- Work Better Track: The juggling act: Balancing beat reporting with investigative work
- Work Better Track: The life-changing magic of getting organized (Sponsored by Knight Foundation)
- Managing stress
- Long-distance relationships: how to manage and collaborate with a remote staff
- Pulling off big projects in small(er) newsrooms
- A field guide to attracting and retaining a news nerd
If you’re a freelancer (or want to be one)...
- Turning your investigation into a book
- O’Brien Fellowships: $65,000 in support of nine-month investigative reporting projects (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Freelance investigations
- Freelancers' roundtable (Sponsored by Facebook)
- Fellowships & grants for freelancers
