Highlighted Main Ancestral Lines

Highlighted Main Ancestral Lines
How many Ancestors Can you Find?

Thursday, January 28, 2016

Rootstech release 2016 - what you need to know!

Family History Enthusiasts Worldwide Gathering in Utah for RootsTech 2016

For Immediate Release

SALT LAKE CITY, 27 January 2016—RootsTech, the largest family history conference in the world, is looking forward to over 20,000 visitors over four days with an exciting array of speakers and entertainers, over 250 interesting and informative classes, a huge expo hall with more than 160 exhibitors. There is something for every level of family history—from the beginner to experienced. The three-day conference begins on Thursday, February 4, and goes through Saturday, February 6. For more information go to RootsTech.org.

The keynote speakers and offerings reflect the growing influence of family history. Today multiple generations of all ages are engaging through family storytelling and sharing memories within families using social media and an expanding array of new technologies and mobile apps. The opening session on February 4 will begin with Stephen T. Rockwood, who is the managing director for the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and President/CEO of FamilySearch International.

Also featured is Paula Williams Madison who is chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management LLC, a Los Angeles based media consultancy company with global reach. After her retirement in 2011, Madison started doing research on her family lineage. She wrote the book and produced a movie Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem in April 2015 about her experiences. A free screening of the movie will be provided on Wednesday, February 3.

Bruce Feiler is one of America’s most popular commentators about contemporary life. He hosts the PBS series Walking the Bible and Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler. He wrote The Secrets of Happy Families containing best practices for busy parents from some of the country’s most creative minds. He has appeared on many television shows on NRP, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and others.

On Friday, February 5, David Isay, is a scheduled keynote. He’s the founder of StoryCorps, an award-winning organization that provides people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life stories. 50,000 interviews have been archived and preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. He has also written several New York Times bestsellers, including Listening is an Act of Love. He is a broadcaster and documentarian, and his research reveals ways to tell great stories for the family historian.

Also on Friday, Josh and Naomi Davis, popular family bloggers known as Love Taza, will speak. On their blog, they relate their life with their three children in bustling New York City. The blog has become a digital destination viewed by millions around the world. People love the inspiration about raising a family and the appreciation Naomi has for life’s simple joys.

On Saturday, February 6, Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. She worked with Spielberg on the movie Lincoln, based in part on her award winning Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. She has written books about Frank and Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and the Kennedys and shares her expertise and commentary on many television shows. She has a PhD in government from Harvard and was an assistant to Lyndon Johnson and has been a consultant in several PBS and History Channel documentaries.

Also on Saturday, Michael Leavitt, a three-term former governor of Utah, will speak. He also served in George W. Bush’s cabinet as an Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The second annual Innovator Summit is a one-day event on Wednesday, February 3, for developers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from around the globe to explore, examine, and discover business and technological opportunities within the family history industry—a rapidly growing multibillion dollar industry. Innovators from around the globe and from all industries will be competing for a piece of the $100,000 in total cash and in-kind prizes. The keynote speaker for this event will be Ken Krogue, an entrepreneur who has taken his business InsideSales.com from a small beginning to a billion dollar industry. He will share his expertise about social media and how to use the different forms effectively.

Along with the keynotes, RootsTech attendees will be able to hear from the Crescent Super Band, featuring Ryan Inness, and Lower Lights, a popular gospel and folk band.

More information about speakers, entertainers, classes, and how to register at RootsTech can be found at RootsTech.org.

About RootsTech

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.
Media Contact:
Paul Nauta
nautapg@familysearch.org

Monday, January 18, 2016

Ken Krogue of InsideSales.com to Keynote Rootstech Opening Innovator Summit

I am a little late in posting this recent Rootstech update, but its great for sales oriented folks and entreprenuers (and prospective ones) in the genealogy community. 

InsideSales.com Founder Ken Krogue to Keynote RootsTech’s Innovator Summit

 
 SALT LAKE CITY, (13 January 2016)—RootsTech, the world’s largest family history technology conference, will turn the spotlight on highly successful tech entrepreneur and founder of Insidesales.com, Ken Krogue, as its 2016 Innovator Summit keynote speaker. Innovator Summit, held the first day of RootsTech, is for developers, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to explore business and technological opportunities within this multibillion dollar industry.
The Innovator Summit will be held Wednesday February 3, 2016, at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Kenneth Krogue cofounded InsideSales.com in November 2004, and the company is now worth 1.5 billion dollars. InsideSales.com offers the industry’s leading sales acceleration built on Neurolytics®, a predictive and self-learning engine that drives revenue growth by recommending the best leads to contact and close. He sets the vision for the company together with CEO, Dave Elkington. Ken has more than 24 years of experience in sales, business strategy, and marketing in both domestic and international markets.
As a contributor for Forbes online, Krogue focuses on using the Internet, InsideSales, lead generation, gamification, and social media to grow business. Ken says, “I’m an American who cares enough to speak up and a serial entrepreneur with a short attention span, so I need things to work really fast.” Ken is a popular speaker at industry events (20+ each year) and confesses he shares “almost” all of his trade secrets on his personal blog: http://www.kenkrogue.com
The Innovator Summit Keynote Session begins at 9:00 a.m., followed by a full day of classes, the semifinal round of the RootsTech Innovator Showdown over a boxed lunch, a networking social, and wrapping up with the Innovator Summit Hack-a-thon for those with a penchant for late night collaborative coding.

Rootstech Innovator Showdown

Twelve semifinalists have been chosen and announced for the RootsTech Innovator Showdown, the annual contest designed to foster innovation in the family history industry, with $100,000 in cash and prizes offered by sponsors. 2016 RootsTech Innovator Showdown sponsors include Lenovo, IPOP Foundation, David Bradford, Grow Utah, Woodbury Corporation, Hero Partners, Infinite Mind, and others.
For more Innovator Showdown information and to see the list of 12 semi-finalists and their projects, visit www.rootstech.org/showdown.

About RootsTech

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, is a global conference celebrating families across generations, where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connections. This annual event has become the largest of its kind in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants worldwide.

Genedocs Founder's Input:  As a previously twice life licensed sales rep. in Colorado during the first decade of the millennium and an attendee of the infamous Tom Hopkins seminar in 2010, I can tell you that getting a chance to hear presentations from this level of corporate sales giant in the billion + company realm is always a real treat and worth taking many notes of their decades of insight into what works for consumers and companies to keep business running and satisfaction higher than average with offered services and/or merchandise. Ken will surely make the innovator summit keynote one to remember for years to come for folks interested in improving their business opportunities or just starting out on a new biz adventure!   I fly in on the 3rd and hope the shuttle can get me to the Palace in time to register and enjoy this impressive start to rootstech 2016!  See you there if you can make it and if not I will do my best to keep readers posted on daily news as it unfolds.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Now that I have covered some of the required photo promotion as an Ambassador, it is also my duty to share some of my own experiences from past Rootstech attendance.  I went at a great time in 2013 when things weren't so exponentially enormous like attendance last year cresting over 21,000 clearly due to Donnie Osmond and members of the Presidential Bush family being celebrity keynotes that did what celebrities do - draw unprecedented attention and crowds!  My few days in 2013 were perhaps some of the most remarkable as far as interacting with others sharing the same interest and passion for family research!

I met fellow Geneabloggers Randy Seaver, and Heather Wilkinson Rojo, and Thomas MacEntee in person for starters which was great but somehow missed out on the prized geneablogger beads - hmmm?  That oversight will not reoccur in 2016 :-). 

You definitely want to bring a camera or camera phone for sure, your laptop, wireless items, chargers, business cards, swag to pass out, etc. 




I gave away about twenty T-Shirts for things as simple as the first person I met, the first person to sit next to me in a key note, the first person from TX to meet me, etc.  Even one fella with Swedish roots who was the first to tell me a great joke about the Norwegians and the Swedes!  Folks were always delighted and delightful to meet and there was never a moment without something fascinating to share with one another.

Did I mention there is a spot with an all you can eat sushi bar within walking distance?!  You will eat well too and the entertainment is great seeing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal live and a Capella groups is all real treat also!

It was the ideal venue for spring boarding ideas in a crowd of like-minded folks for Genedocs.  Now I have some business to attend to.  See you there if you can make it in 2016!



It is time to blog more than once in a day as an official Rootstech Ambassador.  Most of my following is on facebook, but the blogger crowd is entitled to see and know more too!  Here you go - the remaining pics from the ambassador photobase:
















Rootstech - Less than 4 Weeks Away!

 Registration
 On Stage Crowd View

Folks at the Computers in the Expo Hall