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 & technology partners. The official conference page is at http://rootstech.familysearch.org/.  

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.

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
• Federation of Genealogical Societies
• Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner
• GeneTree
• Geni
• National Genealogy Society
• New England Historic Genealogy Society
• Ohana Software
• Open Gen
• Our Familyology
• RF Memorial Technology
• RootsMagic
• Tpstry 
• TNG: The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding
• Vintage Aerial  - see the Vintage Aerial team answer 3 questions from Tpstry

View the floor plan map at the RootsTech site.

Attendees

• Attendees of RootsTech 2011

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