Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Friday, February 7, 2014

#RootsTech 2014 -- Talking to Everyone All Day

My voice is tired. As soon as the Keynotes ended, I started talking to dozens and dozens of people. Some want to tell me about their products. Some want information about what is going on with Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, MyHeritage.cm and findmypast.com. Some just want to say hello. But I quickly decided I was getting more information from talking to people all day than I would from the classes and besides I was getting extremely tired of sitting anyway. Not that the classes aren't wonderful, but I felt like I needed to spend the time talking to all the vendors and others on the Exhibit floor. So I started on one side and worked my way through all the different spaces.

In between, I conducted interviews. Three of the interviews so far were videoed and will be put online at some point as soon as I get the copies. One of the highlights of the day was a lunch meeting with MyHeritage.com. I will be getting more information about the presentation and writing a summary of their extremely interesting presentation.

As I wandered through the Exhibit Floor, I met some old friends and made some new ones. Here is a sample of who I talked to with comments. I may return to some of these companies in future blog posts.

My friend Sharon Monson has published a new very basic book for learning about computers. When I say basic, I mean basic. It looks like her website is under construction. GenSearchandmore.com

I talked to Kitty Cooper who does website design. She is from Lakeside, California. Her website si at OpenSkyWebDesign.com

I talked to the folks at RootsPoint.com. This is, in part, a social networking program aimed at drawing people into a conversation about their relatives in the 1940 U.S. Census. This is a pretty unique idea. They also have a number of other searchable record collections including a number of UK Census collections and other collections.

I was glad to see Tammy Hepps of Treelines.com, the winner of the RootsTech 2013 Developer Challenge. Starting a new company is a real challenge and it is wonderful that she has been able to make it back to a second RootsTech Conference.

I stopped by the FamilyStoryteller.com booth and found a professional interviewing company owned by Kimberly Houk, a 14 years as a broadcast journalist and news anchor,

I will have a few more in a later post.

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