IRE Conference: Miami

In Miami or anywhere, check out the IRE Conference blog by a team of Florida International University students organized and edited by Neil Reisner. http://training.ire.org

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 at 6 p.m. in the Sevilla room.

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. (The deadline for absentee ballot requests has passed.) For more on the board candidates, click here.

Members will be asked to consider approving an amendment to IRE’s articles of incorporation. The amendment would expand the definition of IRE’s associate membership to include individuals engaged in reporting and editing part-time. (Click here to preview the amendment.)

Please take this opportunity to review the 2009 IRE budget, which will be on the agenda of the Board of Directors meeting at 1 p.m.Thursday in the Balmoral room. This meeting is open to members. (Click here to download the budget.)

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.
Need a roommate? Check out our roommate finder
Blues Bash
Sagamore Hotel (South Beach) reception
The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
Exhibitor and Recruiter application
Frequently asked questions
Reprints & Tipsheets
Airport Transportation

Vendors and Exhibitors

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.

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.

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.

2008 IRE Conference in Miami

June 5-8, 2008