What I Learned on my SLIG, APG, Rootstech Vacation

First let me say attending SLIG2012, APG PMC, and Rootstech2012 back to back is no vacation - it is an endurance race!

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I attended Dr. Thomas W. Jones' course on Advanced Genealogical Methodology, don't know why the sign is different than the syllabus, but before I could fully digest all that I learned in that 5 day institute course, I was hit with
APG PMC (Association of Professional Genealogists - Professional Management Conference).


During this one day conference, we heard from the delightful J. Mark Lowe on Developing Advanced Research Plans While Staying on Track in a Modern World. Besides my coming away from the presentation with a marked Southern accent, I was most excited about his idea of using index cards as a tool to record what he needs to search in a particular repository. Very low tech and I loved it! I will share more about this later and how it all works out.


During the luncheon we heard from Jay Verkler, former President and CEO of FamilySearch. Jay is always a great speaker, though his hair I think gets more attention than he does!


I chose to attend Thomas MacEntee's presentation on Virtual Presentations for Professional Genealogists, who freely shared all about getting started in making webinars. This will be my next big adventure!


Laura Prescott shared Apps that are useful for genealogists. My favorites were: iMapMyWalk, Overdrive Media Console, Pocket  Mileage and Google Books.


Last session was with Diane Giannini, who presented Generating Business by Collaborating with Other Professions. This class focuses on finding other businesses that might require the use of a genealogist.


No time to dillydally, as the very next day RootsTech 2012 started. 

Rootstech 2012 Main Stage

There I met with friends from Twitter and Geneablog-o-sphere, listened to many presentations, ate at all the luncheons, visited all the vendors, did a presentation at the Lightening Round on the coming Story@Home 2012 conference and I answered questions about why I was wearing the bright colored blogger beads and who was that wild man with all the beads and the funny hat.

I have a lot to share about Rootstech, but the main cool thing that I can't wait to get started with was from Lisa Louise Cooke on using Google Earth as a way to share your family history! More on this later. 

Still exhausted from it all, but so grateful to have met so many new friends and to have shared in a great learning experience with so many amazing people! Thank you UGA, APG and FamilySearch for providing such great conferences. Well done one and all!