Explore the World of RootsTech Connect 2021

 

With over 500,000 people registered for the event, RootsTech Connect 2021 has an abundance of opportunities to visit, chat, and explore the world of the international genealogical community. Unfortunately, eating, sleeping, and other essential activities get in the way of being online 24-hours a day for three days. 

We started with the Virtual Expo Hall. Each of the vendors has a virtual "booth" which is actually a miniature website with a selection of videos you can view about their products. You can scroll down almost all of the screens and discover more information and content. Here is an example using our booth from The Family History Guide. 

First, you find the icon for the booth. This is the selection of the Society Sponsors. We aren't really a Society but I guess they didn't know where else to put us. 

You can see The Family History Guide in the bottom row of large icons. When you click on an icon, you see the virtual booth or mini-website.

From here, there are a large number of options, you can click on any one of the videos offered or you can click on a link to talk to someone, an expert, about The Family History Guide (or any of the other booths represented in the virtual expo hall) or join in a chat with the "Connect" button. In every case, there will be more options to explore. 

Of course, you should take advantage of all the presentations or classes. These are all "live" and you can go down through the list of over a thousand offerings and click on the plus button and add them to your playlist. If you get lost, click on the blue button at the top of the screen and ask a question. 

We are all adapting to an expanded online world that some of us didn't know existed until the pandemic came along and I am sure some of us don't like very much. But as I have observed, over time, the online world becomes the "new normal" and it really ends up expanding our ability to engage and interact with a much larger group of people. 

In your explorations, you may find a few real gems. Here is one example.

By searching in the Sessions tab, you can find a whole list of presentations about specific subjects. In this example, eighteen links to information about African American Research. So, take the plunge. Get clicking away to find out about what all of us in the genealogical world do all day every day.