If, like me, you are a virtual attendee this year at RootsTech 2025, you can still take advantage of both viewing classes (and accessing a syllabus – even from classes only presented in-person) and finding some great deals available through the online Expo Hall.

First, register for the virtual portion of RootsTech, if you haven’t already. It’s free and you will be able to view online sessions.

Next, Randy Seaver gave excellent instructions on how to access the syllabi for most classes. They can be downloaded and saved to your computer.

Now, for the Expo Hall. Remember, not all vendors in-person at the conference have chosen to have a virtual booth, too. Having said that, there are some excellent deals and discounts offered in the virtual booths.

The Expo Hall is searchable by vendor.

Below the search feature are the Top Deals.

Don’t stop there! There are two other options – Browse All Deals and Meet Our Sponsors.

Oddly, not all the exact same items appear using both methods. The Browse All Deals button takes you to discounts and savings on subscriptions and products.

Scrolling through the Meet Our Sponsors list allows you to click on the websites that sometimes offer the discounts, but other times, lands you on the actually business website. The website gives much more detailed information about the organization or business.

I recommend going both routes. Browse All Deals, for example, includes discounts on society memberships. However, to learn what the society offers, if it is new to you, scroll the Sponsors list to access the website.

Finally, remember that many of these discounts end when the live RootsTech 2025 closes – either Saturday, 8 March 2025 or Sunday, 9 March 2025.

Enjoy and take advantage of these virtual offers!

Although today is the last day for enjoying the in-person RootsTech 2024 experience, for those of us virtual attendees there are some conference features that will remain accessible – all those excellent on-demand recorded class sessions, BUT. . . .

The Expo Hall will close and most of the discount deals offered by the vendors will expire. So, if you are pondering a purchase, please visit the Expo Hall now – don’t wait until the last minute!

After you’ve done your shopping, be sure to attend any of the live online sessions in which you’re interested. Why? Because if you are there live and have a question, you might be able to actually ask it. Once the class has been recorded, the ability to ask is gone.

My Thoughts on RootsTech 2024 from #NotAtRootsTech

RootsTech has changed with the times over the last few years. The pandemic lockdown changed our lives in many ways, including how we access genealogy education.

RootsTech has led the way in moving from 100% in-person to 100% online and then to the middle hybrid road. They are to be commended for providing attendance opportunities to those around the world.

RootsTech has also provided the opportunity for family historians to learn how to get started, whether ancestry is English, Scandinavian, or from less common groups, such as Filipino, Portuguese or Japanese.

There are also many presenters discussing DNA, covering the range from beginning to advanced.

The Innovation and Tech Forum spotlighted six companies who have integrated AI, the hot 2024 topic, into their family history products.

The Expo Hall allows everyone to access vendors and learn about new products and take advantage of conference specials.

The on-demand recorded classes allow everyone to access sessions after the fact. This is especially beneficial for in-person attendees who had many classes in their schedule that were not being recorded. Therefore, if an attendee had an interest in a class that was being recorded, he/she didn’t have to choose between two presentations.

I have to admit I was disappointed about one fact – paltry the number of intermediate and/or advanced sessions offered to virtual attendees.

I have been doing genealogy research for decades and I seek out classes that teach more advanced methodology – not DNA, but general research.

There were quite a few sessions I would love to have attended, including the BCG sessions. However, this year, not only were they only available in-person, they were not being recorded for future viewing.

I was curious about how lopsided these presentations were, so I went through and counted up intermediate and advanced sessions offered online and in person.

Virtually, there were 11 intermediate and 2 advanced classes. However, in person choices included 27 intermediate and 15 advanced sessions!!!!

It is disappointing that so many of those more advanced classes were not recorded, thereby not providing those of us who couldn’t attend in person the opportunity to listen to and learn from those speakers.

To end on a positive note, there are still many opportunities for everyone to watch hundreds of class presentations. Most of the recorded classes will be accessible for a year and some even longer than that.

If you didn’t register for RootsTech, it still isn’t too late (even after today). Just sign in through your FamilySearch account and you are good to go.

In past years, I’ve always posted about “new to me” companies in the vendor hall. I’ve decided not to do that this year for a couple of reasons. First, this year, there aren’t many new companies appearing on the scene who are offering new interesting products. Second, of the companies that are new to me, the majority fall into two groups – storytelling and professional genealogists for hire. In fact, there are so many of these on offer that, along with the RootsTech sponsors, they complete most of the booths in the Expo Hall.

If you are interested in those products/services, this is a last reminder to check out the Expo Hall right now.

That’s it for my RootsTech 2024 reports.