RootsTech will be offering live streaming during their conference: RootsTech will be held in Salt Lake City Utah on February 2 thru February 4, 2012. From their website we read, “RootsTech is a leading edge conference designed to bring technologists together with genealogists, so they can learn from each other and find solutions to the challenges they face in family history research today. At RootsTech, genealogists and family historians will discover emerging technologies to improve their family history research experience. Technology developers will learn the skills to deliver innovative applications and systems. They will also have the opportunity to receive instant feedback from peers and users on their ideas and creations. Attendees will learn from hands-on workshops and interactive presentations at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced level.”

Some of us, including myself, are not able to attend out of town events due to different reasons: financial, family, work, and/or transportation. But, we would love to glean the information and learn from these educational lectures presented there. We would be excited to learn about all the new technological advancements for items that would enhance our genealogical endeavors.

Well, RootsTech, as they did last year, has given us that opportunity in their live streaming of some of their lectures. It is a wonderful opportunity to hear them from the comfort of your own home! DearMYRTLE recently posted the live streaming in her DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog. Please note that these times are Mountain Standard Time (MST); if you need to calculate to your time zone, please refer to this Time Calculator.
There are fourteen lectures during the three day period presenting for us! This is very exciting. Some of the lecturers are

• Jay Verkler who currently serves as President and CEO of FamilySearch, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch has gathered the largest collection of genealogical records in the world.
• Josh Taylor is a nationally known and recognized genealogical author, lecturer, and researcher. Some may recognize him from the Sarah Jessica Parker episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?”. He is the Director of Education and Programs at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Thomas MacEntee is the creator of GeneaBloggers and owner of High-Definition Genealogy.
• Laura G. Prescott, past president of Association of Professional Genealogists will speak on Friday.
• Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of Ancestry , and his Ancestry Panel will discuss Making the Most of Technology to Further the Family History Industry on Saturday morning.
• Lisa Louise Cook, from Genealogy Gems will speak about Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101
• There are other speakers that are speaking during this FREE live streaming. All of them are excellent speakers; I have only given you a snippet of who will be speaking during these three days.

One thing I am doing is broadcasting Saturday’s lectures live at the Tennessee Genealogical Society. That way, if any of our members do not have access to internet, they can still benefit from some of the lectures. It will be a fun way as a group to listen and discuss the topics for that day.

Another GREAT feature that RootsTech is offering is their Syllabi downloads. Under the section, Session Syllabi who can choose to download all the syllabi at once, or view each individual syllabus and decide which ones you want to download.

If you want to learn more about RootsTech, visit the following bloggers that are writing about Rootstech:

• Jill Ball - Geniaus
• Lisa Louise Cook - Genealogy Gems
• Amy Coffin - The We Tree Genealogy Blog
• DearMYRTLE - DearMYRTLE’s Genealogy Blog
• Dick Eastman - Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
• any many others found on the Official RootsTech Blogger’s page.