8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Registration opens - Gather conference materials and plan your schedule. Coffee provided.

9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Welcoming remarks and Keynote Address - SPJ President Clint Brewer, executive editor of The City Paper in Nashville, will deliver the keynote. Brewer is a four-time winner of the Malcolm Law Memorial Award, Tennessee's most prestigious award for investigative journalism, and reporters in his charge have also twice won the award, as well as public service awards and a national journalism award. His reporting has led to one criminal prosecution and caused presidential and campaign committees to return contributions made by felons. Brewer got his start as a music critic and for two years owned his own weekly newspaper.

9:35 a.m. to 10:50 a.m.

Don Ray: The Investigative Mindset - Useful for any reporter, Don Ray's easy-to-remember lessons will help you get "in the zone" and stay there. At its best, reporting is not just a craft, it's a mindset. This session repeats at 2:15 p.m.

Don Ray is high-energy, interactive, and among the top journalism trainers in the West. He's a California-based veteran, multimedia investigative reporter/producer, author and lecturer. He's the journalist who first broke the story of the police investigation into child molestation allegations against singer Michael Jackson in 1993. He's written for scores of publications including the L.A. Weekly and the L.A. Times. He's produced segments for Dateline NBC, Inside Edition, The Crusaders and numerous local TV stations. He has traveled to more than 30 countries as a journalist, documentary producer or journalism trainer. In fact, he'll arrive in Portland the same day he returns from a three-week training assignment in Baku, Azerbaijan. He's written books on investigations, public records, writing for the ear, interviewing, background checks and privacy issues.

Computer Assisted Reporting: Excel on the job - a crash course in making your computer do the heavy lifting, from sorting simple data to tracking citywide contract fallout, it really is easier than you think. Pre-registration required. Seating at computers is limited to 22 or bring your own wireless laptop with a version of Excel. This session takes place at Cramer Hall, Portland State University, about seven blocks from main events, so it will begin at 9:45 a.m. Maps provided at check in.

Lee van der Voo is a reporter for the Portland Tribune and runs this web site, along with SPJ's public records blog for Oregon and Washington. She previously worked for weekly newspapers and the wire and got her start in journalism on the arts beat. Van der Voo has won several journalism awards, including a 2007 prize from the Society of Environmental Journalists. She spends a lot of time on the computer.

The Delicate Art of Hardball - They don't teach it in J-school, but we've all faced the same question: How can you ethically elicit information that seemingly nobody wants to give you -- and still like yourself the next morning? Longtime pros air their secrets.

Maureen O'Hagan is a reporter for The Seattle Times covering the state Department of Social and Health Services. Before that, she was a court reporter for The Washington Post and a legal affairs writer for Willamette Week. In 1999-2000, she studied law and creative writing as a Michigan Journalism Fellow. She has been the recipient of numerous state, regional, and national journalism awards. Her series, "Coaches who prey," was a 2004 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. She was part of a team of reporters on "Your courts, their secrets," a series which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Les Zaitz, among the most well-reviewed speakers in SPJ's fall conference, is an award-winning senior investigative reporter for the Oregonian. He has been a journalist in Oregon for more than 30 years, including 18 years at The Oregonian and 13 years as publisher/editor at the weekly Keizertimes, a paper that regularly won enterprise and investigating reporting honors despite having a news staff of two reporters. Zaitz's own reporting honors include state, regional and national journalism awards for his reporting, including the George L. Polk Award this year. He is an expert in Oregon public records law.

Speed Mentoring: The SPJ version of Speed Dating - How do I build a beat? How do I get my dream job? Pick the brains of veteran reporters and editors in three twenty minute sessions with three different mentors.Pre-registration required. Space is limited to 10. This session is full and registration closed March 13. Those still interested may check at the door for vacancies the day of the conference.

Hank Stern, managing editor, Willamette Week
George Erb, editor, Puget Sound Business Journal
Steve Law, reporter, Portland Tribune
Erin Middlewood, reporter, Columbian
Laurie Williams, assistant managing editor, Tri-City Herald
Beth Hyams, radio news editor, Oregon Public Broadcasting
Ryan Frank, reporter, Oregonian
Jim Redden, reporter and editor, Portland Tribune

Steve Collier, features copy editor at the Eugene Register-Guard
Celeste LeCompte, managing editor of Sustainable Industries magazine

11 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.

Don Ray: No-Questions-Asked Interviewing - Don Ray's counterintuitive guide to perfect interviews. This session repeats at 3:45 p.m.

Don Ray is high-energy, interactive, and among the top journalism trainers in the West. See his biography listed under Don Ray: The Investigative Mindset at 9:35 a.m.

Jack Hart: The Oregonian's writing coach talks process and technique

Jack Hart is an author, writing coach and former managing editor at The Oregonian, the Pacific Northwest's largest daily newspaper. At The Oregonian he also worked as a reporter, arts and leisure editor, Sunday magazine editor, training editor, editor at large and writing coach. He has additional reporting experience at two other newspapers, holds a University of Wisconsin doctorate in Mass Communications and has taught at five universities. He worked as an editor on four Pulitzer Prize winners, and was the sole editor on two of them. He has also edited national winners of the ASNE writing awards, the Ernie Pyle award, the Scripps-Howard business-writing award, the Overseas Press Club awards, the Headliners awards and the Society of Professional Journalists feature-writing award. He is the author of “The Information Empire,” a history of the Los Angeles Times and “A Writer’s Coach: The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies That Work,” released as a Pantheon hardback in 2006 and as a Anchor Books paperback in 2007.

Intro to Multiplatform Storytelling - Shooting for the Web: A how-to primer for journalists looking to enter the brave, new multimedia world. Brian Immel, Spokesman-Review; Joe Barrentine, Tacoma News Tribune; TJ Mullinax, Yakima Herald.

TJ Mullinax is web producer for the Yakima Herald-Republic. He works with nearly every department to improve news presentation and creation of new storytelling methods for the newspaper online. Since his early days in journalism at Washington State University's Daily Evergreen, he has been a new media junkie. He started his career in Portland working as a Web Producer at KATU Television. There he helped refine the online news workflow and encouraged crews to go beyond providing only video stories, but provide text, still photos and live blog-style reporting from the field. His current workload includes training newspaper staff to shoot and edit video, help facilitate multimedia opportunities and every now and then get out of the office. He recently coordinated the Northwest Video Workshop, bringing together 40 journalists to learn about video shooting, editing and storytelling. TJ also serves as the National Press Photographers Association's, Region 11 associate director.

Joe Barrentine is the multimedia producer for the News Tribune in Tacoma. Barrentine worked in small dailies and weeklies as a still photographer and sports reporter before getting his bachelor's degree in communication from Washington State University. After graduating, Joe spent about two years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane as a web editor, photographer and multimedia producer. Joe recently moved home to Tacoma, where he is the News Tribune's first multimedia producer.

Brian Immel is multimedia producer at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. His job is to enable reporters and photographers to utilize the strengths of the web as well as produce original content online. In his free time he experiments with alternative methods of storytelling. He rarely sleeps, is always plotting and is never afraid to try something new.

Records Across the Gorge - Experts from Washington and Oregon talk about records law in their respective states. Learn the nitty gritty of what to do when you're told no, the best documents to know about, and why the open-government movement in Washington may hold lessons for the rest of us. George Erb and Les Zaitz.

George Erb is editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal. He has been a reporter and editor at daily and weekly newspapers in Washington state since 1983. Erb is a past chapter president for the Society of Professional Journalists, Western Washington Pro Chapter. He has long been active in open-government issues. Erb edited two editions of Access, an open-government guide for Washington published by SPJ. He is a director of the Washington Coalition for Open Government and a member of the state Bench-Bar-Press Committee. Erb has a bachelor's degree in history from Hanover College and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.

Les Zaitz, among the most well-reviewed speakers in SPJ's fall conference, is an award-winning senior investigative reporter for the Oregonian. See his biography listed under The Delicate Art of Hardball at 9:35 a.m.

12:45 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The Future of Media: What Our Business Will Look Like in 20 Years. Lunch provided. Pre-registration required. Speakers: KGW manager Frank Mungeam, Columbian online sales director Dean Abbot and Scott Silver, Oregon Public Broadcasting. Moderator Jon Palfreman.

Frank Mungeam is an award-winning digital media and television manager with twenty years experience for network affiliates in Seattle (NBC) and Portland (NBC, ABC), where he has earned nine Emmy nominations for Web and TV writing and producing. Since 2006, he has been Internet site manager for kgw.com, named Best TV Web Site in Oregon by the Associated Press in 2007. Previously, he was director of new media for katu.com. Mungeam is a two-time finisher of the Boston Marathon, a top-25 finisher at the Portland Marathon, and earned All-American honors at the US National Snowshoe Racing Championships. He's also the author of the popular men’s pregnancy book "A Guy’s Guide to Pregnancy," and the proud co-author of a son, David. A native of Boston, Mungeam graduated with honors from Harvard with a degree in Psychology and Social Relations.

Dean Abbott is the online sales director for the Columbian. He has been in the news advertising and content business for more than 30 years. During that time he has worked with UPI, managed a syndicate, and was on the development team with AOL, Gannett and USA WEEKEND. Before joining the Columbian, Dean worked at Lee Enterprises in the Interactive Media department where he led multi-department training and sales strategies seminars and workshops. Dean is a recent transplant from Southern California (he asks thatyou don't hold that against him) and is enjoying the Northwest with his wife, Diann and kids JD and Lauren.

Jon Palfreman is an Emmy, Dupont and Peabody Award-winning journalist. His published work includes more than forty hours of prime-time television documentaries (for BBC and PBS), and two books. His recent focus has been in-depth investigative reports centered on the intersection of science and technology, policy and law, with such films as: ‘NOVA/FRONTLINE: What’s up with the Weather’ (about global climate change); ‘FRONTLINE: Currents of Fear’ (about the alleged health effects of power lines); and ‘ NOVA/FRONTLINE: Harvest of Fear’ (about genetically modified food).

2:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Don Ray: The Investigative Mindset - Useful for any reporter, Don Ray's easy-to-remember lessons will help you get "in the zone" and stay there. At its best, reporting is not just a craft, it's a mindset. This is a repeat of the 9:35 a.m. session.

Don Ray is high-energy, interactive, and among the top journalism trainers in the West. See his biography listed under Don Ray: The Investigative Mindset at 9:35 a.m.

The Web's Role in the Newsroom - James Marks from the Portland Tribune probes the future of the journalism and the Internet in this interactive discussion designed to include plenty of audience participation.

James Marks is a University of Oregon graduate who began his career as a photojournalist, graphic artist and page designer at the Springfield News. He became Webmaster of the Pamplin Media Group two years ago after five years of work as a page designer and graphic artist for the Portland Tribune. Marks first learned to program by writing scripts to automate Tribune page production and by building databases to handle story management. He next turned to web programming and ultimately designed the content management system and web templates used by the Pamplin Media Group. As part of his efforts he has extensively researched web readership and its relationship to print circulation. He continues to shape the future of the Pamplin enterprise both online and in print.

Making a Big Splash at a Small Paper - Steve Bagwell of the McMinnville News-Register talks about how to build great clips and a stand-out journalism career from inside a small newsroom.

Steve Bagwell is the managing editor of the News-Register in McMinnville, where he supervises a staff of 18, including some of the state's hardest hitting young reporters. He's built a career on turning promising beginners into talented journalists, partly as an editor and also as an instructor. Bagwell teaches courses in reporting, advanced reporting, mass communication and copyediting at both Oregon State University and Linfield College. He is the former managing editor of the Bend Bulletin and has worked as editorial page editor at the Statesman Journal and a reporter and photographer at the Daily Astorian and the Springfield News. Bagwell has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism and won numorous accolades for enterprise and investigative journalism and for public service journalism.

Speed Mentoring: The SPJ version of Speed Dating (repeat of morning session) - How do I pitch a story? How do I build a beat? How do I get my dream job? Pick the brains of veteran reporters and editors in three twenty minute sessions with three different mentors. This is a repeat of the morning session. Pre-registration required. Space is limited to 10. This session is full and registration closed March 13. Those still interested may check at the door for vacancies the day of the conference.

Hank Stern, managing editor, Willamette Week
George Erb, editor, Puget Sound Business Journal
Steve Law, reporter, Portland Tribune
Erin Middlewood, reporter, Columbian
Laurie Williams, assistant managing editor, Tri-City Herald
Christy George, radio/TV reporter/editor, Oregon Public Broadcasting
Ryan Frank, reporter, Oregonian
Jim Redden, reporter and editor, Portland Tribune

Steve Collier, features copy editor at the Eugene Register-Guard
Celeste LeCompte, managing editor of Sustainable Industries magazine

3:45 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Don Ray: No-Questions-Asked Interviewing - Don Ray's counterintuitive guide to perfect interviews. This is a repeat of the 11 a.m. session.

Don Ray is high-energy, interactive, and among the top journalism trainers in the West. See his biography listed under Don Ray: The Investigative Mindset at 9:35 a.m.

Green Washing: Separating Fact from Fiction on the Sustainability Beat - As companies market their products and practices as sustainable, and as cities and states toot their own horns in the rush for green street cred, how do journalists ensure they're not getting suckered by the sell? Speakers: Rebecca Clarren, Celeste LeCompte, Larry Tuttle.

Celeste LeCompte - Celeste LeCompte is the managing editor of Sustainable Industries magazine, a 5-year-old environmental business magazine based in San Francisco. Previously, she covered food and agriculture, recycled markets, energy and biofuels for the magazine. Celeste graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in Social Studies, and wrote her undergraduate thesis about community organizing around organic agriculture.

Rebecca Clarren - Rebecca Clarren has been writing about environmental issues, with a special focus on the American West, for the past decade. She started as an editor and reporter for High Country News and then, for the past five years, has been based in Portland, Ore. where she freelances for a variety of national magazines such as Marie Claire, Fortune, Ms Magazine and the Nation. Since October of last year, she's been writing a new weekly column for Salon.com called "The Good Life," that takes a smart, skeptical look at environmental/sustainable products and trends. The winner of seven grants from The Fund for Investigative Journalism, Clarren has been named a finalist for both the Alice Patterson Foundation fellowship and the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor prize. She lives and types in Northeast Portland.

Larry Tuttle - Laurence “Larry” Tuttle is the founding director of the Center for Environmental Equity. Established in 1994, the Center is an advocate for communities and natural resources degraded by mineral mining pollution. Tuttle’s worked as the regional director or executive officer of environmental organizations from 1989 to 1994. He served on the Deschutes County, Ore. board of county commissioners from 1982 to 1986. Tuttle’s background includes 16 years in commercial banking and small-business consulting. Tuttle received a B.S. in Finance from the University of Oregon in 1969.

Advanced Multiplatform Storytelling - Taking it to the Next Level: Learn how to make your multimedia storytelling even more compelling and effective. KGW's Frank Mungeam and Aaron Weiss, and TJ Mullinax from the Yakima Herald.

Aaron Weiss is senior producer at KGW News Channel 8 in Portland. He currently produces the 11 pm newscast and is a blogger for kgw.com. He came to Portland in 2002 after beginning his journalism career at KVOA in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Before becoming a journalist, Aaron was a program manager at Microsoft, working on UI and shared features in Microsoft Office. His current focus is transforming the way newsrooms gather and distribute information across legacy and emerging platforms. Aaron is a graduate of Wesleyan University.

TJ Mullinax is web producer for the Yakima Herald-Republic. See his biography listed under Intro to Multi-Platform Storytelling at 11 a.m.

Frank Mungeam is an award-winning digital media and television manager with twenty years experience for network affiliates. See his biography listed under The Future of Media at 12:45 p.m.

Career Panel - School's Out: Time to Find a Job - Pat Foote from the Seattle Times, Laurie Williams from the Tri-City Herald.

Patricia Foote is assistant managing editor/administration at the Seattle Times. She oversees staffing, training, policies, compensation and other issues in the newsroom. She has been with the Times in two separate stints for more than 30 years. Foote started her newspaper career at age 15 as a vacation fill-in at The Highline Times, followed by other South King County weeklies. She was hired by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to edit its weekly entertainment section before becoming a reporter in the Seattle Times View section in 1973. Her assignments included arts-and-entertainment editor and lifestyle editor before leaving in 1986 to teach journalism at the University of Washington. She returned to the Times in 1990 as news-features editor and was subsequently named assistant managing editor for features, and later for hiring and staff development. She is a 1971 graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in communications. Her professional memberships include the Society of Professional Journalists. the Times was nationally honored for its features sections during her tenure and she received The Times' Publisher's Circle Award in 1998.

5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Social hour. Details pending