As always, the RootsTech 2019 conference flew by. I blinked and the week was over.

Connect. Belong, the 2019 theme began on Wednesday with the early attendees sharing their traits on the fun display board. However, by the time the conference closed on Saturday, the board looked totally different with strings crisscrossed all over it.

What a difference three days made! I felt connected and I felt I belonged and I was not alone in that feeling.I met old friends and made new ones. It is fabulous to be in a setting where everybody is into genealogy and we all love to share our stories.

It’s time for some kudos. First, a shout out to the RootsTech team who listened closely to last year’s feedback.

Gone were the long lines for several reasons.

With attendees having the option to have registration tags mailed to them, all we had to do upon arrival was walk up to a bin to obtain a RootsTech bag. Lanyards were hanging on racks nearby.

This year, only those who paid for labs were scanned into rooms to be sure they had registered. Access to class sessions became 100 times easier because of that one change.

Classrooms were much, much bigger. I only know of two sessions that filled and people had to be turned away because of the fire safety code.

Food lines were greatly reduced, too. Free boxed lunches were available on Wednesday and placed throughout the convention center. That meant no line to get lunch either!

On the other days, there were more food options placed around the convention center, too, which meant that the main food hall had very manageable lines and there was plenty of seating for everyone.

As always, speakers were well prepared and knew their stuff. I enjoyed all the sessions I attended. My only suggestion is one that I make yearly – please RootsTech planners, we need more sessions geared to strong intermediate and advanced researchers.

The RootsTech app made it simple to access handouts, know where the next session was being held and read each day’s news and updates.

There were fewer attendees this year than last, which was nice because 14,000 people is more than enough, but if you chose to skip this year’s conference because of last year’s issues, please reconsider for next year.

There’s only one thing left to say. Have you marked your calendar yet for 26-29 February 2020?