2008 IRE Conference in Miami

June 5-8, 2008

New HBO Advance Screening. Click here to find out more.

The best in the business will gather for more than 100 panels, including tracks for editors and broadcasters, extensive options for beats such as justice, business, education, politics and health. Additional panels will cover the fundamentals of reporting from interviewing to Internet research, plus hands-on classes in computer-assisted reporting and an optional day of CAR-focused panels.

The IRE Awards Luncheon will honor journalists for outstanding stories of 2007. Dave Barry, humor writer and former Miami Herald columnist, will deliver the event's keynote speech. The Saturday luncheon is included in conference registration.

IRE members should plan to attend the annual membership meeting on Saturday evening. Seven seats on the IRE Board of Directors are up for election. If you attend the conference, you must cast your ballot at the meeting; only members who will not attend the conference can . For more on the board candidates, click here.

Expected speakers

Preliminary Program

Web frameworks advanced boot camp

Registration is now available for a 15-seat mini-boot camp on Thursday, the optional CAR day. Get hands-on instruction in the latest tools for moving data to the Web.

Other Information

• Conference hotel - The InterContinental Miami is sold out, but overflow rooms are available.
• Blues Bash
• The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Exhibitor and Recruiter application
• Frequently asked questions
• Reprints & Tipsheets
• Airport Transportation

Vendors and Exhibitors

• Underwriters Laboratories
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• American University
• Donald W. Reynolds, National Center for Business Journalism
• CASPIO
• NewsBank, Inc.
• Office of Justice Programs
• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
• CDC/NCHS
• Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ)

HBO Advance Screening

Friday, 6:15 to 8:15 p.m. - Generation Kill: Journalist Evan Wright's series for Rolling Stone on the Marines who led the invasion of Baghdad in 2003 became a book and, next month, premieres on HBO as a seven-part mini-series. HBO will do a sneak preview of a one-hour episode from Generation Kill, written by Wright, former Baltimore Sun journalist David Simon (Homicide, The Corner, The Wire) and Ed Burns (The Corner, The Wire), with Simon and Burns among the executive producers. Wright, Simon and Burns will then participate in a panel discussion on how they've turned their experiences as observers into both fiction and non-fiction, in print and on television. Wright will participate in a book signing after the panel.

Free tickets to this screening will be distributed on Friday beginning at 9 a.m. at the Sales table located in Mezzanine East on the 2nd floor. Tickets are limited due to seating capacity in the theater. One ticket per person please.

Sign up for a mentor - sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation

The conference offers an opportunity for in-depth, one-on-one coaching on investigative reporting. These private sessions allow attendees to seek advice on challenging stories or follow-up ideas. To participate, you must have registered for the conference and have requested a mentor by May 10. Details and sign-up instructions.

More mentoring opportunities: Poynter's Al Tompkins will again be at the conference on Sat., June 7, to critique tapes from broadcasters, so don't forget to bring a sample of your work. (There is no pre-registration for these sessions.)

Drawing Winner

Philip Drechsler, WCPO-Cincinnati, won the complementary conference registration to the 2008 IRE Conference by filling out an evaluation at the 2007 conference in Phoenix.