This will be my first NGS conference, although it won't be my first ride on the national conference band wagon. In February 2012, I attended RootsTech in Salt Lake City, Utah. And a couple of years before that I attended the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference in Los Angeles, California.
Why am I excited to attend a national conference?
- It is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada - an inexpensive plane ride from from my home town.
- It will be an opportunity to see and hear some of the academic all-stars of the national genealogical community, including Elizabeth Shown Mills and Thomas W. Jones. I only hope I can rush to their classes early enough to get in. I am particularly interested in buying my own copy of Jones' brand new book, "Mastering Genealogical Proof."
- The keynoter on Wednesday morning, May 8, will be someone dear to the hearts of all Jewish genealogists, Marian Smith, Chief, Historical Research Branch, USCIS. She is responsible for the most useful, to my mind, InfoFile on JewishGen: "Manifest Markings."
- It will be an opportunity to meet, in person, several genealogists I've admired from afar (or at least via email or blogging). I'm particularly interested in meeting the Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell. I'm already signed up for her lunch talk.
- I'm an official blogger. Not sure of the criteria for selection. I applied. I got. The duties appear to be fairly free-form. But I figure this responsibility will give me added impetus to blog the classes I attend, write about my experiences and network like crazy.
Looking forward to your posts about the conference! - so many great choices, reluctantly skipped this one, for RootsTech (FHL!), Jamboree (including DNA conference) which I can drive to, and maybe my 1st IAJGS (gotta decide by Wed!) Definitely attending IAJGS in Salt Lake next year, but having gone to college in MA, revisiting Boston really tempting, plus now there's helping contribute tourist $ to the area of the bombing...
ReplyDeleteNancy:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. Hope I do justice to the NGS conference.
Will also be heading to IAJGS Boston this year. Perhaps I'll see you there. If not, definitely Salt Lake City in 2014.
I've attended several NGS conferences, and I was most surprised by the vendors. One vendor gave free memberships to a subscription site til the end of the year. Ancestry.com had informal classes and answered questions. The BCG booth had successful portfolios that we could study.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great time at NGS! I won't be there since it's across the country for me, but I plan to be in Richmond in 2014. I can hardly wait!
It certainly is great that NGS moves the feast around the country so that we can all partake occasionally.
ReplyDeleteI always seem to visit and revisit the vendors hall. I already know that the NGS booth will see me perusing (and buying) two books: Jones' and the new NYC volume. At RootsTech last year I got a smokin' deal on Internet Genealogy magazine.
Thanks for your comment, Barbara!