Don’t know what to attend at the conference in National Harbor? The IRE staff is here to help!

Adam Rhodes, Training Director & Managing Editor 

It’s Pride Month so of *course* I’m going to shout out “LGBTQ+ Data Reporting and Visualization,” which is a great session if you want to cover LGTQ+ better but also how to better use key data for your next big investigation. 

I also really want to shout out “Rethinking the crime beat.” Journalists are doing better at bringing a more accountability lens to their public safety coverage, but this session is good for people new to the crime beat and those who want to better serve their communities instead of just chasing the sirens. 

Benét J. Wilson, Training Director

My first pick is “After the cut: Surviving and rebuilding investigative careers after buyouts and layoffs.” I started my career in 1985 and in my 41 years in the business, I have never seen this level of layoffs. I’ve been laid off four times, including in 2024 and 2025. The first few days after a layoff can be disorienting, and you need all the help you can get. This workshop has a powerhouse group of panelists who have helped many journalists navigate layoffs and more.

Pick number two is “Catching the quiet changes: Automating website monitoring with Visualping.” Companies regularly make changes in the fine print covering privacy, terms and conditions, staff changes, policy shifts and more. I used Visualping at a previous job specifically to catch sneaky changes to terms and conditions issued by credit card companies.

Last — but not least — my third pick is “Beating burnout at its foundation,” presented by Nicholas Whitaker, founder of the Rebellion Collective. His company helps people “recover what’s been buried beneath achievement, ambition, and survival all this time.” Nick did a form of this session when he was my Google News Initiative tools trainer and it was so helpful. 

Francisco Vara-Orta, Interim Deputy Executive Director

My first pick is “How to find immigration stories in your community.” Arguably the story of the year in the U.S. for many communities, this session will be comprised of folks who really get how to do this work ethically and amid so many tensions in a midterms year. Immigration reporting goes so far beyond coverage of the border and immigration court, but too often tips focus on national scope and breeds a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to policymaking.

Pick number two would be our collaboration with the Indigenous Journalists Association on a panel about sourcing in Indian Country. The lineup is being finalized but I know that with policy in DC as well as what is happening back in Indigenous communities, folks are concerned about cuts these past 18 months trickling down to them.

Laura Kurtzberg, Training Director

We have so many interesting sessions on the schedule, as always, and it’s difficult to pick just a few to recommend. As a data specialist, anything with data and mapping tends to catch my eye. 

“Master the power of mapping with QGIS”, a 3-hour introduction to QGIS (with breaks, don’t worry!) is an offering that could help empower you to analyze geographic data, even if you’ve never tried it before! I highly recommend signing up for this master class. Note that you’ll need to reserve a seat when you register to attend this one.

Another hands-on workshop that sounds ideal for people looking to build up their data skillset is “No code, open data: Using immigration data without coding”. If you attend this session, you’ll be able to analyze crucial immigration data for your stories using Google Sheets, which is free and beginner-friendly. 

Speaking of Google Sheets, IRE26 presents a great chance to learn how to use Sheets for the first time. We have a full curriculum of Sheets sessions, from Google Sheets 1: Getting started with spreadsheets to Google Sheets: Advanced pivot tables.

Aaricka Washington, Marketing and Communications Specialist 

As both an educator and an education reporter, I naturally gravitate toward sessions focused on the education beat, as well as those designed to help emerging journalists build the skills they need to thrive in this field.

For student journalists, I highly recommend prioritizing “Teaching the Investigation: How Students Can Do Groundbreaking Investigative Stories.” Student reporters have far more power than they often realize. As active beneficiaries and stakeholders in their institutions, they are uniquely positioned to hold those institutions accountable. 

I also encourage student journalists to attend “Filing better FOIAs (getting to documents via people, and vice versa).” For journalists covering private or secretive organizations or groups, “Gossip, group chats and encrypted drives: How to root out non-public records and keep sources safe” is a must-see session. 

Cody Winchester, Director of Technology and Online Resources

I’ve got three surefire recommendations:

For anyone who wants to learn the ins and outs of campaign finance coverage, don’t miss “Everything you want to know about tracking political influence and money in politics,” a crash course in dark money networks, corporate influence campaigns, grassroots fundraising and more from some of the smartest folks working the money-in-politics beat.

If you want to learn more about all the great work being done to improve the new IRE Resource Center (and offer feedback!), join longtime IRE member Derek Willis, chair of the board’s website improvement task force, for “Introducing the new IRE Resource Center.”

And I’ll second my colleague Laura Kurtzberg’s suggestion to check out our Google Sheets series — perfect for data beginners who want to learn how to analyze data using spreadsheets.

Laura Moscoso, Training Director

This year, I would like to invite everyone to our Information Session: Today’s News for Tomorrow. Kristen Hare and I will talk about this new initiative, led by The Internet Archive, that seeks to train journalists on local news preservation. Why the program is important should be evident to everyone attending the conference, but the cool thing about this session is that we’ve already taught two cohorts — approximately 75 newsrooms— so we have amazing insight and experience to build on. Join us! I’m also excited about the Visualping demo, a crucial tool for investigations and reporting ideas. And because it is an election year —when is it not, ha?!—, I strongly recommend everyone to update their campaign finance skills with Sam Stockbridge and Aidan Hughes.