U.S. Political Editor David Scott announced The Associated Press’ political reporting lineup in a memo to staff today:

The Associated Press is joining thousands of digital and creative professionals from around the world converging at the 2015 SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, which runs March 13 through 17.

Beth Harpaz oversees The Associated Press’ global coverage of travel, keeping it practical, on-trend and authoritative. Here, she previews a number of new columns debuting this month and explains why AP offers the best “travel perks”:

The Associated Press will be sharing expertise and learning from other data journalists from around the country at a computer-assisted reporting conference put on by NICAR and Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE). The annual event runs today through March 8 in Atlanta.

“Every year we pick up tools and techniques that become essential to our data journalism toolkit. And every year, I personally steal a few teaching ideas that help me bring the material back to the broader AP,” said AP Editor for Interactive Technology Troy Thibodeaux. “All this, and we get to compare notes and ask questions of the people in other news organizations whose work most inspires and challenges us.”

Here’s some of the hands-on training AP is providing:

THURSDAY, MARCH 5

• Grabbing data from websites without scraping
  AP data journalist Michelle Minkoff co-leads a tutorial on how to get structured data from websites using a web browser with free tools and ad-ons.

FRIDAY, MARCH 6

• Bridging the developer/journalist gap
  AP newsroom developer Maureen Linke shares best practices for bringing together coders and non-coders alike in newsrooms to tell great stories.

• Introducing Geomancer: Don’t let your data be lonely tonight
  Thibodeaux and AP data journalist Serdar Tumgoren talk about Geomancer, a new tool created by AP and a team of developers from civic technology company DataMade, that makes it easier for journalists to add context to a data set.

SATURDAY, MARCH 7

• Getting started with SQLite
  This workshop led by Thibodeaux will provide an introduction to the world of SQL (Structured Query Language), “the lingua franca of relational databases.”

• Summing and grouping in SQLite
  Thibodeaux will help journalists build their SQL skills in this advanced workshop.

• Visualization for reporting
  Minkoff co-leads a workshop on how to use visualizations and graphics as a powerful reporting tool.

In a note to staff, Managing Editor for U.S. News Brian Carovillano explains how a reporter who cultivated sources on the statehouse beat kept AP ahead on a story that resonated beyond state borders: