Rootstech - two days and counting

Throw a stone in Salt Lake City right now and you'll hit a genealogist. Not that I'm suggesting you throw stones at them; they (we) are nice people. I've been here since Thursday of last week, and a good number were already here then, for SLIG, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy January 23-27. That was a pretty intensive week, as I have gathered from my friends who were either studying or teaching there.

Now attention is turned to Rootstech, and more attendees are arriving all the time, from all over the world. So far I have met people from New Zealand and Australia, and another Aussie is somewhere over the Pacific en route right now. The full schedule has been posted on the Rootstech site, including the 14 sessions that will be streamed live, so that you can follow the proceedings from anywhere in the world. You can also catch the buzz by reading what the Official Bloggers have to say or by following   #rootstech on Twitter. Th Official Bloggers are not the only ones in attendance; at the last count around 90 bloggers were expected to attend, and Amy Coffin of the We Tree Genealogy Blog is making it her mission to meet all of them. I am not am Official Blogger, but I am pleased to be participating in a joint session with two of them; one of them is Amy, and the other is Jill Ball aka Geniaus. The session at 11:00 on Friday is Genealogy 2.0: International Panelists discuss their use of social media Sadly, our Canadian friend, Lorinne McGinnis Schulze of the Olive Tree Genealogy blog is unable to join us. We will miss her.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Expo Hall (which will include book vendors after all, following a bit of a fuss some time back). Its distinctive features include the Demo Stage,  the Media Hub where the Official Bloggers are based, complete with interview booths, and the Microsoft Playground where you can, well, play; last year there was table football and table tennis. Last year soft seating areas were dotted around, where people could resort for a chat - I had the impression that a lot of business was done this way.

I can hardly wait