TRADECRAFT — The WALI Investigative Tradecraft Conference
Everything they left out of the manual.
TRADECRAFT 2026 · The WALI Investigative Tradecraft Conference
October 23–25, 2026 · Crowne Plaza Seattle Downtown, 1113 Sixth Avenue
Everything they left out of the manual.
Knowledge is in the manual. Tradecraft is how you apply it. This year's conference is built around the things that only work with everyone in one room: drills, workshops, and roundtables where the speakers sit down with your group.
Friday, October 23 · The Intake
4:30–7:30 p.m.
Registration opens at 4:00. Reception 4:30–7:30, with one rule: arrive with an open question, leave with three people working it.
7:30–10:30 p.m.
Walk to Pike Place Market for The Night Shift, an arts event hosted at one of the city's top attractions.
Saturday, October 24 · Open File
8:00 a.m. Registration and coffee
9:00 a.m. Keynote: Undercover, on the inside — Bob Guilfoyle, Humane World for Animals. He exposed an international horse abduction ring, pulled French bulldogs out of a breeding mill and beagles out of a lab, and spent months inside factory farms with a camera.
10:05 a.m. Prompt engineering for investigators — speaker to be announced
10:50 a.m. Following the money — Greg Tweed, The Preston Matthews Group
11:35 a.m. Counterintelligence for better OPSEC — Dan Phillips, Wilson Investigations
12:20 pm. Lunch
1:20 p.m. Choose one, at registration:
· Live foot surveillance drill on downtown streets: team surveillance, coordinated box, real traffic
· Interview workshop with Mark O'Riordan, a former Secret Service polygraph examiner who now trains law enforcement to interview better. You'll be in the chair.
3:10 p.m. Served: how the hard ones get done — Josh Ritts, Clearview Investigative Services
4:00 p.m. Finding the story in your facts — speaker to be announced
5:00 p.m. Business Development Panel: Turning investigations into a career and a product — Linda Montgomery, Josh Ritts, Lael Henterly and a special guest
5:45 p.m. Rotating tables, drinks in hand: ask our biz dev pros all the questions in table-size groups
Evening: three city outings to choose from:
Sunday, October 25 · When the case crosses the border
(So many people from other states and countries registered early that we reconfigured Sunday to fit our audience. That meant nixing our Washington regulatory policy roundtables and adding sessions that take a more expansive view of investigative work.)
9:00 a.m. Finding people on and off tribal land — Keith Grube, OWAKPAMNI
10:05 a.m. Following stolen goods and animals around the world — Naia Okami, Cascadia Risk Management
10:55 a.m. Cross-border and cross-state investigations roundtable: bring the jurisdiction problem you're stuck on.
11:45 a.m. Brunch
12:30 p.m. Affinity groups:
1. surveillance and field operations
2. fraud, financial and corporate
3. OSINT and digital
4. criminal defense and post-conviction
5. interviews and human sources
1:30 p.m. Close
Registration
Regular, through October 9: $350 members · $425 non-members
Late, October 10–24: $425 members · $475 non-members
Registration closes October 24. Not a member? Join first; the member discount covers most of your dues.
Your room. The WALI room block at the Crowne Plaza is $149/night with a waived resort fee. Book here or call and ask for the WALI CI group rate.
Questions? Contact WALI at board@wali.org or 206-687-8601
