NICAR21 FAQ

NICAR21 will be March 3, 4 and 5 (a Wednesday-Friday). Conference sessions will run between noon and 4 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time each day, with some social events scheduled after main conference hours.

Early bird rate (through Feb. 10): $125/professionals; $50/students 

Regular rate (Feb. 11 and after): $175/professionals; $50/students

IRE membership through April 1 is required to attend.

First, make sure you have a current IRE membership through April 1, 2021. You can do that by logging into your account on the website and going to Manage Memberships in your Member Dashboard. 

• If you have a current membership, you will see a green ‘Yes’ in the Active column. 
• If your membership has expired, click the ‘Subscribe’ button to go through the renewal process. (Note: If your membership expired before Dec. 1, 2020, you will not be able to log in to the website. Please create a new account on our website by filling out the Join form.)
  
• If you have never been an IRE member, please apply from the Join page.

Next, go to the conference ticket page. The correct price for your membership level will show up in the ‘Get Tickets’ block. Click ‘Add to cart’ and follow the steps to check out.

If the ticket block is blank, please check that you are logged into your account with a current membership. If you still need help, email logistics@ire.org.

Attendees will receive a login for the Pathable platform via email the week of Feb. 15.

The conference will be held on an event platform called Pathable, which is best viewed on the Chrome browser. Sessions within Pathable are held on Zoom, and attendees should download Zoom here (free and available for Mac and PC). 

View a list of expected sessions here. Full session and speaker details will be released in the coming weeks.

NICAR21 will offer a mix of panels, demos, discussions, networking, and on-demand hands-on data training, with several options to choose from during each hour of the conference.

Lightning Talks, a much-anticipated session at every NICAR conference, will be part of the virtual experience as well. Lightning Talks are 5-minute presentations on particular skills, tools or techniques. Pitches are submitted and voted on by NICAR21 attendees.

You can submit a pitch for a Lightning Talk here. Pitches are due Jan. 27 and voting will open shortly afterward.

While we aren’t able to hang out in person this year, we still want to bring the NICAR community together in some more relaxed social settings. The NICAR Happy Hour sessions will offer everything from low-key to high-energy sessions to help you unwind after a long and exhausting day (or year).

All hands-on training will be on demand, via short, recorded videos that teach the same skills NICARians have come to expect from our conferences. Attendees can learn valuable data journalism skills, tips and tricks at their own pace. Videos will be recorded by IRE trainers teaching these skills:

• Spreadsheets
• SQL
• Python
• R
• Data visualization
• Web scraping
• Data wrangling

Each lab will include instructions to set up your computer at home, data files to follow along, and other resources.

NICAR will also offer numerous office hour sessions where attendees can sign up to receive live help from experts in various skills to complement the on-demand training.

The conference will be held on an event platform called Pathable, which is best viewed on the Chrome browser. Sessions within Pathable are held on Zoom, and attendees should download Zoom here (free and available for Mac and PC). 

Attendees will receive a login for the Pathable platform a couple weeks before the conference.

Fellowships are available for the following communities:

• Journalists, students and educators of color
• Women who are early-career (three years or less) or students
• Educators who teach data journalism/investigative reporting

Fellowships include a complimentary IRE membership/renewal ($25 for students/$70 for pros) and a complimentary conference registration ($50 for students/$175 for pros).

For more information and to apply, visit our fellowships page.

All on-demand classes, live session recordings, tipsheets and session materials will be available on the conference website for one year for any attendee to access. Members are encouraged to register for the conference even if they can’t attend during live conference hours.

No, the mentorship program will not be a component of the virtual conference. One-on-one help for data skills and projects will be available at office hour sessions where attendees can sign up for individual time slots.

Sign up here to receive email newsletters with all the latest NICAR21 announcements about sessions, Lightning Talks, the T-shirt contest, office hour signups and more!