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https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/rootstech-connect-2022/
On 7 July 2021, FamilySearch.org announced that the big RootsTech Connect family history conference will be held online again in 2022 as fully virtual event. The Conference will take place on March 3 - 5, 2022. The in-person events anticipated for London this fall and Salt Lake City in 2022 will not take place.
As I see it, the question for FamilySearch was whether or not the conference would continue to be a local, Wasatch Front event attended by about 20,000 to 30,000 people or continue to be a world-wide event with well over a million people participating. It is also very apparent that although the initial cost of presenting a world-wide event was likely substantial, once the systems and programs are in place, continuing the online virtual conference would cost less per participant than a more limited in-person conference. There are some advantages gained by an in-person conference but the huge increase in coverage would seem to me to far outweigh the advantages of meeting in person.
Again, from my perspective, much of the world was forced by the pandemic to upgrade online activity. The news is full of analysis and speculation about a major increase of at-home work environments and changes to almost every type of business. This movement sparked by a pandemic towards globalization of communications is only the beginning. One small example, I have spent every week since RootsTech Connect 2021 online helping people around the world, mainly in South America, with their genealogical questions. At the time of this writing I have had over 100 such support sessions scheduled and I know other volunteers in this virtual, online support effort have scheduled many times that amount of support.
The support comes from the missionaries and volunteers at both the Salt Lake City, Utah Family History Library and the Brigham Young University Family History Library in Provo, Utah. There may be other volunteers in other parts of the world also. The Salt Lake City Family History Library has a web page explaining how the service works. See this page:
The Brigham Young Family History Library provides direct, virtual, online support during the hours the library is open. You can connect directly to library, currently, between the hours of 10:00 am to 8:00 pm Mountain Daylight Time. Hours and times will change as more missionaries are added and also as the time changes due to Daylight Savings Time. Here is where the link to the Virtual Desk is located.
Although the staff, in-person, is limited, there are other missionaries who are able to get online and help during the times indicated.
All of this expanded, online, support became a reality only as the technology developed but it got a huge push from the online reaction to the pandemic.
We have already been online through the BYU Family History Library Virtual Desk with people from around the world.
By the way, the presentations from RootsTech Connect 2021 are still online. See https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/rtc2021/
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