Virtual or In Person: What is the future of genealogy?

 

https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2022-02-21/rootstech-2022-virtual-family-history-event-new-improved-features-242303

It is now the second year that the RootsTech conference has gone virtual. The attendance at the virtual conference in 2021 exceeded previous in-person attendance by over a million attendees (some estimates online have been 1.5 million or more). Additionally, the RootsTech.org website continued to. provide access to about 1,500 presentations and classes during the entire 2021 year into 2022. In essence, the RootsTech conference, which had been traditionally attended by 20,000 to 30,000 or so people, now has a global reach. Can the greater genealogy community ignore these numbers?

The entire world has suffered through a taxing pandemic where people have felt isolated and suffered the effects of that isolation. So, when the issue of virtual vs. in-person is raised, there are usually comments about the importance of meeting in person, making friends, interacting with other genealogists and so forth. These are all valid issues but what do they have with educating millions of people around the world about genealogy and family history?

Traditionally, I have taught thousands of classes in person at Family History Centers, in expos, conferences and other venues. There are important parts of teaching that seem to require personal contact. The largest in-person presentation that I remember was at RootsTech when I was a key presenter to about 3000 people. The largest number of views of one of my online webinars or classes, at the time this blog is being written, has about 65,000 views. My top three videos combined have over 100,000 views. Which activity is more productive for reaching out to a global audience? Virtual or in person?

The almost automatic answer from most genealogists would be both and both have their place. Because of the pandemic, I haven't taught a class in person for almost two years. But I have continued to teach online and have reached far more people than I would have teaching in-person. Do I feel isolated? In my case, no more than usual as a genealogist. 

If our goal for teaching is inclusive, a class held in a local library or other venue excludes all those interested people who do not happen to live withing traveling distance of the library. Even for an event such as RootsTech, even though a few people travel long distances to attend the conference, the time and expense of attending such a gathering is prohibitive to most genealogists around the world. The conferences have become like an exclusive club where only those with time and economic means can attend. In addition, the sponsors of such a conference spend hundreds and perhaps as much as tens of thousands of dollars when the cost per person is dramatically higher than the cost per person of a virtual conference. 

One interesting fact is that RootsTech does not tell its presenters how many views there have been to their videos. They may mention class attendance for a live class, but the total over the past year is not disclosed.  Why is this? We always got our class attendance when in-person at RootsTech and sometimes got criticized if the class attendance was low. 

What if the virtual conference is a bust? Then the loss is less than the cost of event rental, travel, set up, booth expenses etc. Failure of a virtual conference could be a reflection of the narrowness of the over-all genealogical market. 

Of course, the positions for in-person vs. virtual could go on indefinitely but will RootsTech go back to in-person only? Not likely. Will they spend both the time and money to have an in-person and a virtual conference, sort of a hybrid? Only time will tell, but I am guessing once you go virtual, you will not want to give up the audience.