Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Day 1 (Wednesday) at RootsTech 2018

My Day 1 at RootsTech 2018 started with a look out the hotel room window at a dusting of snow on the cars and parking lot across the street.  The accumulation from last week's storm is melting gradually during the day.

We had breakfast this morning in the Radisson dining room with Hillary Gadsby from Wales, another regular Mondays With Myrt panelist.

Then it was off to the first day of RootsTech classes.  The conference registration lines were long in the morning again.

I attended the 9:30 class by D. Joshua Taylor on "Big Data: Buzz Word or Family History Revolution?"  You know the answer of course!  This was an excellent presentation, but fast paced.  I couldn't write fast enough, my handwriting is so poor now, and the syllabus article was all text with few of the excellent details on the slides.  This was a packed house in a medium size ballroom - probably 300 in attendance.  I wish this one had been on the video.

At 11 a.m. I went to Paul Woodbury's class on "How Close are we Really? Evaluating Shared DNA."  This was a beginner level description of DNA science, the types of DNA tests, and how to analyze the results.  I knew most of this, took some notes, and the syllabus is fairly good.  This was another packed house, perhaps 400 attendees in a bigger ballroom.

I went back to the Radisson, collected Linda in the room and we had lunch in the Radisson restaurant (expensive but we're captive).  When we got back to the room, I updated the blog compendium, added to the Best Of post, wrote the Twile post, and realized I took no photos in the morning.  I missed the 1:30 p.m. classes.

I headed back to the conference center at 2:15 p.m. and saw Diane Hall, met Diedre Denton (Twisted Twigs Genealogy) and her sidekick Katherine, and then went to the 3 p.m. session with Tim Janzen on "Introduction to Chromosome Mapping."  This was very technical and requires having tests for one or both parents, so I left before the end.  I walked down the hall a bit (the halls were really crowded because the Expo Hall was not open today until 6 p.m..

I found a seat in the Media area of the Expo Hall - they've moved us back to the last three rows of the front section in front of the stage.

Jason Hewlett came out at 4:15 p.m. and warmed up the crowd with a decent rendition of "Sherry," the Four Seasons hit from 1962.  I sang along.  He sings better.  We practiced on the Menti.com app on our phones answering survey questions, and used the "Find Relatives at RootsTech" app.  I now have 297.  Here is a screen capture of one of the Menti.com questions that the audience answered:



The show started at 4:30 p.m. with the introduction of FamilySearch CEO Steve Rockwood who talked about the RootsTech theme of "Connect - Belong" and other platitudes, with family stories, and lots of touching photos on the screen.  Then there were three panels for the "Innovation Showcase" that answered questions about Records, Memories and DNA.  They were interesting, but again I couldn't take good notes in the dark, and the photos came out fuzzy.

It was 6 p.m. and the Expo Hall opened, but I went back to the Radisson to pick up Linda and take her to dinner at JBs.  After we were eating, Dave Robison came in with several other folks, and sat at a table nearby. After we were finished, I took a photo of one side of the table - with Lisa Gorrell, Dave Robison, and Hilary Gadsby.


Then it was back to the Radisson to read blogs, answer email, update the compendium, and write this post.

I took 8821 steps today, just about 3.0 miles, which I'm not used to.  Two roundtrips from the Radisson to the Conference Center, walking around in the Center, and a roundtrip to JBs.  Yesterday's total was 8487 steps, almost 3 miles. My feet hurt.

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Copyright (c) 2018, Randall J. Seaver

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1 comment:

Lynette Jones - Understanding the Politics of... said...

If an individual is not accustom to long periods on their feet, it is wise to change shoes every chance you have. Your three trips back to the Hotel would be perfect. Changing shoes 3 times a day will help the feet rest in the different formats of the shows. It was wonderful having lunch with you at the My Heritage Luncheon.