Connecting and Reconnecting at RootsTech 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah

Ann Tanner teaching at The Family History Guide booth at RootsTech 2020

To say we were busy at RootsTech 2020 convention would be an understatement. The Family History Guide booth was buzzing the entire four days that the Expo Hall was open. With meetings and presentations, I was even busier and spent the my entire time at the convention talking and visiting until I almost lost my voice on Saturday, the last day of the event. I view RootsTech as my major opportunity during the year to visit and reconnect with all those people around the world that I know only by email or other electronic contacts the rest of the year and to meet and connect with new people.

I had a number of presentations at both the MyHeritage.com booth and the Brigham Young University Family History Library booth. I also spent a considerable amount of time helping people learn about The Family History Guide at our booth shown above. As a RootsTech 2020 Ambassador for FamilySearch, the rest of my time was spent talking at the FamilySearch Ambassadors Media Hub or attending meetings at the Family History Library or talking to my friends from around the world. I am sure that the crowds this year probably outnumbered anything we have seen before at the RootsTech conferences in the past nine years. 

Thanks to all those who stopped to talk to me. We also appreciate all those who came by The Family History Guide booth to thank us for our website. We consider this year to be a major turning point in the website's progress with more people thanking us for the website than those who did not know anything about the website. In fact, we were happy and surprised to see the number of people who brought their family members and friends to visit us at the booth. 

We also made some crucial contacts at RootsTech 2020 that may well help The Family History Guide in a major way in the near future. We were happy to be there and are already planning for next year. I am only sorry to be so busy and preoccupied that I didn't take more photos. But I am sure you can see more on The Family History Guide blog. Here is a short excerpt from the blog about our experiences.

We gave over 1,000 demos of The Family History Guide at our workstations over the span of the conference, and they were well-received. Some were brand-new to the site, while many had heard of The Family History Guide but were not familiar with its new features. 

There were over 30 volunteer booth workers manning the demo stations. A common them was the large number of guests who expressed their gratitude for The Family History Guide and the work we are doing to spread family history work. Among these were many trainers and family history consultants and leaders who are now excited about sharing The Family History Guide with the people they interact with. 

Many remarked that The  Family History Guide was the highlight of their entire RootsTech week, and they would say things such as, “How in the world do you continue to add incredible functions like the Come, Follow Me Companion?”

Please take a few minutes to read the rest of our article: RootsTech Recap from The Family History Guide Association.

One interesting development was the introduction of our "The Family History Guide Market Place" with a selection of items to help us raise some funds and spread our message even further. Remember, The Family History Guide is supported by The Family History Guide Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization. We have no paid employees and all the work we do is done by volunteers.

https://the-family-history-guide-association.myshopify.com/