Breaking local stories with economic data (Sponsored by Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism)

Speakers: Jeannine Aversa, Paul Overberg

Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will offer a free workshop from 2-5 p.m. on June 19: Breaking Local Stories with Economic Data. Government data offer unparalleled opportunities to distinguish your reporting with trend stories about what's happening in your local economy. Especially this year, with the release of the every-five-year Economic Census, journalists will have a unique opportunity to track changes in their local community from 2007 - before the recession - to 2012. Instructors Paul Overberg of USA TODAY and Jeannine Aversa, late of The AP, now with the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, will provide you with a road map to finding and delivering at least 15 local enterprise stories from government economic data. Examples will be specific to the San Antonio region, but applicable anywhere. Sign up here for this free workshop.  Registration begins at 1:30 p.m. for this workshop.

IRE Conference Registration (Wednesday)

Registration will be located on the 3rd floor of the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

IRE Sales Table (Thursday)

Stop by the IRE sales table and take a look at our merchandise. We will be selling books, including the newest title in the IRE beat book series. The large selection of titles we carry will certainly include your interests. All proceeds from your purchase help support IRE and its mission.

IRE Conference Registration (Thursday)

Registration will be located on the 3rd floor of the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

Tableau Public for Beginners (Hosted by Tableau Software)

Speaker: Jewel Loree

Learn how to create beautiful, interactive data visualizations on short deadlines. No programming required. You'll learn everything you need to build data visualizations and publish them to your website just like a video. We'll teach you how to:

*Connect to Excel files and other data

*Create maps and charts

*Format them beautifully

*Make them interactive

Tableau Public is a free tool for journalists. No previous experience with Tableau is necessary to take this class. This session is full, however a few seats will be available the morning of the training on a first-come, first-served basis. Laptops will be provided.

CensusReporter update (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Joe Germuska

CensusReporter is a Knight News Challenge-funded project to make it easy for journalists to write stories using US Census data. Expanding upon the volunteer-built Census.ire.org, CensusReporter will simplify finding and using data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. In this session you'll learn more about the project and how it, and census data, can help you in your reporting.

Rapid data publishing with Caspio (Hosted by Caspio)

Speaker: Edward Garcia

This session provides a hands-on introduction to the Caspio framework for rapid database publishing. Learn how to import a public data set (Census, crime, health inspections, etc.) and quickly build an interactive, searchable and embeddable web app for your website. Topics covered:

*Prepping and importing data

*Creating a searchable database

*Report interfaces and layouts

*Deployment on your website

Pre-registration is encouraged, as space is limited. No programming skills or previous Caspio experience is necessary. Laptops will be provided.

Every day data: DBs every newsroom should already have on file or be familiar with

Speakers: Daniel Keating, Yang Wang

Whether you're setting up shop for your news organization or for yourself, there are a handful of tried-and-true local and online data sources that you want to have at your fingertips. We'll show you suggestions and some examples of how they've paid off.

Best mobile apps for reporting

Speakers: Stephen Stock, David Ho

Mobile is reshaping the media landscape, but how can the technology help you as a journalist? Bring your toolbox into the smart phone and tablet age with this session highlighting key mobile apps and some tips and tricks to supercharge your reporting. We'll provide a demonstration of cool apps you can use to gather daily news, showing you everything from file sharing apps to one that can track airplanes flying by in the sky.

Shooting your own video for your investigation

Speaker: Steve Elfers

This one-hour session will be packed with video goodness and offers something for everyone, from the novice to those with a bit more experience. We'll cover:

*Video storytelling basics

*Shooting editable sequences

*Great sound on your mobile device

*iPhone video apps

*Making boring documents look cool

Easy to use visualization tools

Speakers: Cheryl Phillips, Joe Yerardi, Chloe Whiteaker

Data visualizations can be extremely useful as a tool for both the reporter and the reader. We'll introduce tools that are easy to use and available at little to no cost, from Google charts and Google Fusion maps to Tableau visualizations. No coding necessary, but we'll also demonstrate some other map and Javascript tools for those looking to expand the possible in their work.

INN Training: The latest on philanthropy for nonprofit news and media organizations

Speakers: Marie Gilot, Mark Hallett, Sue Hale, Charles Lewis

**Moderated by Charles Lewis

A roundtable discussion featuring experts in the national, community and topic-focused foundations and in the crowdfunding space. Mark Hallett of the McCormick Foundation, Sue Hale of the Ethics & Excellence in Journalism Foundation and Marie Gilot of the Knight Foundation will discuss the realities and strategies employed by successful nonprofit newsrooms and media organizations serving the public interest.

Juking the stats? Delve into your police department's FBI crime data to find flaws

Speakers: Ben Poston, Steve Thompson

If your police department has announced big crime drops, it may be time to take a closer look. Are they converting burglaries to vandalism, downgrading assaults, making it more difficult to report certain crimes, or creating whole new categories that don't make it into the stats that they report to the FBI? Ben and Steve will give you ideas on where to start your investigation.

Investigating health care with data

Speakers: David Donald, Jeff Donn

It's heavenly when public or commercial medical data are well standardized and comprehensive. Drugs come in standard names and common units, patient ages are given in years, the data represents the entire market. You can perform a few simple calculations in a spreadsheet or some straightforward queries in a database manager, and you're ready to hit the streets for reporting. With ever-more data at hand, though, many databases are messy or incomplete, often because they rely on entries by users. Working with such data can be hellish. But the right tools and approaches can save hours of time and frustration and help ensure accurate findings. Index tables, standardizing queries, customized coding scripts, year-to-year analysis, and other techniques and approaches can help uncover the gems buried in muddy data. In this session we'll discuss all of this and you'll see some of these suggestions put into practice for analyzing Medicare claims data used in "Cracking the Codes" the 2012 Philip Meyer Award winner.

Using technology in your investigation

Speakers: Alison Young, Megan Chuchmach

Technology created for other industries and other uses can provide crucial help to journalists working on projects, from the tracking feature in an iPad to high-tech scientific instruments that can allow you to do your own environmental sampling of soil. Hear about how panelists Alison Young and Megan Chuchmach have put technology to work in the name of journalism and get tips for staying out of trouble when reporters generate their own data.

Business investigations (Sponsored by Bloomberg)

Speakers: Rob Barry, David Heath, Todd Wallack

Businesses raise and spend trillions of dollars, build and tear down property, file for patents and copyrights, set up complex partnerships, sue and get sued, and otherwise file reams of documents every year. With all that activity, they leave plenty of marks for investigative journalists to follow. Take your stories beyond the usual sources and learn how to dig through bankruptcy documents, regulatory filings, lawsuits, and other helpful records.

Overview of the year in CAR

Speakers: Megan Luther, Mark Horvit

Be inspired and see what your colleagues have been up to with new data and creative analysis.

Compared to what? Using data to provide context on any beat

Speakers: Coulter Jones, Jessica Savage

Stop reporting isolated incidents and dig deeper into the broader trends encompassing your beat. Data is readily available that can improve reporting, from the hyper local in your community to the national or world stage. This panel will cover how beat reporters should approach incorporating data and where they can find it. We'll also show you what's available online and what questions you should ask to start requesting data from the agencies you deal with on a daily basis.

Sensor journalism (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Matthew Waite

The next great tool for data journalists? DIY sensor networks. From gathering environmental data to detecting a billion cicadas, journalists are just starting to explore using open hardware for journalism.

INN Training: Best-practice lightning round presentations

Six INN members will offer quick presentations on the following topics:

* Trevor Aaronson, FCIR - Turning data journalism into earned income

* Joe Bergantino, NECIR - Training as an income source (an update on last year's lightning round)

* Lorie Hearn, Investigative Newsource - On how inewsource and San Diego's public media station are developing a formula for telling investigative stories through radio, television, online, social media and beyond

* David Kaplan, GCIJ - Why you should be thinking globally

* Pam Dempsey, Investigate Midwest - Agribusiness as a topic for regional collaborations

* Adam Schweigert, INN - An updated on the Largo CMS

Following the presentations, there will be a 30-minute Q&A.

Free or cheap tools for wrangling data

Speakers: Tyler Dukes, T. Christian Miller

On a budget? Who isn't these days? But you don't have to spend a penny (or much) to own powerful and easy-to-use tools for gathering, analyzing and presenting data. We'll tell you about some of the most popular stuff available, from tools for handling and analyzing data to basics such as free spreadsheets, text editors and photo editing software.

Sneak peek of Caspio 8.0 Beta (Hosted by Caspio)

Speaker: Edward Garcia

See a preview of the latest features and redesigned user interface coming up in Caspio 8.0. With a modern new look, improved productivity, and exciting new features, this is our most monumental product release to date.

***Attendees receive a beta account for advanced access.***

Pre-registration is encouraged, as space is limited.  No previous Caspio experience is necessary.  Laptops will be provided. 

Squeaky wheels: Quick-hit and in-depth investigations from complaint data

Speakers: Jill Riepenhoff, Emily DeMarco

Let’s face it, people complain and as journalists, we love when they leave a public paper trail. Potholes. Bad manicures. Chain letters. Exploding toasters. Error-riddled credit reports. People complain about virtually everything. We’ll discuss stories we’ve done with complaint data and how to avoid potential landmines. We’ll show some cool data visualizations, tell you how we used complaints to investigate common nuisances and shadowy corporations, and hopefully inspire you to dig into the whiners and complainers in your neck of the woods.

DocumentCloud as an investigative tool (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Ted Han, Holly Hacker

With DocumentCloud, reporters can quickly organize and search hundreds (heck, thousands) of those pesky PDFs. It can also detect plagiarism. Learn how DocumentCloud helped one reporter find applications to open charter schools that contained identical passages.

Mapping for investigations

Speakers: Andrew Long, Ben Poston

From geocoding crime data to tracking Hurricane Sandy storm surges, mapping software is used by investigative journalists every day. This panel will showcase some stellar mapping projects and provide techniques to help you execute your next GIS-driven investigation and share your findings on the Web.

Inspect this

Speakers: Megan Luther, Russ Ptacek, James Drew

Uncover the gold mine of inspection data, get ideas and techniques on how to track inspectors at each level of government and walk away with story ideas to impress your boss at home.

Finding the needles in a million haystacks: How to build a thorough data-based investigation with inaccessible, incomprehensible, and indeterminate data

Speakers: Amanda Zamora, Robert Benincasa, Glenn Howatt

Data investigations are tough. They require in-depth analysis of complex datasets, perceptive ability to pull out the most interesting facts and trends, and thoughtful and accessible presentation. All of that is hard enough when crunching existing data -- but what happens when the information you're after is nowhere to be found and there is no established framework for how to present it? The journalists on this panel have built previously nonexistent databases that not only went on to serve as resources for other news organizations, but also received wide recognition for the complexity and scope of the investigations they required and have been awarded for their subsequent impact. Come hear them speak about how they built exhaustive data investigations from the ground up by scouring and fighting for facts, setting their own parameters of the investigation, and presenting the data in a way that gave their reporting longevity and credibility.

Demystifying mobile for investigations

Speakers: Miranda Mulligan, David Ho, Jeff Taylor

If you want your stories to have impact on a smart phone or tablet, but you're not sure how the work will translate, you're not alone. This session will break down how mobile and responsive web design are changing the way stories are told. What key things should you be thinking of and incorporating to help your investigation get the best play possible? We'll talk about storytelling for mobile, workflow, best practices and user-interface patterns that set you up for success.

INN Training: Maintaining independence: How the new nonprofit newsrooms can thrive in a time of partnerships, mergers and acquisitions

Speaker: Brant Houston

How does an investigative nonprofit newsroom keep its independence in a time of limited resources, increasing partnerships and even mergers and acquisitions? How to navigate the challenges when you are working with universities, public broadcasting and other collaborators. This panel will explore the choices that several leading INN organizations have made, and break down the benefits and pitfalls of each approach. Brant Houston moderator, roundtable of Margie Frievogel, Laura Frank, Lorie Hearn, Joe Bergantino and Andy Hall with lots of audience participation.

Tableau Public for Pros (Hosted by Tableau Software)

Speaker: Mike Klaczynski

Take your data visualization skills to the next level. In this class we'll push Tableau's capabilities further to create more complex visualizations. You'll learn how to:

*Clean and format dirty data

*Use multiple data sources in the same visualization

*Build more advanced visualizations

*Employ advanced interactive elements

Tableau Public is a free tool for journalists. Class participants should have some experience with Tableau or have taken the morning beginner course. Pre-registration is required for Tableau for Pros, you must be registered for the conference to attend. Limited seating is available. Laptops will be provided.

IRE Board Meeting

The IRE Board of Directors will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday in San Antonio as part of the annual conference. The meeting is open to all IRE members.

Demo: New Caspio Map Mashup Wizard (Hosted by Caspio)

Speaker: Edward Garcia

Caspio's new Map Mashup Wizard (v7) automates Google map integration in a single wizard and now includes custom icons and interactive filtering. Topics covered:

*Integrating a searchable database with Google Maps

*Adding custom icons and filters based on criteria

*Combining data sources on a single map

Pre-registration is encouraged, as space is limited. No previous Caspio experience is necessary. Laptops will be provided.

Performance enhancing drugs

Speakers: Michael Fish, T.J. Quinn, Jeff Donn

Performance-enhancing drugs are again dominating the headlines in sports. Learn how to dig into stories that can be hard to break, build sources, mine documents and report on a topic that reaches from high school to the pros.

Going beyond the obvious: Creative uses for data

Speakers: Ryann Grochowski, Margot Williams

Data is not just for analyzing, sorting and filtering. We'll share the best databases for finding sources, uncovering contact information, investigating relationships -- and how to get them. Great for beginners or anyone who wants to see spreadsheets in a new light.

The doctor is in: Diagnosing dirty data

Speakers: Jaimi Dowdell, Jennifer LaFleur,

Dirty data lurk everywhere: in text files, spreadsheets, databases, and PDFs. Dirty data stand between you and a good story. Sometimes you can't import a text file into a database manager without errors, or you can't sort a spreadsheet like you want to. We'll talk about some of the most common types of dirty data, some things to look out for, and some good tricks for dealing with those problems.

We'll follow this panel up with two hands-on sessions later in the conference. In the first session, we'll walk you through some common dirty data and show you how to clean it up yourself. The second hands-on class is an open lab. In it, we invite you to bring in your dirty data. We'll take their temperature, check their blood pressure, and help you figure out how to turn them into healthy data, ready for analysis.

Financing and accounting for journalists

Speakers: Roddy Boyd, David Cay Johnston

Cash is king. Enterprise reporters should know how (some) companies play games and use misleading language to present an image of economic strength and flexibility. However, just because the cash line in the balance sheet appears impressive doesn't mean the business is healthy or that its apparently rosy assurances to investors and the press are likely to come true.

Spycraft (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Steve Doig

Keeping your sources and your secrets safe from prying eyes - This session will cover the use of cryptography, spoofing caller ID, anonymous email, throwaway phones, steganography (that's not a typo) and other covert techniques for communicating with sources without leaving a trail.

From big to small: How to integrate data projects into the newsroom

Speakers: Becca Aaronson, Ryan Murphy, Reese Dunklin, Matt Jacob, Shawn McIntosh

**Moderated by Shawn McIntosh

Data can add context to stories, drive investigative projects and result in standalone interactive applications. In this session we'll discuss ways data and data-based projects can be incorporated into work throughout the newsroom. We'll look at case studies involving reporters and data journalists from The Dallas Morning News and Texas Tribune.

INN Training: Evaluation in a box

Breakout sessions will include the following topics:

* Branding and membership - Mary Walter Brown and Summer Polacek of Voice of San Diego

* Quantifying the impact of your journalism - Lauren Fuhrmann of Wisconsin Watch and Jason Alcorn of InvestigateWest

* Data as a source of collaboration - speakers to be announced

Mapping and user-generated data (Hosted by Caspio)

Speaker: Edward Garcia

This session is a continuation of the Map Mashup demo (at 2:30 p.m.) and showcases the power of hyper-local applications with user-generated data. Topics covered:

*User data submissions with photo resizing

*Capturing geo-location data from web and mobile devices

*Integrating user-generated data with mapping

*Content flagging and approval policies

Pre-registration is encouraged, as space is limited. No previous Caspio experience is necessary. Laptops will be provided.

The power of social media: Geolocation for news

Speakers: Glenn Anderson, Mark Luckie, Doug Haddix, Jennifer Peck

**Moderated by Doug Haddix

A bomb explodes, and your newsroom kicks into breaking news mode to find witnesses quickly. Or your investigation requires a source in another country, and you've had no luck tracking anyone down. New tools are harnessing social media feeds and allowing you to tap into conversations around the world. In this panel, we'll discuss how to utilize geolocation tools to beef-up your coverage and find sources fast during breaking news.

The top 10 ways of ranking things

Speakers: Doug Smith, Daniel Lathrop

From the profound to the banal readers love ratings and rankings. This will go into the nitty gritty of how to use statically valid, well reported rankings that actually say something important to our readers. Learn about the techniques The Dallas Morning News used in its just-completed, comprehensive ranking of neighborhood livability and The Los Angeles Times used in its Meyer Award-winning rating of teacher performance.

Why you (and your shop) need data

Speakers: Jaimi Dowdell, Stephen Stock, Christopher Schnaars

Data may be a four-letter word, but it doesn't have to be scary. We'll demystify the hows and whys of data and show that by incorporating it into your work you can take stories to the next level whether you're in broadcast, print or online-only. You'll leave this session with a game plan and plenty of quick-turn ideas you can work on right away.

Data negotiations: Getting around obstacles

Speakers: David Herzog, Joseph Larsen, Corbin Carson

Getting any record can be tough, but wrangling data can introduce even more challenges. We'll give you some tools and tips for getting data out of government agencies, no matter how difficult, and whether or not it's digitized. We'll dig in on the latest excuses for denial and barriers to access and lastly, we'll look at a case study of how News21 obtained data for a recent project on voter fraud.

Criminal justice: Guns (Sponsored by Criminal Justice Journalists)

Speakers: Raquel Rutledge, Gerardo Reyes, Ted Gest

**Moderated by Ted Gest

The Newtown massacre and other mass shootings have prompted much more media interest in guns. What stories should journalists be doing on the key issues--background checks, gun trafficking, enforcement of current laws, and the use of guns in self-defense, to name several.

Investigative storytelling in radio

Speakers: Sandra Bartlett, John Ryan

Producing investigative stories on radio can be difficult but the results can be powerful and compelling. Learn the practical elements that make good radio: how to interview for radio, how to get the sounds and scenes you need to take the listener to the location, different equipment for different situations and how to tell a compelling story when the story is complicated and you have very little tape. Join John Ryan of KUOW in Seattle and Sandra Bartlett formerly with NPR in Washington for this how-to session.

Introducing Tabula: A PDF data extractor (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Mike Tigas

Tabula is a free, open source tool that allows you to easily take data out of pesky PDF files and into Excel, database programs, and web applications. An overview of the project (including progress on new features) will be followed by a walkthrough and tutorial.

Embedding data and maps into the minds of readers: An Esri Community Analyst and Mapping platform experience (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Ingrid Lobet, Brian Peterson, Yang Wang

The Houston Chronicle’s data team shares insights on mining data and visualizing it through maps to increase reader interaction and interest with important investigative stories.

You've got the data, where's the story? How to find interesting patterns and do analysis

Speakers: Daniel Keating, Jacob Fenton

You can master spreadsheets and databases, scripting and frameworks, but that’s not the same as doing analysis. Where is the story hiding in that new data? Here are some practical steps and mental approaches for sculpting that masterpiece out of the block of granite.

How to use ProPublica's data in your reporting

Speakers: Al Shaw, Jennifer LaFleur

ProPublica publishes lots of data sets. From stimulus projects to nursing home inspection reports to pharma payments to doctors, the data is chock full of great local stories. At this panel, we'll demo a few of our recent news applications and walk reporters through how they can use them to find leads for stories.

Criminal justice: Prisons (Sponsored by Criminal Justice Journalists)

Speakers: Mike Ward, Jessica Pupovac, Scott Henson, Ted Gest, Kirk Mitchell

**Moderated by Ted Gest

Crime is falling and so is the prison population, but only in some places. How are states trying to save money on incarceration costs, and is it working, or endangering the public? How can journalists get access to prisons and get the information we need?

Broadcast: Surveillance - Learning from the pros

Speakers: Tony Kovaleski, Kelly Riddle,

What can private investigators teach investigative reporters about legal, ethical and effective surveillance techniques? What are the similarities and differences in surveillance by a private investigator and an investigative reporter? Bring your questions. Bring your scenario. Contribute to the conversation.

In God's name: Investigating religion (Sponsored by Religion Newswriters Association)

Speakers: Bill Lobdell, Bob Smietana, Abraham Levy

**Moderated by Abe Levy

Reporters face unique challenges in unpacking the complexities of religion, its people and institutions. Accessing records of these private communities doesn't fall under open records laws and getting a spectrum of insiders to talk -- sometimes critically -- about their faith requires deft navigation. Meanwhile, doctrines and religious histories are themselves perplexing but needed to accurately couch the context of faith stories. Two veteran religion reporters will share insight on how they cover this beat with an emphasis on dishing out practical tools and tips.

INN Training: A conversation with Google's Dave Gehring

Speakers: David Gehring, Kevin Davis

**Moderated by Kevin Davis

According to Google's Dave Gehring, the person now responsible at Google for engaging the news media and having them leverage the full-suite of Google products, "the economics for news is increasingly looking stronger." INN's Kevin Davis will have a one-on-one conversation with Dave and explore why and what Google is doing to help. Q&A to follow.

Opening Night Reception (Sponsored by Esri)

Kick off the conference with a welcome reception on Thursday night beginning at 6 p.m. Meet up with friends you have not seen since last year and welcome new attendees. Enjoy the music of the Texas State University Mariachis during the reception.

IRE Sales Table (Friday)

Stop by the IRE sales table and take a look at our merchandise. We will be selling books, including the newest title in the IRE beat book series. The large selection of titles we carry will certainly include your interests. All proceeds from your purchase help support IRE and its mission.

IRE Conference Registration (Friday)

Registration will be located on the 3rd floor of the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

Use FOIA Machine to prepare, send and track your public records requests (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Coulter Jones, Djordje Padejski

FOIA Machine aids journalists and citizens in accessing important government documents around the world that are covered by freedom of information laws. Speakers will demonstrate how journalists can use the platform in regular work and make the FOIA process more successful and organized.

FOIA Machine is a new open source Web platform for preparing and managing FOI requests at all government levels. It helps users navigate FOI laws by automating submissions, creating requests in the proper format, making documents publicly available on the Web, and using the Web to rally support when governments are unresponsive.

Soldiers stories: Military investigations

Speakers: Tony Plohetski, Carl Prine, Sig Christenson, Aaron Glantz

**Moderated by Sig Christenson

It's notoriously difficult to get information out of military officials. But it's possible to get past them -- you just need to know where to look. This panel will discuss how to obtain military records, develop sources and protect whistleblowers. Speakers will also share their techniques on obtaining classified and non-classified documents.

Completing the puzzle: Integrating video, data analysis, visuals and more in a collaboration

Speakers: Pamela Dempsey, Fernando Diaz, Joanne Faryon, Brad Racino, Mc Nelly Torres

**Moderated by Mc Nelly Torres

Collaborations are all about compromise, innovation and making deadlines. Hear from IRE Award winners and finalists of the Multiplatform-small category as they discuss how they were able to weave many elements into impactful investigations told through various mediums.

The year in investigative reporting

Speakers: Megan Luther, Mark Horvit

Pick up some story ideas and be inspired with the highlights of some of the year's best investigations.

Broadcast: Ask the lawyers

Speakers: Amanda Leith, Lee Williams, Andrew Siegel, Kathleen Johnston

**Moderated by Kathleen Johnston

The legal minefield for investigative reporting is ever-changing. Bring your questions and scenarios to some of the best in the business who work full time on First Amendment, access and Freedom of Information issues every day. These attorneys do a lot more than play defense -- parrying libel/defamation challenges and threats of legal action. They play offense -- helping reporters ferret out the truth and get on the air.

Excel 1

Speaker: Jill Riepenhoff

Introduction to data analysis with Excel, a simple but powerful spreadsheet application. In this session you'll learn some of the basic go-to calculations and you'll master sorting to help find stories and questions in data.

Mapping 1: Displaying data geographically with ArcGIS

Speaker: David Herzog

In this introductory class attendees will learn how to display data geographically with ArcGIS.

Investigating incentives

Speakers: David Cay Johnston, Greg LeRoy

With high unemployment making politicians anxious and deals that could create jobs still depressed, the subsidy-fueled economic war among the states is on steroids. This session will thumbnail a few recent exemplary investigations involving data on economic development incentives, campaign cash, and interstate job flight (real and threatened).

Bad medicine: Healthcare investigations (Sponsored by The Amarillo Independent)

Speakers: Rhiannon Meyers, Joseph Neff, Alison Young, Christina Jewett

**Moderated by Alison Young

We're taught to follow the money. But health care is so much more complicated than that. In this session you'll get a nuts and bolts explainer about health care finance including profitable non-profit hospitals; huge markups on drugs and services; and the use of collection agencies and lawsuits to hound patients. You'll learn how understanding incentives is a crucial step to power-packed health care investigations, and finally, you'll come away with tips on data, documents and how to approach the people at the heart of these stories.

Investigating after a disaster

Speakers: Will Van Sant, Paul Monies, Brett Shipp, Sally Kestin, Scott Keenan

**Moderated by Sally Kestin

What can you do now to be ready for the next bridge collapse, explosion, tornado or devastating storm? Learn tips and tricks to offer the best coverage possible, as well as ideas for making your coverage stand out from the competition. We’ll look at creative angles for new story ideas and discuss how panelists have tackled investigations of disasters in their own communities.

The great divide: Investigating income inequality

Speakers: David Cay Johnston, Paul Overberg

Income inequality zoomed into the headlines with the Occupy movement and the 2012 presidential campaign, but most coverage was more about heat than light. Talk of an "income gap" or "the 99%" obscures a complicated reality and ignores most of the story -- trends in the middle class. Income inequality is growing in many places, shrinking in others. Its pace and texture vary. Some causes are global and national, some are local. Come learn better ways to cover a complex story, including how journalists did recent stories and data tools you can use to analyze local trends.

Transparency: Getting past "No" when government pushes back (Sponsored by Rockefeller Brothers Fund)

Speakers: Jack Gillum, David Jackson, Angela Galloway, Jennifer LaFleur

**Moderated by Jennifer LaFleur

Learn strategies for getting stubborn government officials to hand over public records and data you need to enlighten the public. The panelists will discuss how to overcome denials, delay tactics and exorbitant fees. Learn strategies to convince officials to say “Yes!”

Cracking corporate corruption at Wal-Mart (Sponsored by Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism)

Speakers: Leonard Downie, Jr, David Barstow, Alejandra Xanic Von Bertrab

**Moderated by Leonard Downie Jr.

David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab's investigation into corruption in the world's biggest retailer won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and an IRE Award. Barstow's initial story on how Wal-Mart covered up its use of bribery to fuel its Mexican expansion also won the 2012 Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Business Journalism. They will discuss how they obtained hundreds of confidential company documents and how they also used Mexico's Freedom of Information Act.

Polling primer: Vetting and writing about public opinion polls (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Scott Clement

Polls are published at an unprecedented tick, allowing journalists to understand public opinion in greater depth than ever. But the growing number and variety of surveys also requires reporters and editors to be sharper in judging which surveys are reliable and how to report results accurately. This seminar will explain how today's polls work, what questions to ask when evaluating quality and how to paint an accurate and compelling portrait of public opinion.

Mapping 2: Importing and selecting data by attribute with ArcGIS

Speaker: Kevin Crowe

Learn how to bring data into ArcGIS and select data by attributes.

Excel 2

Speaker: Anupama Narayanswamy

In this hands-on session you'll learn how to calculate ratios and rates with a spreadsheet and simple but powerful formulas.

Breaking silence within communities (Sponsored by New America Media)

Speakers: Ngoc Nguyen, Rong Xiaoqing, Johanes Rosello, Sandy Close

**Moderated by Sandy Close

Speaking truth to community--as many reporters working in ethnic and community media know-- can be as dangerous as speaking truth to power. Yet these are also the journalists best positioned to challenge their own communities. This workshop features investigative reporters whose stories have broken silence within their communities about taboo topics.

From your notebook to Barnes & Noble: Turning your reporting into a book

Speakers: Jim Hornfischer, David Patterson, Trevor Aaronson, Steve Weinberg

**Moderated by Steve Weinberg

Turning a piece of journalism into a superb book requires lots of knowledge and lots of labor...and is frequently extremely satisfying. Journalists who have become book authors and literary agents who have helped make that happen address your concerns and answer the questions they did not anticipate at the start of the session.

The best of broadcast: Stories from behind the camera

Speaker: Tisha Thompson

Watch and listen as more than a dozen photographers, editors and producers behind this year's winning entries describe how they did it and what they were really thinking when things got hard.

Reporting amid danger: When journalists are targeted and newsrooms are infiltrated

Speakers: Tim Johnson, Gaston Monge Estrada, Andrew Donohue, Rana Sabbagh

**Moderated by Andrew Donohue

From Mexico to the Middle East, journalists are risking their lives daily to cover some of the most important stories in the world. How do the threats they face alter the work they do, what steps can be taken to minimize the risk, and how do you operate when those in your own newsroom may secretly be working for the organizations you cover?

Broadcast Show and Tell (Friday)

Show-and-Tell sessions offer new ways to share your investigations with colleagues from around the country. Sessions will have veteran broadcasters as moderators. Look for sign-up sheets on the 3rd floor near registration.

Sessions take place in conference rooms 17-18 on Friday and Saturday.

Banjo: Real time, location based content discovery across social networks (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Jennifer Peck

Banjo is the largest real time, location based social graph that brings you anywhere in the world (a place, concert, sporting event, breaking news, etc) and shows a real time feed of what's happening through the people who are actually there.

Pitch your work: Meetings with agents

Speakers: Jim Hornfischer, David Patterson

Literary agents are always looking for a story that the reader simply can't put down. You'll have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with an agent and pitch your idea. Slots are limited. To sign up, look for the sheet near the registration desk. First come, first served.

Why does college cost so much and where does the money go?

Speakers: Scott Thurm, Holly Hacker, Janet Lorin, Philip Kuntz

The costs for higher education have skyrocketed. Veteran reporters will explain what documents, data and stories you should be examining to dig deeper on your local universities. How significant are rising administrative costs? How can you monitor the bureaucracy at your local college? Learn about a federal database with financial data on colleges and universities and more.

Enterprise on the education beat

Speakers: Kevin Crowe, Mc Nelly Torres, Will Evans, Michael LaForgia

**Moderated by Mc Nelly Torres

This session will discuss how to get beyond the fuzzy education anecdotes and investigate your local school districts. Topics will include a discussion of creative documents and story ideas; how to download and crunch school data; where to look for stories on waste and mismanagement – and even corruption – in school districts and more.

Policing the police: Investigating law enforcement

Speakers: Nate Carlisle, Sally Kestin, Lawrence Mower III, Shawn McIntosh

**Moderated by Shawn McIntosh

Police officers are supposed to uphold the law, but sometimes they break it -- and get away with it. Learn how to uncover criminal conduct among law enforcement using data analysis, open records laws and shoe-leather reporting.

Broadcast: Quick-hit investigations

Speakers: Nanci Wilson, James Strickland, Jeremy Rogalski

Where to find the investigative angle and dimension to daily or weekly topical news reports. Contributing to your news team's reporting on a regular basis. Bringing interviews, video and information other general assignment reporters don't have the time or training to produce.

In the name of charity: Investigating nonprofits

Speakers: Ziva Branstetter, Kris Hundley, Robert Cribb, Kendall Taggart

**Moderated by Rob Cribb

From victim compensation funds to breast cancer charities, billions of dollars a year are donated by the public to non-profit groups. We'll talk about tools for tracking the money, untapped documents beyond the basic 990 form and data to identify red flags for fraud. You'll leave with at least 10 solid tips and resources for taking on an investigation of your own. A timely bonus: We will touch on ways to localize the national IRS controversy in your coverage area and discuss this evolving area of non-profit law so you are up to speed.

Managers: Editing and storytelling for all platforms

Speakers: David Boardman, Stephen Engelberg, Matt Stiles

To maximize the impact of an investigative project or exclusive reporting on breaking news, the results must be presented effectively on multiple platforms. What steps should a manager take to make sure that great journalism translates to great presentation in text, video, audio, interactives, on everything from a desktop to a tablet? And how can Twitter and other social media be used to your best advantage? Hear how some successful multiplatform projects have come together and how you can plan for such success.

Media lawyers brown bag

Speakers: Steve Chung, Steve Fogle, Angela Galloway, Joseph Larsen, Amanda Leith

Does your investigation contain complex legal questions? Unsure of how to proceed? During the media lawyers brown bag, between noon and 1 p.m. on Friday, June 21, bring your lunch and your questions for a personal discussion with some prominent media law experts that will be presenting throughout the 2013 IRE Conference. We'll provide drinks and dessert.

The data-driven story (Part 1) Conceiving and launching

Speakers: David Donald, Jennifer LaFleur, Brant Houston

**Moderated by Brant Houston

These three sessions will show how to take a data driven story from start to finish and includes long time practitioners as speakers. Using a specific U.S. federal database, the team of journalists will cover how to check a database for its flaws and omissions, analyze it and find stories out of it, add reporting and precision editing for the stories, and work to visualize the information and data not only for presentation, but also to elicit more tips and ideas from the public.

Excel 3

Speaker: Ryann Grochowski

In this hands-on class you’ll learn how to find information quickly with filters and discover the magic of pivot tables as you summarize your data using spreadsheets.

Access 1 with the query grid

Speakers: Tisha Thompson,

In this introduction to database managers you’ll learn how to filter and select the items you choose in a database using Microsoft Access’s simple point-and-click query grid.

Investigating the rich

Speakers: Mimi Swartz, Lise Olsen, Bill Dedman

**Moderated by Lise Olsen

How to unearth the stories and secrets of the nation’s elite by mining luxurious parties, probate battles, fortune hunters, trust busters, high-priced lawyers, bankruptcy and white collar court records and obscure archives.

Paying the bills: The financial argument for investigative reporting

Speakers: Evan Smith, Jim Moroney III, Robert Rosenthal

**Moderated by Robert Rosenthal

Investigative reporting is expensive -- we've heard it for years, and it's the reason many organizations say they don't do more of it. But a growing number of news organizations are proving that enterprise work pays off in multiple ways, including on the bottom line. Evan Smith, CEO of the Texas Tribune, has built a successful nonprofit based on enterprise journalism, and Jim Moroney, CEO of The Dallas Morning News, has maintained the commitment to investigative work through tough financial times. Join them and moderator Robert Rosenthal, who has guided the growing success of the Center for Investigative Reporting, for a discussion of why investigative reporting makes financial sense.

Shooting your own video for your investigation (repeat session)

Speaker: Steve Elfers

This one-hour session will be packed with video goodness and offers something for everyone, from the novice to those with a bit more experience. We'll cover:

*Video storytelling basics

*Shooting editable sequences

*Great sound on your mobile device

*iPhone video apps

*Making boring documents look cool

Environmental investigations

Speakers: Ingrid Lobet, David Sheppard, Lisa Song, James Morris

**Moderated by David Sheppard

We'll discuss investigations on common practices that lead to harmful exposures, the country’s first major spill of Canadian tar sands oil, worker safety, and little-known government scenarios for industrial accidents. Expect tips for finding the right scientists, organizing and surviving multimedia partner investigations and obtaining and analyzing data. We’ll spotlight datasets reporters may not know about and explain how to build powerful stories from them.

The global financial trail: Following the money (Sponsored by Bloomberg)

Speakers: Inga Springe, David Kaplan, Michael Hudson, Leo Sisti

**Moderated by David Kaplan

In a world where the bad guys move money, people, and contraband at the push of a button, how do journalists follow the trail of dirty cash across borders? Here are journalists from three countries who have tracked front companies, offshore accounts, and the Vatican bank around the globe.

Investigating human rights violations

Speakers: Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz, John Sutter, Edythe McNamee, Josh Meyer

*Moderated by Josh Meyer

From the factories of Bangladesh to the modern day slave trade in West Africa, the panelists have explored some of the world's worst human rights atrocities. They'll discuss methods to explore rights violations and ways to bring the stories home to your audience.

Defending against surveillance with the Tor Project (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Karen Reilly

Governments, criminal networks, and private companies are using technology to track journalists and their sources. This session will cover what communication networks and third party services know about you, how to protect your communications from various adversaries, and how to safely store data.

Shell companies and fraud: An investigative primer

Speaker: Kelly Carr

Unraveling financial schemes often involves tracing a myriad of corporations incorporated across the country and sometimes around the world.

Corporate entities called shells -- companies with no significant assets or operations -- and the people involved with them are often at the center of plots ranging from bogus investment firms to money-laundering endeavors to pump-and-dump stock scams.

This session will also help you understand the characteristics of shell companies, their legitimate and illegitimate purposes in the business sector, and methods for backgrounding and connecting intricate webs of firms and individuals scattered around the globe. You'll gain tools for tracking corporate investigations in your coverage area.

Whistleblowers and leaks -- Protecting sources

Speakers: Angie Moreschi, Pia Malbran, David Corn

Well-placed sources who leak information -- from emails to audio and video tape -- have long been key to watchdog journalism. But a host of issues come with working with such sources: How do you confirm that the tape or the document is real? How can you cultivate sources and protect those who work with you at great personal risk? Learn about the steps you should take from panelists who have dealt with high profile cases, from corporate and government whisteblowers to the source of the Mitt Romney "47 percent" speech tape.

PACER - Best practices for electronic access to federal cases (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Eydie Flores, Anna Marie Garcia

Staff members from the PACER Service Center will perform a demo of the PACER service. The demonstration will provide information on the types of information available on-line from the Federal Courts and the best, most cost effective ways to use PACER. In addition, other public access services offered by the Federal Judiciary will be discussed.

The data-driven story (Part 2) Putting the package together

Speakers: Maud Beelman, Brant Houston

These three sessions will show how to take a data driven story from start to finish and includes long time practitioners as speakers. Using a specific U.S. federal database, the team of journalists will cover how to check a database for its flaws and omissions, analyze it and find stories out of it, add reporting and precision editing for the stories, and work to visualize the information and data not only for presentation, but also to elicit more tips and ideas from the public.

Getting data into Excel

Speaker: Jessica Pupovac

In the real world, your key dataset probably isn’t going to come in an easy-to-use package. This hands-on session will cover how to import data into Excel from a variety of formats.

Broadcast: Does it work? Is it broken? Testing products/testing systems

Speakers: Amy Davis, Chris Hansen, Michael Rey

How top reporters construct their own tests to prove systems or products are significantly less than what they claim.

Getting records in the U.S., Mexico and beyond, by any means necessary (Sponsored by Rockefeller Brothers Fund)

Speakers: Lise Olsen, Alejandra Xanic Von Bertrab, Maria Idalia Gomez

How to use source development, negotiating skills and laws to obtain public records as well as documents from private individuals and from alternative types of archives in the United States, Mexico and beyond.

Access 2 with the query grid

Speaker: David Donald

Learn how to summarize your data with summing and counting. This session will use Microsoft Access’s point-and-click query grid.

Managers: Coordinating an investigative team

Speakers: Greg Borowski, Mike Leary, Sharon Rosenhause, Richard Esposito

**Moderated by Sharon Rosenhause

Can any of the great reporters on this team tweet?

Coordinating the team from idea to planning to staffing to execution to social media is more challenging than ever given competition for resources, new platforms and non-traditional content. How some of America's best newsrooms and universities are building and managing investigative teams. A panel of editors who have led teams in print, broadcast and online talk about what works and what doesn't.

 

 

Investigating political shenanigans

Speakers: Bill Allison, Manny Garcia, Jay Root

With fewer journalists covering state houses and city halls, there's more room for elected officials to misbehave. Learn from veteran political reporters who have uncovered their share of corruption and Machiavellian machinations and lived to tell about it.

Excel magic - Advanced functions in Excel

Speakers: Christopher Schnaars

Dirty, disorganized databases getting you down? Electronic records rarely come the way you want them--especially when dealing with government agencies. But Excel has some very powerful, easy-to-use tools to give you back control over how you want your spreadsheet to look. Never spend hours cutting and pasting again, or haggling with a PIO. In this hands-on class we'll show you some great tricks that will forever change the way you deal with data.

Access 3 with the query grid

Speaker: Aaron Kessler

One of the most powerful features of a database manager is the ability to join tables. In this hands-on class you’ll learn how to join tables using Microsoft Access’s point-and-click query grid.

Surveillance, privacy and hackers

Speakers: Josh Meyer, James Bamford, Dune Lawrence, Julia Angwin

**Moderated by Josh Meyer

A very timely panel that will delve into the explosive new disclosures of widespread surveillance by the National Security Agency, the FBI and other U.S. authorities, as well as hacking into government--and media--computers by China and other state and non-state actors. These aren't just issues for reporters in Washington; you can cover them wherever you are. The panel will also discuss important issues of privacy, civil liberties and computer security, both for the public and for journalists, including how to cover all of these important issues, with tips from some of the best reporters in the business on these beats.

Writing the investigative memoir

Speakers: Alfredo Corchado, Cecilia Balli, Sandra Rodriguez Nieto

Sometimes the best way to tell an investigative story is through the eye of a single character -- or from your own point of view. Three master reporters who specialize in the border and in Mexico reveal what it's like -- and when it's best -- to turn an investigative eye inward or try to view life from the point of view of a dead teenaged murderer.

Getting skeptical sources to talk

Speakers: Michael Isikoff, Raquel Rutledge, Manny Garcia

**Moderated by Manny Garcia

It's one of the toughest challenges any journalist faces: getting sources who don't want to talk to you, who sometimes probably shouldn't talk to you, to open up. Two of the best in the business -- Serge Kovaleski of The New York Times and Michael Isikoff of NBC -- talk about how they've gotten reluctant sources to speak, and how you can too.

The data-driven story (Part 3): Bulletproofing and presentation

Speakers: David Donald, Mark Greenblatt, Jennifer LaFleur, Brant Houston, Cheryl Phillips

**Moderated by Brant Houston

These three sessions will show how to take a data driven story from start to finish and includes long time practitioners as speakers. Using a specific U.S. federal database, the team of journalists will cover how to check a database for its flaws and omissions, analyze it and find stories out of it, add reporting and precision editing for the stories, and work to visualize the information and data not only for presentation, but also to elicit more tips and ideas from the public.

Exploring the Investigative Dashboard (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Miranda Patrucic

Learn how you can find all sorts of international data using The Investigative Dashboard, or ID. It's a space for investigators to find resources, share information, and learn new ‘tricks of the trade’.

Broadcast: Hidden cameras

Speakers: Joel Grover, Cindy Galli, Robert Powell

In the age of the iPhone and the Go-Pro, what constitutes a hidden camera and how is it used to produce great investigations?

Search rodeo: Strategies, engines and databases for investigative reporting

Speakers: Barbara Gray, Margot Williams

Google’s not the only search game in town. Learn about search sites that provide different pools of information and unique features. Hear about resources to help with people finding, fact-checking and social search in the surface and the deep Web. Veteran researchers Barbara Gray and Margot Williams will share tips about finding and evaluating new search tools.

Criminal justice: Immigration (Sponsored by Criminal Justice Journalists)

Speakers: Alicia Caldwell, Susan Carroll, Jeremy Roebuck, Ted Gest, John Sandweg

**Moderated by Ted Gest

As Congress debates a potential overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, how does the criminal justice system now deal with those alleged to be in the U.S. illegally? How does the Secure Communities program work, what is the status of deportations, how are federal, state, and local authorities either cooperating or not cooperating in enforcing the law?

Prosecutorial misconduct

Speakers: Christopher Scott, Pamela Colloff, Steve Weinberg, Russell Wilson

**Moderated by Steve Weinberg

Local prosecutors exercise nearly untrammeled power, power this is frequently examined superficially if at all by local journalists. The result in hundreds of U.S. jurisdictions--frequent miscarriages of justice and even some wrongful convictions. How can reporters and editors identify the miscarriages of justice in the early stages? Hear journalists, prosecutors and the wrongfully convicted explain.

Mining large document sets with Overview (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Jonas Karlsson

You succeeded in getting those 50,000 emails. Your FOIA request came back with a three foot stack of paper. Your editor just told you to summarize every tweet about gun control in the last month. Now what? Overview is an open-source document handling tool designed to organize, visualize and explore large sets of text documents. It uses natural language processing to automatically read the full text of all documents, then sort them into topic-based folders. More than just a search engine, Overview can help you find stories you didn't even know you were missing.

You've got it; Should you post it?

Speakers: Steve Doig, Matthew Waite, Sarah Cohen, Steve Fogle

**Moderated by Sarah Cohen

Mug shots, gun licenses, public employee salaries – the thorny question of whether, and how, to publish individual data acquired through public records reared its head again this year. We’ll tackle questions including: if it’s public, why not make it really public?  How much context is enough? And what should you consider before you press the “publish” button?

Showcase Panel: The government's war on leaks

Speakers: James Bamford, Lucy Dalglish, Michael Oreskes, Leonard Downie, Jr, Quinn Norton

**Moderated by Leonard Downie Jr.

The Obama Administration's efforts to track down, punish and stop information leaks to the news media raises serious questions about access to information needed to report on the federal government and hold its officials and activities accountable to citizens. We examine the records of this and past administrations and discuss how reporters can continue their watchdog work.

Broadcast: From pile of paper to compelling TV

Speakers: Lee Zurik, Phil Williams, Brett Shipp

Some of the best document hounds around show documents can in fact be sexy TV. For anyone who ever heard "that's a great newspaper story" and refused to believe it couldn't also be great TV.

IRE Sales Table (Saturday)

Stop by the IRE sales table and take a look at our merchandise. We will be selling books, including the newest title in the IRE beat book series. The large selection of titles we carry will certainly include your interests. All proceeds from your purchase help support IRE and its mission.

IRE Conference Registration (Saturday)

Registration will be located on the 3rd floor of the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.

SQL 1 using Access

Speaker: Jennifer LaFleur

This class is good for those who want an introduction to database managers or want to get into the world of Structured Query Language (SQL). SQL allows you to interview your data with some simple statements called queries. SQL also gives you more control over your queries and allows you to work in other software beyond Microsoft Access using the language. In this introductory class you'll use Select, From and Where statements to select items from the data and filter on certain criteria.

Out of order: Investigating the judicial system

Speakers: Brad Heath, Christine Willmsen, Brandi Grissom

Do your courts deliver on the promise of justice? We'll show you the data, documents, and sources you can use to check up on how judges, prosecutors, and others are doing their jobs. We'll walk through some of the sources and techniques that helped us expose shortcomings at the local and national levels. And we'll show you how you can make sense of that impenetrable (and sometimes incomprehensible) world for your audience.

Producing killer profiles in the instant news cycle

Speakers: Serge Kovaleski, Richard Pienciak, Margot Williams

When a big story breaks and you've got to background a key player, what do you do? Who are they? What's their story? And how do you filter through all the online noise to find accurate information?

Investigating breaking news

Speakers: Arwa Damon, Chris Davis, Scott Friedman, Dave Harmon

**Moderated by Dave Harmon

Tips and strategies for bringing an investigative edge to big breaking-news stories, including how to develop a story in real time while using documents, databases, readers, and innovative tools to own the story on air, in print and online.

Intro to stats with Excel

Speaker: Steve Doig

You don't need a fancy pants program to compute several different sorts of statistics. In this session, you'll learn how to compute basic descriptive statistics in Excel. You'll also learn how to run correlations and regressions in Excel.

Developing your own bulletproof methodology

Speakers: Ellen Gabler, Jim Heaney, Amy Pyle

Make sure your investigations can withstand intense scrutiny and unexpected blowback. We’ll discuss how to plan reporting and editing to build an airtight methodology that even people being written about will agree is solid. Panelists will explain how to use scientific studies, government policies, sources and data to do authoritative investigations. Hear tips on how to stay organized while fact checking and editing throughout the process so there are no last-minute surprises.

My friend FRED: Using fed data tools to add context to stories (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Keith Taylor

An introduction to Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' signature economics database, with easy directions for journalists to tap into it to add context to their stories related to the economy. FRED contains more than 60,000 frequently updated sets of data, ranging from consumer price indexes to regional (metropolitan statistical area) housing charts and unemployment rates. It allows users to automatically compare the data over varying periods of time in customizable charts, and then easily incorporate those charts into print or Web publications.

Covering drug trafficking from Mexico to your community

Speakers: Jason Buch, Angela Kocherga, Jorge Luis Sierra

How does drug trafficking play out in Main Street America – or main street in Mexico? Ways to find local stories by following leads provided by federal court documents, government officials (and ex-officials), attorneys and other experts, public records in the U.S. and abroad, local sources and on the ground reporting.

Immigration: Stories away from the border

Speakers: Fernando Diaz, Lewis Kamb, Daniel Connolly

Some of the best immigration stories come from examining ethnic communities, businesses, organizations and individuals wherever you live in America. How to find tips, sources, documents and follow these great international stories without ever leaving home. For the reporter who's never covered immigration before, we'll offer general tips for getting started. And for those who already have experience in this area, we'll share stories on how we handled advanced projects, including investigating an immigration detention facility and writing about children of Mexican immigrants.

When lawmakers (or others) attack - The threat to investigative centers

Speakers: Leonard Downie, Jr, Andy Hall, Maggie Mulvihill, Brant Houston

**Moderated by Leonard Downie Jr.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism has been threatened with eviction from its university home by state lawmakers. What threats do journalists at university-based centers face, and how can they fight back?

Telling stories with Twitter data (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speaker: Mark Luckie

With the millions of tweets being sent on Twitter everyday, the platform can help tell stories on a grander scale. Learn the ways news organizations are using Twitter data to find and share news stories and how you can get started right now.

Watchdogging government officials

Speakers: Eric Litke, George Pawlaczyk, Andy Hall, Maggie Mulvihill

**Moderated by Andy Hall

Learn practical tips on how to overcome obstacles, mine public records, and work with limited resources to effectively uncover corruption and waste at public agencies.

Broadcast: "The Get" - Asking the right person the right questions

Speakers: Craig Cheatham, Tisha Thompson, Mark Greenblatt

How to pose the right questions to the right (responsible) person in the right setting. Do you have to chase them down the street? Or can you get them in the interview chair? What preparation do you do to ask the right questions in the right order? Interviewing for impact.

Digging in with Google

Speaker: Dan Russell

Most Google users only scratch the surface of the power of the popular search tool. This session will demonstrate many different methods and techniques for finding things you didn’t think could be found, as well as discussing some of the strategies you can use for online investigations.

Managers: Changing the game - Bringing an investigative focus to your newsroom

Speakers: Nancy Barnes, Howard Saltz, Jonathan Mitchell, Mark Katches

**Moderated by Mark Katches

We all hear newsroom leaders talk about the need to do watchdog reporting. But how do you move beyond lip service? A panel of print, online and broadcast news leaders will walk you through the important steps needed to rethink a newsroom's mission and recast the organization -- with the right people and mindset -- to put a bigger emphasis on watchdog reporting.

SQL 2 using Access

Speakers: Mark Horvit

In this hands-on class you'll learn how to build queries using SQL that will summarize your data with addition and counting. You'll learn how to take thousands of records and quickly find totals by county, state, city, campaign contributor, etc. Building on the previous session, we'll add the ever-powerful Group By statement to your SQL toolbox. Attendees should have a basic understanding of the SQL Select, From and Where statements or have attended the SQL 1 using Access class.

Busting the immigration myths

Speakers: Carlos Dada, Claudia Nunez, George Schulz, Ricardo Sandoval Palos, Daniel Rosas

**Moderated by Ricardo Sandoval Palos

The southern border with Mexico is overrun by refugees from failed Latin American states; The 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States crossed north from Mexico and Latin America; The nearly 2 million people caught and deported from the US since 2007 committed serious felonies; US immigration policy is effective against organized crime. Experts who've probed deeply into immigration's numbers, scandals and human stories detail the data work, sourcing and interviewing skills needed to find the truth and enlighten audiences about one of the hemisphere's most vexing issues.

Building sources on the beat that lead to investigations

Speakers: Matt Apuzzo, Scott Zamost, Rick Yarborough

Never again will you have to tell your editor, "Nobody is saying anything." We'll show you the tips to develop sources on even the most challenging of beats. Learn how to find the information the powers that be want to keep a secret. We'll cover everything from identifying potential sources to the first meeting to the moment of truth. These practical tips can be used to cover the zoning board, City Hall or the White House.

High-stakes narrative (Sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma)

Speakers: Bruce Shapiro, Sarah Stillman, Ana Arana

When investigative reporting involves victims of violence and tragedy, getting the storytelling right is as important as just getting the story. This panel goes under the hood of award-winning in-depth reporting on human rights violations, showing how narrative and investigative technique go hand in hand.

Open Refine

Speaker: David Herzog

Learn to take filthy, horrible, no-good, stinking, messy data from an unaccommodating government agency and transform it into something useful with the help of Open Refine (formerly Google Refine).

Broadcast Show and Tell (Saturday)

 

Show-and-Tell sessions offer new ways to share your investigations with colleagues from around the country. Sessions will have veteran broadcasters as moderators. Look for sign-up sheets on the 3rd floor near registration.

Sessions take place in conference rooms 17-18 on Friday and Saturday.

 

Managers: Preparing for and managing investigative blowback

Speakers: Ellen Weiss, Maud Beelman, Susanne Reber, George Rodrigue

**Moderated by Maud Beelman

The days of silently standing by your story are over. Crisis PR managers in government, corporate, even private life orchestrate campaigns to discredit the journalism and the journalist, often before the story runs. This panel will offer practical tips pre- and post-publication for managing blowback.

Broadcast: Building the investigative newsroom

Speakers: Andrea Parquet-Taylor, Mark Ginther, Liz Roldan, Matt Goldberg

**Moderated by Matt Goldberg

How good managers who "get" investigative reporting cultivate and nurture an investigative team. What do news managers, managing editors, executive producers and news directors need to know about what it takes to produce consistently solid investigative reporting? Bring your questions/comments and let's have a conversation.

Investigating in a small town (Sponsored by Texas Center for Community Journalism)

Speakers: Kathy Cruz, Marshall Helmberger, Jonathan Austin, Samantha Swindler, Tommy Thomason

**Moderated by Tommy Thomason

How do you conduct investigations when you have limited funds and an already-overworked small staff of reporters?  This panel will show that it can be done – and how.  Some of America’s best-known community journalists -- one has been featured on 60 Minutes and all have won national investigative reporting awards – will share their stories and the price they have had to pay for pursuing important investigations.

Hard-hitting investigations: Concussions and sports

Speakers: Mark Fainaru-Wada, Steven Fainaru, Phil Bennett

What did the NFL know and when did it know it? And how can you begin looking into issues surrounding athletes and concussions? ESPN reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and his charismatic, better-looking older brother Steve Fainaru discuss their ongoing investigation into the NFL's concussion crisis for ESPN and their upcoming book on the topic for Crown Archetype, to be published in the fall. They'll be joined by Phil Bennett of FRONTLINE, who is working on a documentary with ESPN.

Exclusive: Investigative reporting market survey results

Speakers: Leonard Downie, Jr, Hollis Grizzard Jr, Rory Ellender, Jerry Gumbert, Earle Jones, Kate Marymont

What's hot, what's not - The results of a national survey research project conducted by AR&D and IRE will be revealed. What types of investigative stories are the most compelling? Why investigative reporting may save your newsroom? Is the "crowd" ready to help you investigate? Can investigative content bring back readers, listeners, and viewers? This will be the latest national research study purely dedicated to investigative journalism.

Intro to mapping with Fusion Tables

Speaker: Kate Martin

Welcome to Google Fusion Tables. In this hands-on introduction to the free online tool you’ll learn how to import data and easily turn it into an online map. We’ll add in some simple customization as well. Experience with spreadsheets and a Google account are the only prerequisites for this class.

Background Machine (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Andrew Long, Brandon Quester

Newspaper reporters have traditionally been responsible for checking the credentials of political candidates and officeholders in Arizona. With the contraction of media, this may no longer be the case. With an initial grant from Google Ideas and Investigative Reporters and Editors, AZCIR is building a crowd-funded public web application to provide background checks of Arizona candidates.

The drones are coming

Speakers: Matthew Waite, Steve Fogle

As early as 2015, drones will be legal in US airspace, but debate about them is already raging. Researchers at several universities are exploring how drones might be used for investigative reporting while state legislatures are looking to restrict their use, including banning media from using them. From the state of the art to the state of the law, drones are big right now.

SQL 3 using Access

Speaker: Jaimi Dowdell

One of the most powerful features of a database manager is its ability to join tables. In this hands-on class we’ll show you how to take two tables and join them together using SQL queries. Attendees should have an understanding of the Select, From, Where and Group By SQL query statements or have taken the earlier SQL 1 and 2 classes.

Collaborating across borders

Speakers: Robert Cribb, Juan O. Tamayo, Marina Walker Guevara, Sarah Cohen

**Moderated by Sarah Cohen

As more topics cross international borders, it's becoming more important to find collaborators in other countries. Successful collaborations are taking many shapes, from partnerships forged by reporters and editors with mutual interests to massive undertakings tying together journalists from across the globe. We look at the pluses, and the pitfalls, of banding together to follow stories wherever they lead.

IRE Awards Luncheon featuring keynote speaker Marcela Turati of the Mexican newsmagazine Proceso

Speaker: Marcela Turati

A highlight of the IRE conference, the IRE Awards Luncheon begins at noon Saturday in Salon GHI.  We will present the 2012 IRE Awards and salute some of the best investigative work of the past year.  

Admission to the luncheon is included with your conference registration.  Guest tickets are available for $55 at the IRE sales desk.  

Tracking government contracting (Sponsored by Bloomberg)

Speakers: Danielle Ivory, Ron Nixon, Daniel Ohman, Bo-Goran Bodin

Tracking government spending and contracts can be tricky. In the U.S., there is rich data that can translate into stories on just about any government-related beat, but it can be confusing if you're not prepared. And following the money can lead to explosive stories in any country. This session will look at how journalists can follow the money both in the U.S. and internationally.

Investigating history

Speakers: James Neff, Doug Swanson, James L. Swanson, George Getschow

**Moderated by George Getschow

How do you transform old FBI documents and historic records into compelling narrative histories of gangsters and Mob bosses that transcend the true-crime genre? Doug Swanson, a projects editor for The Dallas Morning News, and James Neff, investigations editor for The Seattle Times, will explain how. The two journalist historians will join James Swanson, author of "Manhunt," a nonfiction narrative about President Lincoln's assassination that Newsweek called one of the best nonficton crime books ever written. Swanson’s use of rare artifacts (like a lock of Lincoln's hair) and letters retrieved from obscure archives has earned him distinction as one of America's most popular narrative historians. The three authors will detail unorthodox research methods that unearth the stuff of best-sellers.

Broadcast: What I learned from getting sued

Speakers: Lea Thompson, Stuart Watson, Brian Collister, Steve Chung

**Moderated by Lea Thompson

You can make mistakes and never be sued. Or you can make no mistakes and still be sued -- repeatedly. Veteran reporters give examples of what you can only learn by hard experience. Bring your own experiences. We won't get "into the weeds" and rehash the specifics of cases (or create more lawsuits) but we will be detailed enough to give you practical advice which will save you some pain and frustration. We are not attorneys and will NOT give legal advice. Should be a healthy conversation.

Fusion Tables - beyond mapping

Speaker: Daniel Lathrop

Google Fusion Tables is known for its easy-to-use mapping interface, but it's also a powerful and free database manager for reporters who don't have access to software or haven't yet mastered SQL syntax. Learn to use Fusion Tables to aggregate and query your data - and explore new features that have recently extended the tool's capabilities.

Excel 1 (repeat session)

Speaker: Tony Schick

Introduction to data analysis with Excel, a simple but powerful spreadsheet application. In this session you'll learn some of the basic go-to calculations and you'll master sorting to help find stories and questions in data.

Tracking political influence: Dark money, political intelligence, IRS oversight and more

Speakers: Kim Barker, James Grimaldi, Sheila Krumholz

Following the money is even more of a maze than it used to be, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that opened the door to unlimited corporate and labor union spending in elections. This panel will give you tools to track outside groups -- including super PACs and their shadowy dark-money sidekicks -- and the people behind them. We’ll explain the latest IRS political-targeting controversy and introduce you to the growing trend of businesses hiring firms to gather “political intelligence.” Plus, we’ll walk you through the basics of campaign finance records, personal financial disclosures, lobbying and other records and show you how to look for official corruption and ties between politicians and business, as well as how to expose regulatory failures and explain what really drives policymaking.

Protecting the vulnerable

Speakers: Alexandra Zayas, Beth Hundsdorfer, Brad Schrade, Ellen Gabler

**Moderated by Ellen Gabler

These stories are among the most powerful and important stories you can tell as a journalist. Hear how reporters used public records, dogged determination and confidential sources to craft some of the best public service stories of last year. We’ll discuss how to overcome roadblocks such as public records that are deemed “confidential” and what to do when records simply don’t exist. The award-winning panelists (Pulitzer winner, Pulitzer finalist and IRE winner) will also talk about how they crafted well-written stories that got results.

Ten nerd secrets an investigative reporter can't live without (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Paul Monies, Alex Richards

This session is about solving problems — it aims to imbue you with some hard won knowledge from nerd-kind, covering a host of tips and tricks to slice through records and data issues that may arise during the course of an investigative story like a hot knife through butter, potentially saving you hours of time. Whether you're just starting out or have quite a bit of experience, this panel will have something for everybody.

Transparency: The nuts and bolts of open records battles (Sponsored by Rockefeller Brothers Fund)

Speakers: Daniel Gilbert, John Tedesco, Tom Williams, Wendell Cochran

**Moderated by Wendell Cochran

Digging out documents is a key part of life as an investigative reporter. But it seems that governments at all levels are clamping down on access to records. Learn how to successfully navigate the ins and outs of state and federal FOIA laws and win access fights.

The dark side of the oil & gas boom: Death, pollution, land grabs and other impact

Speakers: Mark Collette, Jennifer Hiller, Blake Morrison

Drilling for oil and gas is transforming communities and economies across the country. It's also creating big challenges for journalists, who must cover everything from the environmental impact of fracking to the toll taken as companies gobble up huge amounts of land for drilling. Hear from journalists who are on the front lines of the coverage who can help you tackle these stories in your own communities

AgriBusiness investigations

Speakers: Ron Nixon, Brant Houston, Cindy Galli

**Moderated by Brant Houston

Why investigate agribusiness? Corporate agribusiness is growing each year. Agribusiness produces food, feed and fuel. Large firms employ tens of thousands of people and their sales net billions of dollars. The issues involved are many and diverse, including federal subsidies and crop insurance, farm worker conditions and immigration, antibiotics and food safety, pesticides and genetically-modified seed patents, to name a few. This panel will dig in on some of those issues and show you how you can start investigating agribusiness in your own community.

Social media for investigations

Speakers: Doug Haddix,

You know the basics of Tweeting and posting Facebook status updates. Now it’s time to take it to the next level as a social media sleuth – harnessing the power of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, plus geolocation and analytic tools. Learn new ways to find sources, background people and companies, and break stories before the competition.

Unnatural deaths: Investigating medical examiners (Sponsored by Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma)

Speakers: Gina Barton, Yamil Berard, Miles Moffeit, Ryan Gabrielson

**Moderated by Miles Moffeit

Deadly abuses of vulnerable people in the custody of public agencies can remain buried because of incompetent or sloppy medical examiner and coroner investigations. We look at cases where death investigations failed to uncover wrongdoing by police, mental health workers and others - and how reporters exposed the breakdowns themselves.

Excel 2 (repeat session)

Speaker: Denise Malan

In this hands-on session you'll learn how to calculate ratios and rates with a spreadsheet and simple but powerful formulas.

The latest from Sunlight Labs (Sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation)

Speakers: Bill Allison, Jacob Fenton, Anupama Narayanswamy

Get a guided tour through the latest tools from the Sunlight Foundation, including resources for tracking federal and state legislation, regulatory dockets, campaign finance and much much more. We'll show Scout, Open States, Political Ad Sleuth and Ad Hawk, among other tools.

Writing the investigative story

Speakers: Jennifer Forsyth, Julian Sher, Steve Proctor

Your reporting may be bulletproof and the facts explosive, but if you can't write it in a way that grabs and holds attention, no one may know. Get specific tips and advice on how to create suspense, use dialogue, shift perspective, and in general, to write a story, not an exposé.

The global financial trail: Tracking assets (Sponsored by Bloomberg)

Speakers: Maria Idalia Gomez, David Kaplan, Miranda Patrucic

How do you track assets around the world? How can you follow mob money and corporate cash across borders, from Mexico to Montenegro? Here are experts who can guide you through the global maze of assets and investment.

Managers: Keeping the collaborative project on track

Speakers: Robin Fields, Gordon Witkin, Andrew Donohue, Susanne Reber

**Moderated by Andrew Donohue

Collaborations are becoming a more vital, complex and formal part of the investigative landscape. Come hear what it takes to make them work from leaders at organizations where partnerships are part of their DNA.

Broadcast: Boom. Go! Go! Go!

Speakers: Joe Ellis, Mike Beaudet, Marshall Zelinger

An explosion. An active shooter. An imminent public threat. Non-stop coverage. In the midst of adrenaline-filled chaos, how a good investigative reporter can sort fact from rumor and contribute calm context and clarity.

The doctor is in: Diagnosing dirty data (hands-on)

Speakers: Jaimi Dowdell, Jennifer LaFleur, Liz Lucas

Dirty data lurk everywhere: in text files, spreadsheets, databases, and PDFs. This hands-on class is a follow-up to “The Doctor is in: Diagnosing dirty data” panel discussion. We'll walk you through some examples of the most common types of dirty data, point out telltale signs of data illness and explain how you can whip data into shape using some simple tools and methods. 

Excel 3 (repeat session)

Speaker: Megan Luther

In this hands-on class you’ll learn how to find information quickly with filters and discover the magic of pivot tables as you summarize your data using spreadsheets.

A conversation with Lawrence Wright

Speakers: John Burnett, Lawrence Wright

**Moderated by John Burnett

Wright is a staff writer for the New Yorker and the Austin-Texas based author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction and was named one of Time's Top 100 Books of all time. His latest book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief, explores in rich detail the secretive world of the Church of Scientology -- probing deeply into the lives and beliefs of figures like founder L. Ron Hubbard and actor Tom Cruise as well as other leaders and defectors involved in that controversial movement. Going Clear was described in April 2013 as "an evenhanded, chilling... investigation," by the New York Review of Books. Wright promises to reveal some of the secrets of his craft in a conversation led by his longtime friend John Burnett, a veteran foreign correspondent and longtime, Texas-based NPR correspondent. Stick around and you'll hear both play in their band Who Do at the closing reception.

The environment: Regulating the regulators

Speakers: Randy Loftis, Robert McClure, Lois Norder

Hear how you can produce incisive stories that hold to account the environmental regulators in your city, region or state. Hear how the West, Texas, explosion provides fodder for investigations across the country - could this happen in your town? (Answer: It well might, given the gaps in regulation.) Also get the lowdown on how to critique the performance of government agents who are supposed to be protecting endangered species, preserving clean water and guarding against the privatization of parks. Veteran environmental journalists Randy Lee Loftis, Robert McClure and Lois Norder, longtime investigations editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and now The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will tell what they know and encourage a discussion among others in the room who can share their experiences.

The doctor is in: Open lab (bring your dirty data and frustrations)

Speakers: Jennifer LaFleur, Jaimi Dowdell, Liz Lucas

Following up on the "Diagnosing Dirty Data" panel and hands-on session, we invite you to bring in your dirty data. We'll take their temperature, check their blood pressure, and help you figure out how to turn them into healthy data, ready for analysis.

Beyond the written word: Visual data in journalism

Speakers: Ben Jones, Ryan Murphy, Matthew Waite, Steve Thompson

**Moderated by Matt Waite

Telling a captivating story with data is daunting when limited to numbers and figures. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a visualization is worth 1,000,000. Come hear from journalists about how they’re increasing readership and taking data journalism to the next level with compelling interactive visualizations.

Membership meeting and IRE Board of Directors elections

Plan to attend the annual membership meeting to cast a ballot in the Board of Directors elections.  Six seats on the 13-member board are up for election this year.

IRE members who filed their candidacy before the pre-conference deadline were allowed to submit a statement for posting on the IRE website.  

Anyone who declares candidacy at the conference must deliver a one-page statement/biography to the executive director by noon, local time, on Friday, June 21.  Those statements will be displayed on a bulletin board in the main conference area.  

At the membership meeting, candidates must be nominated and seconded by the floor by two other IRE members.  There will be no nominating speeches, but candidates will have two minutes to address their peers. 

Immediately following the board elections, there will be a seperate election for two IRE Awards contest judges. Those candidates will be nominated and seconded from the floor.  

More information about IRE board's duties and the election rules are online.  

Closing Reception

Join us for a closing reception from 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. and enjoy one last evening of catching up with old and new friends, speakers and colleagues.  

Hors d' oeuvres and a cash bar will be available. Conference name tags are required for entry.

IRE Sales Table (Sunday)

Stop by the IRE sales table and take a look at our merchandise. We will be selling books, including the newest title in the IRE beat book series. The large selection of titles we carry will certainly include your interests. All proceeds from your purchase help support IRE and its mission.

Storyboarding

Speaker: Megan Luther

Don't leave the IRE conference without a battle plan for putting your new knowledge and skills to work back home. In this free-wheeling group session, we'll discuss your story ideas, flesh them out, and develop strategies for doing them amid the daily demands of every newsroom. We'll talk about navigating office politics and help you develop a personal action plan.

Reporting amid chronic threat (Sponsored by Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma)

Speakers: Bruce Shapiro, Jeannine Relly, Celeste Bustamante

Investigative reporting amid chronic threat and violence - whether along the U.S.-Mexico border or elsewhere in the world - brings special challenges. This interactive workshop will illuminate ways of staying safe and staying sane.

Practicing safer Internet: Learning to think about digital security

Speaker: Quinn Norton

This is an interactive workshop in digital security focused on what's called "Threat Modeling" in the computer security world -- understanding how the networks you use see you, and how to realistically defend against the most likely attacks. We'll cover some security tools and techniques, but we're focused on understanding the networked environment well enough to let you seek out tools and techniques suited to your situation. The workshop is in three parts. We'll begin by looking at the networks we use every day, how we relate to them, and how they are used by others. In the second part, we'll go over some real world examples of attacks, ranging from direct hacking, traffic analysis and implicit information, all the way to jurisdictional attacks such as subpoenas. Finally, we'll play through red team/blue team scenarios based on real world situations, to give a sense of choices and their consequence in a journalist's personal digital security.

Web for investigations

Speaker: Mark Horvit

From better search techniques to the invisible Web, how to find documents and databases on deadline and where to find reliable websites for enterprise stories.

Career roundtable

Speakers: Mark Horvit, Josh Meyer, David Cay Johnston, Ellen Gabler, Stephen Stock

**Moderated by Mark Horvit

Looking for advice on how to take the next step in your career? Get practical tips from panelists who will talk about their own experiences and discuss what employers are looking for.

Finding data online

Speaker: Jaimi Dowdell

There are plenty of clues on the Web that data exist, even though so much information is buried deep beyond search engine eyes. This session will highlight advanced searches and strategies for finding data that can't be found with a traditional search engine. We'll also point you to some sites for tracking down local, national and international data. All you need is a browser and some curiosity.