RootsTech 2023 - Day 1

Day 1 of RootsTech is over and there was so much going on. I had several classes on my schedule but didn't even get to any of them. So, what did I do instead of classes?

At 9:00, I did an interview with Jen Allen, Brandon Beckstead, and Jonathan Wing, the FamilySearch employees who are responsible for making RootsTech happen. We talked about the process of setting up RootsTech, how much sleep they have lost over the last couple months, and when RootsTech 2024 will occur - (Spoiler Alert: It will start on February 29th, 2024!)

After that, I walked over to the Storied booth where I spoke with Brandon Camp, the CMO of Storied. Storied is a new company which officially launched on January 18, 2023. They use ChatGPT (AI) for their Story Assist to help you develop the story of your ancestors. Story Assist gives you several prompts and then provides the start of a story for you to edit and add to as you wish. This is meant to remove writers block and help people get started in telling the story of their relatives. The site has a set of basic research records which is growing. They currently have access to Newspaperarchive.com, many of the US Census records, a variety of vital records, some international records, and has integration with Goldie May. 

Storied has a three tier membership. Their basic Free account allows you to create your family tree or upload a GEDCOM file and you can create unlimited stories. Their Storied Plus account is $4.99/month and allows you to create a group, have access to the US historical records collection, and invite up to 50 people to collaborate. The group members get free access to what you have created and can add unlimited memories to the people. The Storied Ultimate account is $11.99/month and provides access to everything in the Plus account as well as UK newspapers and Newspaper Archive and you can add up to 10 groups with up to 100 people in each group to help you collaborate and create stories. But right now, they have a RootsTech special where you can get the Ultimate subscription for only $99 for the year using this link. That is $40 off the regular price. The link is good through Saturday.

Then, I went to the Main Stage to watch Jordin Sparks. I had front row seating in the Media Section. Jordin did a little interview and then performed four of her songs during the 45 minutes she was on stage. Afterward, a few of us were able to go to the Meet & Great to get pictures.

After lunch, I attended the Innovation Showcase where several new companies promoted their products. Vlada Bortnik of Marco Polo discussed their video chat platform. The Marco Polo platform allows you to record a video chat and send it to others. They can then view the chat at their leisure and return a chat to you. The object is to make the interactions more personal and build connections. See the bottom of this blog post for a QR code for 2 free months of Marco Polo Plus.

Andy Gold of FamilySearch presented their new developments in Computer Generated Trees (CGT). CGTs build the scaffolding to store data in tree form. It scans millions of records in a matter of hours, looking for connections that can add to the family tree. This process is currently being developed for locations in Australia, Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, and Italy. You can begin exploring the CGTs by visiting FamilySearch at https://www.familysearch.org/search/cgt.

Bank of Memories was the next to present. They are a blockchain storage where you can store your digital information. I'm not up on the blockchain process so I won't even try to explain how this works.

KinSame has a really cool technology which can analyze photographs for genetic information and relationships. I don't understand the algorithm they use but they claim to be able to detect thousands of genetic traits, verify degrees of kinship between individuals, and develop family trees just by analyzing photographs. They are marketing their product to the big genealogy companies and hope that they will be able to license the product for commercial use in the near future.

GENXT is another company that is developing a product that they hope the industry will adopt. Their product allows for cross-platform genetic matching. There are currently over 250 companies which do genetic analysis and more than 70 of them specialize in genealogy. However, there is no way for an individual to see what is in all of these databases. GENXT would allow the data to be shared across platforms so you can see if you have cousins at company X without having to test at that company. Many of us today use the major companies, Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilyTree DNA, 23 and Me, etc. and have either had to upload our data or take tests at various companies. If the GENXT technology is adopted, the data from all of these companies would be available to us with only one test.

Ericcson demonstrated their EPHAS augmented reality technology. EPHAS stands for Every Place Has A Story. This technology has a variety of uses, but for genealogy it would allow you to experience the story of a place in a virtual environronment. Ericcson provided a RootsTech Trial QR code which I have provided at the bottom of this post.

Then MacFamilyTree presented their latest release. This software is for personal use and has spectacular graphics. It almost makes me want to have a Mac so I could use their 3-D tree and other components. MacFamilyTree has integration with FamilySearch and uses AI to colorize and enhance photos and enhance blurry documents. You can see their video on their website and get a good idea of what they have developed.

MyHeritage cM Explainer

And lastly, MyHeritage talked about their AI Time Machine, which I wrote about last November. MyHeritage has also just released their cM Explainer. This is a free new feature that accurately estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer offers detailed predictions of possible relationships between the two people and the respective probabilities of each relationship. It also determines the most recent common ancestor, and displays a diagram showing their relationship path.

There was a lot more going on, this was just my day before 2:30. Maybe I'll write about the rest later. But now, it is time for me to head out again for RootsTech Day 2.

Ericcson EPHAS trial

RootsTech 2023 - Coming Soon!

Can you believe it? We will be able to attend RootsTech in person again next week! I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone face-to-face again and be able to sit down and chat with you all between classes. I realize that some of you will be attending RootsTech virtually. According to recent registration numbers there are over 6,000 paid attendees and over 300,000 virtual attendees. And there are expected to be another 20,000 free attendees in the Expo Hall and other events, many of them will be there on Saturday for the Family Discovery Day.

There is still time to register for RootsTech if you haven't done so already. All you have to do is visit the RootsTech website and select In Person or Virtual. However, the early bird price for in person registration will be expiring soon so you better hurry.

So what can you expect this year? As I mentioned in my previous blog post, Jordin Sparks will be on the Main Stage on Thursday at 11:00. They have also announced the Friday and Saturday Main Stage speakers. On Friday, Me Ra Koh will be speaking. Me Ra Koh is a photographer and author of several books that inspire the soul spiritually and creatively. On Saturday, it will be Sean Astin. You may know Sean from his roles in movies such as Goonies and Lord of the Rings where he played Samwise Gamgee. The MC for the Main Stage events will be Kirby Heyborne. You may know him from several movies (The Singles Ward and The Best Two Years) and as host of the BYU show Making Good. I would recommend that you show up early for the Keynote Speakers since there is usually a line outside the doors waiting for them to open and the best seating is towards the front. For those of you watching virtually, the Keynote Speakers will be livestreamed so find a good chair, grab your snacks, and prepare to be entertained.

As far as classes, there are a large number from which to choose. For those attending in person, you will have over 250 classes with 16 classes each session. For those watching virtually, there are more than 300 classes with over 200 pre-recorded on demand videos, 67 webinars, and 37 live streamed classes. The virtual classes can be found on the RootsTech Calendar page where you can build your Playlist. In person classes can be found on the RootsTech Schedule page where you can create your Show Planner. You will still have access to the virtual content for the next year through RootsTech365 once RootsTech 2023 is over.

Between classes you can visit the Expo Hall. There is a virtual Expo Hall for those of you watching from home. There will be over 155 exhibitors in the physical Expo Hall. Some of those exhibitors will also have a presence in the Virtual Expo Hall along with other companies that will only be present virtually. Be sure to visit them, see their videos and classes, and ask questions. They really want to interact with people during the conference.

Have you started to use the Relatives at RootsTech app? The app looks at your family tree on FamilySearch and locates your relatives who will be attending RootsTech. I currently have 48 relatives at RootsTech. This is a good number for me, but I am sure that yours will be higher. My wife has over 9,200. You can view your relatives, see how you are related, and message them to set up a meeting while you are at RootsTech.

I hope that you find some useful bits of information in this post and I look forward to seeing you at RootsTech.

  

RootsTech 2023 - What Should You Expect?

We are only a little over a month away from RootsTech 2023! Have you registered? If not, you should go to rootstech.org and complete your registration. The virtual conference is free and on demand over the next year or more. The in-person conference is $98 for the three day pass but you might be able to win a free pass by visiting the links on my previous blog post. 

Did you hear that Jordin Sparks, 2007 American Idol winner, will be a Keynote Speaker this year? She will share her personal story and speak to the power of uniting through song and word on the first day of the conference.

There are many other speakers who will be sharing their life experiences on the Main Stage also, You can see a small selection of them in another of my blog posts.

I hope everyone has started to make their plans for this incredible event. Some of you are old pros and have attended several RootsTech conferences, whether that be in-person or virtually. But some of you are new to this whole thing and are probably wondering what to expect. Well, here is some advice from my previous experiences at RootsTech as an attendee, volunteer, influencer, speaker, and exhibitor.

1. Transportation. Salt Lake has a great public transportation system. I usually take the TRAX Green Line train from the airport to downtown. There are frequent stops within a block of the north and west sides of the Salt Palace. You can see how close your hotel is to the nearest Trax Station to see if you want to walk. Downtown transportation on the TRAX is free but there is a small cost to and from the airport.
2. Arrive early. I prefer to arrive the day before and do a walk through of the Salt Palace to get my bearings. Early check-in starts on Wednesday between 4:00-6:00. The Expo Hall will not be open in advance but you can see the layout from the second floor. The venue is huge and it is easy to get lost when your classes are spaced out over the entire floorplan. Another benefit of arriving early is that you can visit the recently renovated FamilySearch Library which is just a block north of the Salt Palace. Or you can visit Temple Square and see the sites there. 
3. Speaking of floorplans, make sure you have a map so you can locate your rooms. The RootsTech app has provided maps in the past. Bathrooms are located throughout the area but sometimes may be hard to find. If you don't have a map, the volunteers are ready to help point you in the right direction. 
4. There is usually a coat check area near the main entrance. You can leave your coats and other items there for safe keeping. I usually wear a coat with a sweatshirt underneath that I can wear during the conference since some of the classrooms may be cool. 
5. Food vendors are located all around the venue. In previous years, the main area for snacks was located in the west hall on the first floor. For meals, there are usually several choices at the back of the Expo Hall. If you want something different, you can cross the street and visit City Creek Center for selections like Blue Lemon (American fare) and Blue Iguana (Mexican).
6. You can't reserve classes in advance, but you should at least make a schedule of your preferred classes. RootsTech has posted the class schedules online. I suggest that you pick your first and second choice classes and locate their room numbers for each session and keep that in your planner. Realize that some class sessions may overlap. The classrooms are large but can fill up for high profile speakers. If you can't get into your first choice, then head over to your second choice.
7. What happens if you can't get into your first or second choice? There are other classes that are available. But if you don't want to attend a different class, you can head to the Expo Hall. The vendors will have great deals and you can chat with them one-on-one while everyone else is in their classes. You can stop by The Family History Guide booth and see if I am there. Many of the vendors also have mini-classes.  
8. Seating. Do you like to sit up front, along the aisle, or near the back? Each has its advantages. Many people like to sit at the front of the room so they can see the slides and speaker better. Many classrooms have multiple screens so you can find a variety of close seats. Sometimes the front rows are designated for handicapped seating (mobility, deaf, etc.). The seats will be marked so make sure to look before sitting in those areas. The aisle seats give you easy access to so you can get up and out quickly. I prefer the back rows since those may have wall plugs and I can recharge my devices while listening to the presentation.
9. Expo Hall Hints. Check the times for the Expo Hall so you know when it opens and closes. The times will be different from the class times. It usually opens after the Keynote/General Session speakers and closes after the classes. In previous years you could visit the FamilySearch Library area in the Expo Hall and have their missionaries and volunteers help you with your research. If you had an old family book and permission to copy it, you could visit the scanning station and have it scanned onsite and uploaded to the book collection on FamilySearch. On the north side of the Expo Hall is the media area. That is where you will find some of us doing our interviews, writing blogs, recording podcasts, etc. Feel free to say "hi" to us (we don't bite even though they keep us in a fenced off area).
10. Take some time to relax and unwind. RootsTech can be an overwhelming experience. In the past there have been around 15,000-25,000 people at the event on any given day. And the fact that you are running from class to class can frazzle your nerves. There are benches in the halls where you can just sit for a while, recharge your device, and people watch. Or, gather a few of your newly found friends and head out for a bite to eat. We all enjoy meeting new people and getting to know each other.
11. The Relatives at RootsTech app has been enhanced for 2023 with features for the virtual and in-person attendees. Use the app to discover who you are related to at RootsTech and find your new cousins. Schedule a meet up with your new family and compare notes.
12. One last piece of advice. If you are attending RootsTech in person, you should also register for the virtual event. The virtual event will have additional content which will be available to view on demand for at least the next year.

I hope these tips will be helpful as you explore RootsTech, and feel free to say "hi" to me if you see me in the halls (I'll probably be wearing some genealogy related t-shirt).