Records set at IRE national conference

The 2019 IRE Conference in Houston.

Nearly 2,000 journalists attended the 2019 IRE national conference in Houston last week — a record number. The previous record had been 1,860 attendees at the 2016 IRE Conference in New Orleans.

In addition, IRE membership reached a record high in May: 6,178 members.

Those milestones are featured in the "State of IRE: 2019" report, now available online. During the annual membership meeting at the Houston conference, IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix and Board President Cheryl W. Thompson also shared other records that IRE set during this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Haddix and Thompson highlighted the year in IRE training, which included 69 events that reached more than 5,500 journalists, educators and students.

They also detailed progress in diversifying IRE committees, contest screeners and judges, and speakers at national conferences. For instance, journalists of color made up 30 percent of speakers at both the NICAR conference in March and the IRE conference this month. Half of NICAR speakers were women, and nearly 60 percent of speakers were women at the Houston conference.