RootsTech

RootsTech is a family history and technology conference and trade show held annually in the Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2017 it claimed to be the world's largest family-history technology conference.[1] It is the successor to three former conferences[2]: the Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy,[3] the Family History Technology Workshop[4] and the FamilySearch Developers Conference.[5]. Over the years, RootsTech has welcomed a number of celebrities, television personalities, and actors as keynote speakers.

RootsTech
StatusActive
GenreFamily history and technology, genealogy
VenueSalt Palace Convention Center
Location(s)Salt Lake City, Utah
CountryUnited States
Inaugurated2011
Attendance28,000 (2018)
Organized byFamilySearch International
Websitewww.rootstech.org

History

RootsTech is an outgrowth of a conference started at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. The manager of Conferences and Workshops, Bob Hales, noted that their long running "Annual Genealogy and Family History Conference" held at the end of July each year was experiencing incredible interest in a track devoted to technology in genealogy. In 1997, Hales met with a local accredited genealogist and technology enthusiast, Alan Mann, to ask for his help in creating a new conference, breaking it off from the Annual Conference. They decided to hold this new conference in March of each year so as to avoid conflict with the July Annual Conference. The first event was held March 1998 and drew 400 paid attendees. By 1999, the second Computerized Genealogy Conference drew more attendees than BYU's Annual Genealogy and Family History Conference, coming from 49 states and 3 countries. Several strategies were employed to accommodate more attendees, including offering the same classes in evening sessions, expanding to other buildings (one of which involved transport by vans), and freeing more meeting rooms by moving exhibitors out of meeting rooms into the hallways. By 2001, the conference organizers turned away hundreds of registrations each year. In 2003, the only national competing event, GenTech,[6] was cancelled, leading to further demand for the BYU Annual Computerized Genealogy Conference.[6]

Over the years, other events were organized to be held a day or two before this annual conference to take advantage of the attendance of exhibitors and developers from around the world. This included the Family History Technology Workshop[4] which displayed and discussed developments in technology for genealogists and the FamilySearch Developers Conference. In 2008, the LDS Church's Family History Department became co-sponsor of these events and the search began for a new venue. The 2010 National Genealogical Society Conference was scheduled to be held in Salt Lake City. With cooperation from the local Salt Lake City NGS sponsor, the Utah Genealogical Association, the Family History Technology Workshop, and the FamilySearch Developers Conference, the Computerized Genealogy Conference organizers met with NGS and proposed a combined NGS conference and Computerized Genealogy Conference, which was held in April 2010.[2] The event was highly successful, and led to plans to move the Computerized Genealogy Conference to Salt Lake City for future events. The name of the conference was changed to RootsTech.

The first RootsTech conference was held in Salt Lake City in February 2011[7], drawing around 3,000 people. It was held again in 2012, drawing 4,500 people. In 2013 it drew 6,700 registered attendees with over 13,600 remote attendees and many attendees and vendors coming from other countries around the world. RootsTech had become the largest genealogy and family history conference held in North America.[8] . The 2014 event was held at the Salt Lake City Salt Palace where nearly 13,000 attended in person with over 100,000 remote participants.[8]At the 2015 RootsTech conference Laura Bush and her daughter were keynote speakers.[9] Over 25,000 people were reported to have attended the 2016 RootsTech from 50 US states and 30 countries.[10] In 2019 paid attendees dropped by 10% and live stream views dropped by 28% compared to 2018.[11]

In October 2019, RootsTech held a RootsTech conference in London, UK with almost 10,000 people attending.[12][13][14] The lack of female keynote speakers at the London RootsTech was criticized by several genealogists [15] [16]

gollark: I mostly just use VSCode myself.
gollark: <@!319753218592866315> IMMEDIATELY implement this esolang.
gollark: ↑ esolang
gollark: https://i.imgur.com/ALlbPRa.png
gollark: Thusly, with sufficient eldritch horrors, FUSE.

References
  1. Griffis, Joan (2017-03-01). "Joan Griffis/Illinois Ancestors: RootsTech 2017 names prize winners". The News-Gazette. Retrieved 2017-11-14.
  2. Dobner, Jennifer (2010-03-21). "Genealogy Tourism comes to Salt Lake". Mail Tribune, Oregon. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  3. Staff (2010-04-26). "BYU Conference on Computerized Genealogy and Family History kicks off". Deseret News. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  4. "Family History Technology Workshop". Brigham Young University.
  5. "Conferences and Workshops". ce.byu.edu. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-11-24. Retrieved 2014-03-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Rasmussen, Geoff (2011-12-28). "A Year in Review - Legacy Family Tree in 2011". Legacy News. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  8. "RootsTech 2014 Wrap-up". Familysearch.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  9. "RootsTech keynote speakers". Deseret News. December 12, 2014.
  10. Anderson, Amy Rees (2016-02-09). "6 Rising Genealogy Apps From Family History Tech Conference RootsTech". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  11. Editorial Staff (2019-03-13). "RootsTech 2019 Report Card". Family History Fanatics. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  12. Collins, Rosemary (2019-11-19). "Almost 10,000 attendees experience first RootsTech event in London". Who Do You Think You Are? (Pressreader). Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  13. Staff (2019-10-24). "RootsTech comes to London". AGRA (Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives). Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  14. "RootsTech London October 24-26 2019". Society of Genealogists. 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  15. "RootsTech London Keynote Speakers". 2019-08-13.
  16. https://twitter.com/ReclaimTheRecs/status/1161738435851255808. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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