RootsTech 2011

About

The first annual RootsTech conference was held February 10-12, 2011 in Salt Lake City.  The conference is designed to bring together both genealogists and technologists to shape the future of Family History. RootsTech is sponsored by FamilySearch and several genealogy and technology partners. Visit the official RootsTech conference page and the Lanyrd RootsTech social conference directory page for more details and links to write-ups and slide decks.

KeyNote Speakers

RootsTech 2011 featured 4 keynote speakers.  Their presentations were broadcast via live streaming. 

• Shane Robison - Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, 
  Hewlett–Packard Company
• Brewster Kahle - Founder of the Internet Archive
• Curt B. Witcher - Historical Genealogy Department Manager at the Allen County Public Library
• Jay Verkler - CEO, FamilySearch International
  

To learn more about each of the keynote speakers, visit the Keynote Speakers page on the Rootstech website.

Lunch Events

Thursday, February 10th

• LE001 Mobile Applications: the Hows, Whys and Future presented by Kendall Hulet and sponsored by Ancestry.com
• LE006 Family History in the Age of the Cloud presented by Chris van der Kuyl and sponsored by BrightSolid

Friday, February 11th

• LE003 FamilySearch Developers Network presented by Gordon Clarke and sponsored by the FamilySearch Developer Network and SharingTime.com.
• LE004 Family History Technology: Where have we been and where are we going? presented by Professor William Barrett and sponsored by the BYU Computer Science Department.
• LE002 Leveraging Tradition and Technology: Building a National Website with Four People presented by Ryan J. Woods and sponsored by the New England Historic Genealogical Society

Saturday, February 12th

• LE005 High Touch and High Tech: Being a Successful 21st Century Genealogical Society presented by Curt Witcher and sponsored by the Federation of Genealogical Societies

Luxegen Genealogy and Family History Blog - Rootstech Takeaways: High Tech High Touch

Conference Courses

Classes at Rootstech 2011 were organized into two tracks: Tech Users (TU) and Tech Creators (TC). In addition, there were multiple luncheon events and unconference sessions. Courses are listed at http://rootstech.familysearch.org/sessions.php.

More detailed information is available for each of the following courses.

Thursday, February 10th

• TC112:360 Degree Virtual Panorama Photos/Photo Imaging for Producing Authentic On-Site Family History Root Experiences with Multimedia - class taught by John Kuzmich, Jr & Ivan Majc.

Friday, February 11th

• TU037: Easy Digital Newsletters - class taught by Pat Richley-Ericson (aka DearMyrtle).  Read Joan Miller's blog post about her experience as a participant. 

Saturday, February 12th

• TC091: An Exploration of the Integration of Social Networking Technologies into the Core Activities of Genealogical Societies - presented by Tony Hansen of the Dallas Genealogical Society.
  
• CL079: Genealogical Data Standards - open discussion moderated by the Ancestry Insider.
  
• TU229: FamilySearch Community Tools - class taught by Fran Jensen

Guidance for RootsTech Presenters was available online.

Official Conference Bloggers

RoosTech invited 16 genealogy bloggers to serve as Official Conference Bloggers. 

• Jill Ball - Geniaus
• Lisa Louise Cooke - Genealogy Gems Podcast
• Amy Coffin - We Tree Genealogy Blog
• Schelly Talalay Dardashti - Tracing the Tribe: the Jewish Genealogy Blog
• DearMYRTLE - DearMYRTLE
• Dick Eastman - Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
• AncestryInsider - AncestryInsider
• Thomas MacEntee - Geneabloggers
• Miriam Robbins Midkiff - Ancestories
• Sue Maxwell - Granite Genealogy
• Joan Miller - Luxegen Genealogy
• Kimberly Powell - About.com Genealogy 
• Lorine McGinnis Schulze - Olive Tree Genealogy
• Randy Seaver - Genea-Musings
• James Tanner - Genealogy's Star
• Renee Zamora - Renee's Genealogy Blog
  

Bloggers (official & unofficial) and those on Twitter sure had a lot to report! To view posts and tweets, visit the Geneabloggers RootsTech blogroll. 

Exhibitors

The following companies exhibited at RootsTech 2011 Expo Hall:

• Ancestry
• BrightSolid
• CDI Media
• Cherish Bound
• Crystal Inn
• Dell
• Digital Scrapbook Memories
• DMT Publishing
• EasyFamilyHistory.com
• Emkay International
• Family History Expos
• Family Roots Publishing Company
• FamilyLink.com
• FamilySearch
• FamilySearch Software Community
• Federation of Genealogical Societies
• Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner
• Genealogy Registry
• Genealogy Today LLC
• Generation Maps
• GeneTree
• Geni
• Incline Software
• Legacy Family Tree
• LifeStory Productions, Inc.
• Lifewood Data Technology Ltd.
• My Heritage
• Names in Stone
• National Genealogy Society
• National Institute for Genealogical Studies
• New England Historic Genealogical Society
• Next Generation Software
• Ohana Software
• One Great Family
• Open Gen
• Oracle
• Our Familyology
• Photoloom
• Pleiades Software Development, Inc.
• ReadyMicro Inc.
• RF Memorial Technology
• Richardson Design
• RootsMagic
• RootsTech
• Salt Lake Plaza Hotel At Temple Square
• SharingTime.com
• Sprint
• Southern California Genealogical Society
• The Express Book Machine at the BYU Bookstore
• The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen)
• The MagiKey, LLC
• TNG: The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding
• Tpstry
• Truscape Solutions, Inc
• Utah Genealogical Association
• Vintage Aerial - see the Vintage Aerial team answer 3 questions from Tpstry
• Visit Salt Lake
• Voices and Images

View the floor plan map at the RootsTech site.

Attendees

• Attendees of RootsTech 2011

News Feeds

• Recent Blog Posts about RootsTech 2011
• Twitter Feed for #rootstech Hashtag

External links

• Official site
• RootsTech 2011 social directory - Lanyrd.com

A family history conference hosted by FamilySearch. For online genealogical classes and videos see RootsTech.org.