Ready for Rootstech

'Digital Dude' from Rootstech 2012

I've been uncharacteristically well-organised so far, left in PLENTY of time for the airport, after missing the plane last year due to horrendous traffic. So far the only thing I may have forgotten is a pair of gloves, left in the wrong coat pockets, I think. I can live with that.

My dance card is filling up quite nicely, with a combination of pre-booked lunches, breakfast invitations, informal dining arrangements with friends and a couple of meetings. I hope I still have time to attend the conference sessions! You can tell that you're spending a lot of time with Americans when you have two conflicting invitations, and they are before 8am! Perhaps if I think of them in terms of GMT (ie before 2pm) it will be easier to cope.

Unless you have seen a Rootstech keynote session, the audience numbers are hard to imagine. At the first two Rootstech conferences, and the NGS conference in the same venue in 2010, thousands of people gathered in the main auditorium to hear them, and I see that this year an even bigger hall is being used. It was quite a culture shock the first time, with all the 'lights, camera, action!' going on, with the the main speakers being introduced like rock stars  by a booming disembodied voice, accompanied by appropriately loud music. It was definitely something different, and not your usual genealogy conference.

I have heard a few people say that Rootstech isn't for them, because they are not technically minded, but it isn't just for nerds, geeks, techies or whatever else you might want to call them (us?). You don t have to be a mechanic or a petrolhead to be interested in getting the most out of you car, and genie-tech is a bit like that. There are people who are good at fiddling about with hardware and software, and at their best they can make life easier for those of us who just want to use neat stuff that just works, and makes our lives easier. The more that users and developers get to talk to each other the better the results will be. So bring it on, the technology that I think I understand, and the stuff that leaves me utterly baffled, but which impresses me just the same. Rootstech 2013 here I come!