Monday, June 14, 2010

Sunday at the SCGS Jamboree

The third day of Jamboree was pretty much like the first two - some classes, some genea-blogger socializing, a hot dog and cookies for lunch, and several walks around the exhibit hall. Did I mention blogging and taking photos?

We had breakfast in the blogger lounge where they conveniently put the fruit, bagels, and juice breakfast bar (not free...) - and ate with several blogger friends.

I ran off at 8:30 a.m. to crash Elyse Doerflinger's class on "Using Your Computer, Video Camera and YouTube" in the Mini-course parlor. There was room for me, and I used both my digital camera and Flip video recorder to make several short videos which will never see the light of YouTube. Elyse is an excellent presenter and knows her stuff. I learned quite a bit about the freebies available to put the raw video through a file type converter, into an editor and then onto YouTube or RootsTelevision. Excellent class - thank you, Elyse!

I looked at the schedule, and decided to stay in the mini-course area and see if I could crash Tami Glatz's course on "Second Life" (scheduled to be done by DearMYRTLE, but she didn't attend and Tami stepped in). Tami had a short overview presentation of Second Life (it's a virtual world, with several genealogy rooms). Then she took the class through the process of signing up for Second Life, choosing an avatar and a name, going to the Welcome Center, learning how to walk, sit, jump and fly, and then to find the genealogy applications. Unfortunately, I got stuck in the signup process and never got to the Welcome Center. I felt like a dunce, but I don't think it was my fault. Another excellent class - thank you, Tami - I just wish I could have kept up.

Flush with my success in the mini-courses, I wandered out to the Exhibit Hall for awhile, then met Linda for lunch at 11:30, and we ate in the pool area, with SDGS Colleague Pam Journey joining us. I went and got our luggage out of the room and checked us out before the next series of classes. Linda went off to the other pool again...the girl is really tan now!

Well, the choice was to talk to genea-bloggers in the lounge or go to a class where I might embarrass myself by dozing off. I chose the blogger lounge, and spent the next hour blogging, talking and taking pictures as the genea-bloggers left one-by-one. In fact, I did so much of that that I missed going to the 2 p.m. class. Oh well - I'll just read the syllabus! To make up for that, I went over to the exhibit hall to say goodbye to friends, and spent time talking to Janet Hovorka, Tom Champoux and Michelle Pfister about genealogy and markets. Then I hustled across the street to the Subway to pick up foot-long sandwiches for dinner on the train.

Back in the bloggers lounge, we said our goodbyes and joined our CVGS and SDGS colleagues in the lobby for the shuttle to the train station. We had to wait 30 minutes in the shade until 4:25 p.m., but got our own downstairs area to sit on the train. However, there wasn't enough room, so I went upstairs to an empty car and stretched my legs out, took my shoes off and almost dozed off. I read the syllabus all the way home, with a short doze break before dinner, dinner after Santa Ana, and discussions with Diane about Jamboree, SDGS and genealogy. We got into San Diego at 7:50 p.m., and Ron picked us up and we were home by 8:30. I did read my email and blogs but not much else before bed at 10:30 p.m.

I don't have many pictures of the exhibit hall this time (mainly the same old displays and exhibitors, plus my flash wasn't working), but I do have some of many genea-bloggers. Other genea-bloggers have pictures too - lots of that going around. I will post some of my pictures later in the week.

SCGS reported that there were 1,700 attendees this weekend at the Genealogy Jamboree. The place was packed, even though they added the Pavilion venue (which seats about 300) and moved the Tech Zone out of the center of the exhibit hall (and into a room that wasn't well advertised - the Tech Zone could be a very useful place with many online subscription databases for FREE). Thank you, Paula Hinkel and Leo Myers, and the SCGS members who plan and execute this conference every year on a volunteer basis. It's a big job and they do it extremely well!

One of the major events that nobody has talked about was seeing Elyse receive her college graduation gift - a book with good wishes and autographs by genealogists from all over the country - Tami Glatz shepherded this book through NGS and SCGS and presented it to her late on Friday night. Elyse was stunned and appreciative.

I had a wonderful time. The memories will be of seeing all of my genea-blogger colleagues, meeting many for the first time, and sharing laughs, hugs, experiences and photos with them. It was wonderful to meet Becky Wiseman and Miriam Midkiff for the first time in person - it's like being a brother to all of these folks.

1 comment:

Thomas MacEntee said...

It was great to see you again Randy! Hopefully it won't be until next Jamboree when I get to see you and Angel Linda again!