| Sunday April 21, 2024 | |
| 12:00pm-4:30pm on Sunday | |
| Check-In Stop by the IFD&TC registration table to pick up your conference materials. Late check-in is also available Monday morning before the Keynote. | |
| 4:30pm-6:00pm on Sunday | |
| Welcome Reception Location: Palace Prefunction IFD&TC organizers welcome you to the conference. Please join us for a happy hour reception featuring light snacks, a cash bar, and an informal time to visit with old and new friends. Dinner on your own after the reception. | |
| Monday April 22, 2024 | |
| 7:30am-9:00am on Monday | |
| Breakfast Location: Palace Prefunction & Palace BR II Buffet breakfast served | |
| 8:00am-8:30am on Monday | |
| Early Career Breakfast Roundtable Discussion Location: Palace Prefunction & Palace BR II Facilitator: Carol Wintheiser, University of Wisconsin Survey Center Are you an early career/first time attendee and don’t know where to start? Start your day with breakfast and meeting other new attendees at our breakfast table. Grab a plate and look for the Early Career signs in the dining area. We can answer any questions that you have about the conference and help you meet others who share your interests. | |
| Facilitator Breakfast Roundtable Discussion Location: Stillman Facilitator: Kelly Elver, University of Wisconsin Survey Center All attendees facilitating a session at the conference are asked to attend a half hour breakfast meeting to go over guidelines and answer questions. If you’ve been a facilitator before, please come share your experiences with newer facilitators. If this is your first time, join us to meet others, and learn more about how facilitating works at IFD&TC. | |
| 8:00am-9:00am on Monday | |
| Registration Continues If you arrived late to the conference, you can check in at the IFD&TC registration table. | |
| Session 1 | 9:00am-10:15am on Monday |
| 1A – All | Keynote – Data Collection Systems: Past, Present, and Future – R. Suresh, RTI International Invited Address Location: Palace Ballroom 1 Facilitator: Sangeetha Immani, RTI International
Ramasubramanian Suresh, (goes by “Suresh”), Principal Research Leader in the Technology Practice Area, has been with RTI since 1985. His passion is designing and developing data collection systems. His work has contributed significantly to RTI’s pioneering development of general-purpose and standard methods for computer-assisted interviewing (CAI). For example, he led the development of RTI’s Survey Management System, an overarching control and case management system for multimodal survey projects. Furthermore, his extensive knowledge of technical areas played a critical role in making data collection systems function efficiently in RTI’s FIPS Moderate environment. |
| 10:15am-10:45am on Monday | |
| Monday AM Break Refreshments served | |
| Session 2 | 10:45am-12:00pm on Monday |
| 2A – Field | Complex Data Collection Efforts Presentation & Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Chris Schlapper, University of Wisconsin Survey Center These presentations each introduce a complex data collection project, share details of their data collection activities, and offer ideas for ongoing improvement based on lessons learned.
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| 2B – Field | Staff Management and Engagement Presentation & Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: Ella Kemp, NORC at the University of Chicago These presentations cover topics related to managing, engaging, and training staff, with a focus on techniques and challenges faced by survey shops in the emerging post-COVID normal.
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| 2C – Field | Client Management Roundtable Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Kelly Elver, University of Wisconsin Survey Center Topics for this roundtable discussion will include tips for efficient client management, ways to limit scope creep and budget overruns caused by client changes in expectations or timelines, working with clients who are part of a large team or working with partner organizations, and managing a difficult or unhappy client. Project managers from different types and sizes of organizations will share their experiences and offer advice on current techniques in client management. |
| 2D – Tech | Testing and Performance Presentation & Discussion Location: Embassy Facilitator: Steve Gomori, RTI International This session focuses on ensuring data quality through testing and performance measurement along with successful execution of wearable data collection.
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| 12:00pm-1:00pm on Monday | |
| Random Digit Dining – Monday Lunch Location: Palace Ballroom II & Stillman Attendees are seated at randomly-assigned tables, as listed on your name tag. RDD lunch is a fun way to meet and get to know other attendees! | |
| Session 3 | 1:30pm-2:45pm on Monday |
| 3A – Field | Culturally Responsive Research Presentation & Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: Anwar Mohammed, RTI International These presentations offer insights into improving data quality, inclusivity, and response rates through the use of culturally responsive research principles.
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| 3B – Field | Mode Transitions Presentation & Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Jennifer Draude, NORC at the University of Chicago The presentations in this session offer lessons learned from transitioning to new data collection modes or adding additional modes to ongoing operations.
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| 3C – Field | Interviewer Attrition Part 1 Panel Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Grant Benson, UM-Survey Research Center (UM-SRC) This is part 1 of a 2-part panel focused on interviewer hiring and retention, training modes, training engagement, interviewer job satisfaction, and the future of interviewer-administered surveys.
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| 3D – Tech | Case Management Presentation & Discussion Location: Embassy Facilitator: Sangeetha Immani, RTI International This session focuses on case management systems, such as ServiceNow or home-grown solutions, and school-based surveys using Voxco and transitioning to online administration.
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| 2:45pm-3:15pm on Monday | |
| Monday PM Break Refreshments served | |
| Session 4 | 3:15pm-4:30pm on Monday |
| 4A – Field | Respondent Engagement and Incentives Presentation & Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Josh Winston, U.S. Census Bureau The presentations in this session share ideas for using incentives, materials, and other modes of outreach to improve response rates and increase participant retention.
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| 4B – Field | Interviewer Attrition Part 2 Panel Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: Grant Benson, UM-Survey Research Center (UM-SRC) This is part 2 of a 2-part panel focused on interviewer hiring and retention, training modes, training engagement, interviewer job satisfaction, and the future of interviewer-administered surveys.
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| 4C – Tech | Security and Compliance Presentation & Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Charlotte Looby, RTI International This session focuses on security controls to obtain Authority to Operate (ATO), strategies to prevent survey bots, and testing web surveys for 508 compliance.
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| 4D – Tech | Technical Debt: An Introduction Panel Discussion Location: Embassy Facilitator: Steve Gomori, RTI International Technical debt includes any aspect of a project that slows down productivity over time. It can include requirements gathering, systems design, quality control, and coding. The nature of technical debt is increased costs – it’s responsible for inefficiencies caused by postponed feature additions, delayed decision making, or business decisions that create barriers to completing or effectively maintaining applications over time. Technical debt is not a bad thing, it drives schedules and allows time for refactoring and enhancing features, but it needs to be managed strategically and used as a tool for developing quality software. In this panel, we will define technical debt and illustrate project scenarios and actions that contribute to technical debt. We’ll present effective ways to monitor, manage, and reduce debt so teams and organizations can more effectively develop solutions on time and within budget in the long term.
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| Session 5 | 4:45pm-5:45pm on Monday |
| 5A – All | Business Meeting Roundtable Discussion Location: Palace Ballroom 1 Facilitator: Kevin Tharp, Indiana University Center for Survey Research The Business Meeting is where we discuss the future of the IFD&TC, elect new organizers, and learn about the location of future conferences. Everyone is encouraged to attend; we welcome participation from first year-attendees too!
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| Tuesday April 23, 2024 | |
| 7:30am-9:00am on Tuesday | |
| Breakfast Location: Palace Prefunction & Palace BR II Buffet breakfast served | |
| Session 6 | 9:00am-10:15am on Tuesday |
| 6A – Field | Staff Training Presentation & Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Rick Garvey, RAND Survey Research Group These presenters share innovative approaches for designing and implementing training, including both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
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| 6B – Field | Census Bureau’s Identified Challenges, Potential Resolutions and Best Practices for Developing Internet Self-Response (ISR) Solutions Roundtable Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Roxanne Moadel-Attie, U.S. Census Bureau This roundtable discussion will focus on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Data Ingest and Collection for the Enterprise (DICE) Program as a case study for the challenges and potential solutions facing large-scale IT programs aiming to modernize and re-focus data collection within organizations. The DICE program is pursuing various efforts to update IT infrastructure using cloud-based and open-source software solutions. |
| 6C – Field | Establishment Surveys Presentation & Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: Tracy Keirns, University of New Hampshire These presentations address topics related to recruiting and interviewing agencies and businesses.
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| 6D – Tech | R Workshop: RMarkdown, Census data, and Mapping Workshop Location: Embassy Facilitator: Charlotte Looby, RTI International This year’s R workshop will teach attendees how to use RMarkdown to create publish-ready documents, use the Census API to explore decennial and American Community Survey data, and use leaflet to create geographical maps based on survey and Census data. |
| 10:15am-10:45am on Tuesday | |
| Tuesday AM Break Refreshments served | |
| Session 7 | 10:45am-12:00pm on Tuesday |
| 7A – Field | Community Engaged Research Presentation & Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Jason Fiero, RTI International These presentations cover advance planning for efforts to build connections with communities prior to the start of data collection or to address issues with underrepresentation from prior efforts.
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| 7B – Field | Security Clearance Panel Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Heather Morrison, Decision Information Resources, Inc This panel will give call center and field managers an opportunity to discuss the challenges in staffing data collectors on projects that require federal security clearances and the tactics their organizations have adopted to minimize the impact of these challenges on the data collection efforts.
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| 7C – Tech | Programming and Product Management Presentation & Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: Mangal Subramanian, Westat This session covers topics including product management, and programming solutions using Voxco, and REDCap for CATI.
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| 12:00pm-1:00pm on Tuesday | |
| Random Digit Dining – Tuesday Lunch Location: Palace Ballroom II & Stillman Attendees are seated at randomly-assigned tables, as listed on your name tag. RDD lunch is a fun way to meet and get to know other attendees! | |
| Session 8 | 1:30pm-2:45pm on Tuesday |
| 8A – Field | Paradata, Reports and Dashboards Presentation & Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Tina Vera, RTI International Presenters will share insights gathered from reviewing project paradata as well as creating dashboards and other reports for internal or external stakeholders.
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| 8B – Field | Targeted Populations: Youth Presentation & Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: John Baker, U.S. Census Bureau These presentations share different methods for contacting, gaining cooperation with, and then interviewing youth.
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| 8C – Field | Collaborating with External Organizations Roundtable Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Kerryann DiLoreto, University of Wisconsin Survey Center This roundtable will discuss challenges and lessons learned while collaborating with external organizations on data collection for the current round of a large longitudinal study. |
| 8D – Tech | Using Machine-Assisted Topic Analysis for Qualitative Research Roundtable Discussion Location: Embassy Facilitator: Obafemi Ogunleye, University of Minnesota – Office of Measurement Services Machine-assisted topic analysis (MATA) is an approach to qualitative research that uses artificial intelligence (AI) methods to analyze textual data. As the role of AI continues to become more prevalent, this has become a topic of interest for clients and researchers looking to analyze large text-based datasets. In this round table discussion, the facilitator aims to review the ways in which IFD&TC attendees have used MATA in their research as well as the associated strengths and weaknesses from their perspectives. Participants will discuss their experiences with machine-assisted topic analysis as well as the methods and technologies used to do this work. |
| 2:45pm-3:15pm on Tuesday | |
| Tuesday PM Break Refreshments served | |
| Session 9 | 3:15pm-4:30pm on Tuesday |
| 9A – Field | Recruitment and Enrollment Presentation & Discussion Location: Embassy Facilitator: Mary Potter, U.S. Census Bureau These presentations offer insights from efforts to recruit respondents to participate in studies, in diverse settings and modes.
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| 9B – Field | Staffing and Onboarding Presentation & Discussion Location: Allen Facilitator: Kurt Johnson, RTI International These presentations detail topics related to hiring and retaining staff, included interview mode, role definition, and onboarding activities.
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| 9C – Field | Small Shop Roundtable Roundtable Discussion Location: Hanna Facilitator: Bianca DiJulio, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute Do you work in a small shop? Come discuss problems you face and solutions you’ve implemented given constraints in terms of size, budget, and organizational context. This roundtable will facilitate networking, sharing of ideas, and adapting to ensure that your small shop prospers. |
| 9D – Tech | Innovations Presentation & Discussion Location: State Facilitator: Chris Griggs, RTI International This session focuses on innovative approaches to data collection systems, best practices in using text to bolster response in web surveys and the impact of phone types on contact rates.
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| Session 10 | 4:45pm-6:00pm on Tuesday |
| 10A – All | Tech Talk Roundtable Discussion Location: Palace Ballroom 1 Facilitator: Eric White, University of Wisconsin Survey Center Join attendees with an interest in the technical aspects of survey research for a special roundtable discussion. The open format allows for a range of soft tech management topics and current events impacting survey center technical operations. Everyone is welcome, both techies and “fieldies”! |
Program – 2024
IFD&TC 57th Annual Conference
April 21st-23rd, 2024
Cleveland, Ohio
2024 Conference Program
Come along for a walk through of a brief history of data collection systems and technology from the viewpoint of someone who has had a front-row seat for over 30 years. Then get a feel for the current state of these systems and the exciting new technologies that are around the corner. Finally, get a glimpse of what the future holds in this area as predicted by the speaker.