By Alexandra Berzon

My track at my very first IRE conference inadvertently ended up something that could best be described as “How to talk to people.” I found myself drawn to the panels of legendary investigative journalists candidly describing how they get people to tell them things. My favorite part of reporting is the talking-to-people part, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how I do it.

The takeaway message from several panels on interview and source tactics was: Be relentless. Do anything short of lying to get information. “The trick is not going away,” said David Simon, a former reporter for The Baltimore Sun. “There’s no trick to it.”

Beyond that, tactics differed. This is what I found myself discussing with folks late into the evening Saturday.

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By Margo Smit

Though from a small country half a world away, I try to make IRE conferences a regular on my calendar. And after six conferences in the last seven years, I almost feel like a veteran here. “IRE is my family,” said broadcast journalist Tisha Thompson at the IRE Awards luncheon. It feels a little like that for me too.

Coming to these conferences has brought me so much — including a job. For two weeks, I have run the Dutch Flemish Association of Investigative Journalists (VVOJ) as their first paid director. Without IRE, there wouldn’t even be a VVOJ! Through IRE, I learned to cooperate on investigations across borders and media types. I met people from around the globe and knew where to find them once back home and in need of information they might have. My boss and colleagues, and ultimately my viewers (I was a TV reporter until two weeks ago) and the general public benefited with me.

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By Dawn Fallik

IRE Hell is having your panel at the same time as Barlett & Steele AND Eric Nalder.  Plus, we were hidden behind the kitchen (Mike Berens cooked a couple omelets before figuring out where we were.)

But huzzah! A good 35-40 people showed up to hear four uber-nerds talk about 990 forms (New! Expanded!), disciplinary actions and how 31 nurses, doctors and techs all reached into the same Cheetos bag at a Seattle hospital before going to check on patients — without handwashing. Good thing it was before lunch….

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