2nd Annual Mesa Family History Expo a Success!

This last weekend, my daughter and I attended the second annual Family History Expo in Mesa, Arizona. I’d been looking forward to the conference for a couple of months because I had no idea how large or diverse the genealogy community is in Phoenix; and I was dying to find out.

The conference price was right at $65.00-$75.00 per person (depending on the options selected) and the program was rich with genealogy specialists, companies, presentations and classes by some of the people that keep the genealogy pastime moving forward and shining bright.

The day before the conference was a weather nightmare for Phoenix. It had rained all day long and stormed with winds up to sixty-five miles per hour. My daughter and I stood in our living room watching as the wind nearly tore our lemon tree right out of the ground. As we were lamenting the loss, we saw a large portion of roof peel off and blow away on a home close to our house. It took mere seconds. What remained was a skeleton of beams to weather the storm.

The morning of the conference we needed to arrive for registration by seven-thirty a.m. It was still dark as we motored through downtown Mesa, turned left off Main St. to Center and following it until we arrived at the Mesa Convention Center. We heard a news report about storm damage throughout the Phoenix area; which received more rain in this single storm than in the last twenty years!

Mesa is a city making up the southeast portion of the Phoenix Metropolis area. I’d been in and through it many times, but never to downtown Mesa before this conference. Even in the dark, I was impressed by this area. It’s really nice with Technical Schools, Medical Colleges and government buildings as well as a downtown that looks like downtowns of the past – before malls and large shopping plazas put these critical arteries out of business. Took me back to years past and just what I needed before the conference to remind me how important community functions like this are to genea-nuts.

It was still very cold and raining when we arrived; and as the doors finally opened, attendees poured smoothly into the chandelier lit conference registration area, appointed with tables, each marked with a first letter of surnames, and attended by helpful registration agents assisting attendees to retrieve bags of essential conference materials.

The conference was sponsored by the likes of genealogy heavyweights such as Family Search, Ancestry.com, Roots Magic, Legacy, Generations Maps, Ohana Software, Ancestral Quest and Genealogy Gems Podcast.

Tim Sullivan; CEO of Ancestry.com kicked off the rainy-day conference by showing attendees methods used to digitize books and records at Ancestry.com, how time consuming this process is, how fast the machines can turn the pages of books (several thousand pages per hour), light spectrums and other digitizing technologies used to ensure the best quality for final images of ancient records rescued from mold filled courthouse basements.

The exhibit hall was free to all and opened directly after the conference kickoff concluded. There were approximately thirty-five or forty booths with genealogy vendors of all kinds sharing their solutions and products. T-shirts, rubber stamps, books and even scrapbooking sellers were mashed up with larger companies such as Legacy, Ancestry, Family Search and Roots Magic.

Conference goers were excited as they were treated with great give away gifts such as software, flash drives, books, gift cards, bags, nick-knacks, gift baskets, memberships to leading genealogy repositories, subscriptions, a NetBook PC, and a five day Family History Library retreat in Salt Lake City!

Every hour, during two full days of conference, classes and presentations were given by truly great people, expert and passionate about genealogy and sharing their knowledge with others. Almost every facet of genealogy was touched upon, from Swedish, Scottish, Italian, Irish, German and Polish research specialties to preserving records, software demonstrations, getting the most out of Ancestry.com, Footnote, Twitter and Facebook, using various record types such as state and territorial records, staying organized, digital photography, the latest in using the technology available to all in Google, iGoogle, using your mobile phone, and so much more!

Family Search representatives were delayed on the first day of the conference by weather and got in late; but once there they provided a good deal of great information about using FamilySearch.org and changes they are planning for thier site. In addition, they provided purely LDS related information about preparing Temple Ordinances.

The 2nd annual Mesa Family History Expo was a success. It was well run, well sponsored, provided valuable information and an overall learning and socialization experience that genea-nuts like me just can’t get in one place anywhere else.

Those of you in other cities – the Family History Expos are coming to a city near you – browse over to http://www.fhexpos.com/ and sign up! You’ll be glad you did!