Wednesday, February 26, 2014

I've recovered from RootsTech--finally.

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Reprinted from my post on the Visit Salt Lake Blog:

It has taken me three weeks to recover.  What a party.  If you missed it, you'll want to catch the video archive and mark your calendars for next year.  RootsTech has become the biggest family history conference in the world.

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved
Over the past 10 years, I have traveled with my company, Family ChartMasters, to conferences across North America and Europe.  To date, the largest family history conference has been Who Do You Think You Are Live in London, England.  But this year, with the online streaming attendees, and record registrations, Salt Lake City was the host for what has become the largest Family History event in the world.   RootsTech was held at the Salt Palace and was sponsored by FamilySearch.  Attendees traveled from 49 states (if you are in South Dakota you need to come next year) and 32 countries.

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved
Speakers presented workshops on a wide range of family history topics including social networking and archiving photos, DNA and storytelling and etc, and etc,.  The presentations included a wide range of beginner to more advanced topics.  Computer labs gave attendees hands on experience with the latest technologies.  And the keynote presentations each morning came from a wide range of popular presenters.  My favorite lecture was the keynote Friday with Judy Russell.  She is a crowd-pleasing genealogy speaker who talked about how quickly family history information is lost and how important it is to effectively pass it down.  Follow the link to listen to her inspiring presentation. 

2014 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved
On top of the great classes, the vendor's hall was the biggest I've ever seen--and so much fun.  With a demo theater, free giveaways and lots of hands on exhibits, you could spend the whole day in the vendors hall and learn enough to keep you busy throughout the next year.  Experts from genealogy companies around the world were on hand to solve your family history problems and help you learn more about your ancestors.

RootsTech continues to grow and improve each year and I'm sure next year will be even better.  Mark your calendars for February 12-14th 2015 and plan to join us and have lots of fun learning about who you are and where you came from.  You'll be able to register this fall at rootstech.org.  I'll see you there.

Thanks to Paul Nauta at FamilySearch for the great pictures.  I was so busy I only got a few.  It was such a whirlwind I was only able to post to facebook a little.  It was so fun to see everyone and we never get enough time to talk during the short three days.  But it is so much excitement packed into such a short amount of time I don't know that I could do it for much longer.  For more info on my lecture and my son's lecture see my post over on my Zap The Grandma Gap Blog. We had a great time.

1 comment:

Jana Iverson Last said...

Janet,

I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in today's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/02/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-february-28.html

Have a fantastic weekend!