Now that we’ve had a chance to listen to Keynote Speakers, vote in the Song Contest and visit the Expo Hall, it’s time to take a serious look at the tremendous learning opportunities in the class sessions, pre-recorded and available to access for at least the coming year.

Exactly how do we navigate the humongous list of classes at this year’s conference?  This is how I’ve made it manageable.

First, I printed out the RootsTech-Connect-2021-Sessions-eng. I occasionally am drawn to sessions because of the speaker’s reputation, but more often, the title is what draws my interest. Because the list is very lengthy, I prefer a paper copy in my hands to look at and highlight. Highlight I did! I marked in yellow all the classes that I wanted to add to my playlist.

Next, I went to the SPEAKERS tab on the RootsTech home page in the MENU drop-down list. Yes, I went to the SPEAKERS tab, not the SESSIONS tab. I did that for a reason, which I’ll explain in a minute.

Why did I choose to search by speaker? Three reasons.

1. With 20 pages of sessions to skim, it would be very easy to overlook a session I’d actually want to attend.
2. While I don’t necessarily make the speaker choice my first reason for attending a class, there are speakers I really enjoy who are interesting and informative.
3. Those speakers often present more than a single class and that class might be the one I overlooked in Reason #1.

By searching by SPEAKER, I’ve actually shortened the time needed to create my PLAYLIST, which is a one-stop click to all the sessions I want to attend.

Rebecca Koford is a presenter who always teaches me something new. I had highlighted a couple of her classes.

It isn’t necessary to use capital letters in names or even to enter a full name of a speaker. I usually picked the one most unusual part of his/her name. In Rebecca’s case, it was koford.

Next, I clicked on her photo. A biography opens up and when I scroll down, ALL of her class sessions are listed with links to add to my PLAYLIST.

I need to stress here a REALLY IMPORTANT TIP about building your PLAYLIST.

MOST classes, but BY NO MEANS ALL, sessions are 20 minutes long.

Take a close look at all of Rebecca’s classes. A number of titles are REPEATED. That doesn’t mean it is a second taping of the same class, it means the CLASS IS A MULTI-PART SESSION.

BE SURE to CLICK the small white + button below the title so that the entire class gets added to your playlist.

Once it has been added, the white + will become the red circle with the black check mark in it.

When I created my own playlist, I found several speakers were presenting other classes whose title didn’t capture my interest. It was simple to click to add those new choices to my playlist.

Once you’ve finished adding sessions, just click on MY PLAYLIST at the top of the screen and your class list has been populated. Its really simple.

I will be holding on to my printed copy of the classes for a while. If my brain doesn’t turn to mush with knowledge overload and I want to look for more classes, my paper copy will remind me what I’ve already watched (remember, I highlighted my original choices) so I don’t add the same session twice to my playlist.

DISCLAIMER: I am an official RootsTech Connect 2021 ambassador and have received perks for promoting RootsTech conferences.