Kentucky Fried CAR — Uplink Archive

IRE's Kentucky Fried CAR conference will be held in Lexington from September 14-17, offering over 50 panels and 40 training sessions on computer-assisted reporting techniques for journalists of all levels. The event features expert-led sessions on topics ranging from Census data analysis and mapping software to investigating crime, government, and public records.

More than 50 panels and another 40 hands-on training sessions will be offered at IRE's national computer-assisted reporting conference in Lexington, Kentucky, Sept. 14 through Sept. 17.

The Thursday through Sunday conference, known as Kentucky Fried CAR is co-hosted by the Lexington Herald Leader. The conference will feature the leading practitioners and have sessions for the beginner and for the expert; for the reporter and for the editor; and for the print journalist, the broadcast journalist, and the online journalist. Conference sponsors include the Gannett Foundation, the Scripps-Howard Foundation, Knight-Ridder, and WKYT-TV. The conference will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Lexington where rooms start at only $104 a night. We plan to have breakout sessions for people interested in special topics and lots of opportunities for small workshops in the computer demonstration room. And of course there will be opportunities to appreciate the attractions of Kentucky, from horses to bluegrass to distilleries. To register for the conference, which costs only $150 plus $50 for non-members, you can go to www.ire.org/training/lexington or you can call IRE at 573-882-2042. The conference will include a special batch of sessions on the upcoming Census data. The sessions will be led by experts Steve Doig of Arizona State University and Paul Overberg of USA Today. There will also be a track of using mapping software and a close look at the best and safest use of statistics.

Other topics

Racial profiling Getting ready for the hurricane season and other natural disasters The gun trade Doing your first CAR story Deciphering property records Finding the bad doctors Using CAR effectively at small newspapers Editing CAR stories When the plane crashes: From bad rudders to runway incursions Training the newsroom The latest, greatest CAR stories Unlocking the secrets of the prison industry Cool stuff. The latest in practical software Teaching CAR at the university The recipe for illness: Covering the food industry Driving CAR on the highway beat Campaign finance: What to do after the election 20 shortcuts to finding what you need on the Web CAR and broadcast: Getting past the time machine Children at risk: Daycare and foster care Decrypting death records: Ingenious uses Crime and violence: What data to use Beyond the city limit: International data for local stories Tracking venture capital Measuring school test scores: More ways to an A CAR for the statehouse Plundering environmental data Public employees: Absenteeism, benies and other snafus Elderly care: Understanding the nursing home data Local government: Budgets, bids, purchases and change orders The Military Records Maze Building the Intranet for Your Newsroom Unveiling the hidden work of lobbyists Sports CAR: Stadiums, teams and profits The property scam: Landlords, land-flipping, and blight Tracking an individual through on-line resources The issues and ethics of public access and the need for privacy

Hands-on training

You can take up to three one-and-a-half-hour classes, which will include:

Database managers: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced (Taught in Access) Spreadsheets, Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced (Taught in Microsoft Excel) Statistics (Taught in SPSS with special sessions in SAS) Mapping: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced (Taught in ArcView) Basic primer in Structured Query Language Using SQL Server A Primer in Perl Data Cleaning: String functions and more