RootsTech 2024 starts on Thursday, February 29, 2024. Are you ready? 3 million people worldwide are expected to register by then. Most of them will be registered for the free online conference. You may choose from three different live-streamed presentations in real time. I estimate that about 15,000 lucky people will be in the Salt Palace convention center in Salt Lake City at any given time during #RootsTech 2024. They can choose from up to 18 stellar presentations in each time slot. It sounds like the biggest family history conference in the world, because it is!
Here are some things to know:
You may pick up your on-site registration at the Salt Palace on Wednesday afternoon until 6 pm, or during the day Thursday through Saturday. Go to the main entrance, across the street from the open-air City Creek shopping center.
Do you like fun interactions such as exchanging friendship bracelets? Friendship bracelets are making a comeback, so if you are into that, make a bunch or buy them online and be prepared to exchange some with new friends and relatives. They will also be available to buy in the RootsTech Store in the Expo Hall.
Thursday night 6 pm to 7:30 pm there is an after-hours event in the Expo Hall. It’s a masquerade, so bring a fancy or simple eye mask (there will be extras on site if you don’t have one). Wearing an eye mask is not a requirement, just an option to change things up. This will be a great time to explore the Expo Hall and see what is new.
But the value of the biggest family history conference in the world is the classes that run all day Thursday, all day Friday and most of the day Saturday. If you are attending in person, look through the class schedule options ahead of time and mark at least one class per hour that interest you. It is good to have a backup option, as where you end up sometimes depends on how many people are filling the seats, or how close you are to the next class you want to attend.
Tip: Only the presentations marked “live-steamed” will be recorded. So if you’re trying to choose between a class that is live-streamed and one that is not, you might want to choose the one that is not. This is a tough call, though, as there is even more excitement in the air for the live-streamed presentations and keynote addresses.
Speaking of keynote addresses, one of my favorite entertainers, Kristin Chenoweth, will be the keynote speaker on Saturday, March 2nd at 11 am on the Main Stage. She will sing, she will speak, she will be interviewed. Do not miss this! You can watch it online, if you are not attending in-person.
My first presentation will be on Friday, March 1st at 8 am. It’s called “5 Ways to Mine Your Relatives at RootsTech: Get the Most Out of Your Connections.” It will not be live streamed. It’s in Room 250, which seats about 750 people. Seating is first come, first served for all presentations.
My second presentation will be on Saturday, March 2nd at 9:30 am in Ballroom H, which seats about 700 people. This one will be live-streamed and recorded. The topic is “10 Ways to Find Your Groove—When Family History is Not Your Passion.”
Also, on Saturday, Family Discovery Day is FREE from 9 am – 3 pm for people who live locally but can’t make it to the full conference. If you are my friend or close relative and you live in or near Salt Lake, you have no excuse for missing my class Saturday at 9:30 am. Just sayin’!
Also, anyone can get a free Expo-Hall-only pass that is good for all three days. But if you want to go to classes on Thursday and Friday (and you should), you’ll need to register. It’s $109 for three days if you pre-register, or $129 for walk-in registration.
I hope one or both of my classes makes your cut! I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones. In between classes, you can often find me near the Media Hub in the Expo Hall, or if it’s 11 am – noon, watching a Keynote address.
Back to work for me now, working on family history, of course. Who are you hoping to find in your family history?
Great overview, McKell! Can you explain “You may choose from three different live-streamed presentations in real time”, further? Also, I don’t see any presentations on the schedule marked “live-steamed”. Will it not show up until the start of RootsTech? 🙂
Hi Diane! Great questions! It looks like RootsTech is not using the term live-streamed. On the RootsTech website for the schedule you can tell which presentations these are because they are marked both “Online” and “In-Person.” Plus, they have the Ballroom letters B, E or H for location of class. Those are the only classrooms set up to record. Only the in-person classes in Ballrooms B, E and H will be aired in real-time and recorded. If you using the RootsTech 2024 App (orange and pink icon), the in-person classes that will be “live-streamed” are marked “In Person and Online,” and they are the classes in Ballrooms B, E or H. Online webinars are a little different. I think many of the presenters for those will not be at RootsTech in person, although some will be broadcasting from there. And then there are the pre-recorded classes. I don’t know if those are listed on the site yet? They might just say “Online” and be released at a certain time. I hope that helps!