RootsTech 2014 from Home

Even though I'm not at RootsTech, I've been watching/listening to some of the presentations.  I printed off the schedule of streamed sessions, but I forgot that the keynote addresses were also available to watch.

So, on Thursday, I was a little late checking in.  But I was able to go back and listen to the keynote addresses during the "lunch" break.  That's really nice. Ree Drummond was really fun to listen to.  I'm not sure I want to blog about my family now, but I wish I had thought about that when me children were younger and at home.  Oh, yes.  That was before computers and blogging, etc.  Well,  I was definitely planning on tuning in early enough on Friday morning.

I loved Tammy Hepps presentation on working from home.  Unfortunately I missed some of Ron Tanner's talk on FamilySearch Family Tree.  I'll check that one out again, once the 2014 sessions are available.  The DNA talk was "Intro to DNA for Genealogists" by James Rader.  I was quite confused with this one.  And I felt that he wasn't prepared to speak for the time period, since he kept checking the time and then deciding whether or not to continue or not.  I started watching the "Genealogy in the Cloud" but then household stuff got in the way.  I'll definitely check that one out later.

Friday, I was much better at tuning in on time, but still a little late. The keynote addresses were fantastic, in my opinion.  I loved Judy Russell's comment about truth and a good story.  I went back to listen to that part to make sure I had her exact words.  I'm hoping that she'll let me use them in a couple of presentations I'm going to be making soon.

I missed the morning streamed session but watched Lisa Alzo.  I need to watch that one again, because I wasn't aware of some of the social media options she mentioned.  I understand blogs and facebook, and twitter, a little.  But there's SO... much more.  Then, I was really enjoying Crista Cowen's talk.  BUT, the phone rang.  I muted the talk and spent a great hour talking with my daughter-in-law, knowing that I could back up and hear Crista's talk after the phone call.  No such luck.  The feed stopped working.  I refreshed, shut the computer off and started again, changed from IE to Firefox and back.  Nothing worked.  Well, that's another one to go on my list for later.

Overall it was a good two days, with lots of interesting info.  I did post on facebook, asking if a company was recording any of the other presentations so that I could purchase them later.  Unfortunately, I just kept getting the response that the live-streamed ones will be available later.  That wasn't what I meant, but that's OK.  I'll contact someone next week and ask.  What I was hoping for was that recordings (video or audio only) of other speakers would be available for purchase since I can get them at SCGS's Jamboree, FGS and NGS. 

I'm looking forward to Saturday's talks, although I'll probably miss the first one (things to do in my non-genealogy life). 

I'm hoping that all of you who have been reading my rambles check out the RootsTech.com web site and watch the sessions, once they are recorded for 2014.  Of course, if you missed any of the 2013 talks, it appears that they are still available.