Before Family History Expos (formerly My Ancestors Found) started doing conferences in 2005, the two main options were attending a national conference or one sponsored by a local or regional genealogical society.  Over the last few years, FHExpos has organized conferences in an increasing number of locations including, Utah, California, Colorado, and Arizona.  This year they will also host conferences in Missouri and Georgia.

Their model is to find interesting presenters that are willing to share their family history knowledge in exchange for admission to the conference.  This keeps the price of the 2-day conference to around $70 dollars which is a bargain for the approximately 1000 attendees that register for each conference.  In addition to two full days of presentations with multiple sessions each hour, there is a top-notched exhibit hall that is free to the public.

I must disclose at this point that I have attended 3 of these expos as a presenter and at this last conference hosted a Scouting heritage booth with space donated by another vendor.  I feel that this has given me an inside view at these conferences and how Holly Hansen & crew are able to put on a quality expo.

The use of technology in connection with these expos is the main reason for awarding the Innovator award to Family History Expos.  You can connect with FHExpos through their website, Facebook fan page, Twitter account, LinkedIn, and on GenealogyWise.  Before the expo, a handful of bloggers are asked to help promote the conference and to tweet and blog about the conference as it is happening.  For the Arizona Family History Expo held last month, I was was asked to be one of these “Bloggers of Honor” and was asked to attend a dinner so that I could answer questions from those at my table about what blogging is all about.  At no time was I told what to write about or expected to present anything from a viewpoint other than my own.  There is a also a Twitter Cafe where these bloggers can connect to the internet and write about the conference.  There is a projection screen setup so that any tweets about the conference can be seen by attendees.

FHExpos is a good example to other conferences.  Maybe one of the best ways this is shown is through their Twitter & Social Networking policy.  Many presenters are concerned about attendees recording their presentations or posting their handouts online.  This concern has grown with the popularity of blogs and Twitter.  Other conferences that I have attended do not have a clear policy of what is acceptable.

Before a Family History Expo, the presenters are notified of the conference’s policy on recording,  blogging, Twitter, and social networking.  For some presenters, this is an opportunity to learn about the advantages of attendees using these technologies and to be reassured that their content will be protected.  This same policy is available on the FHExpos website and in the conference materials passed out to each attendee.  Before each class, the person introducing the speaker reminds the attendees about the policy.  This goes a long way to set expectations so that everyone knows what is acceptable and what is not.  I had an experience at one conference where no guidelines were given and I kept notes via Twitter.  It didn’t occur to me until after the conference, that I was probably too verbose in my coverage of the presentations. 

Here is copy of the policy used by Family History Expos:

Recording, Twitter, Blogging, and Social Networking Policy

Recording
Family History Expos does not allow recording of presentations under any circumstances. When sessions are professionally recorded you will be able to purchase a copy from Family History Expos or a designated vendor.

Twitter
Family History Expos encourages the use of Twitter at Expos. Please tweet the highlights of classes attended; however it is not appropriate to give full details of class materials presented.
When beginning a session of tweets give credit and use Expo hashtag “#fhexpo” within each tweet. Example of appropriate tweeting:
1.    Arizona Family History Expo sponsored by Family History Expos, Inc. and others. #fhexpo #genealogy #familyhistory
2.    Presenter name, class title  #fhexpo
3.    Information on a point being made   #fhexpo
4.    Helpful or new URL being discussed   #fhexpo
5.    Questions or comments made by attendees in class #fhexpo

Blogging
Family History Expos invites bloggers to take time to give thoughtful insights, meaningful descriptions, and exercise professional courtesy when blogging about specific presentations. Please give proper citation to presentations you attend and cover in your blog. 

Social Networking
The use of social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and GenealogyWise, is fun and exciting. We enjoy using them and hope that you do too. However, it is important to remember that our presenters invest tremendous amounts of time developing their presentations, strategies, methodologies, and research guidance. They spend years gaining education and expertise on the subjects they teach.

We request that the intellectual and real property developed by Family History Expos and our presenters be respected and credit be appropriately given. 

Copyright to all class presentations, recordings, and syllabus materials belong to Family History Expos and its presenters by agreement of said parties.

I look forward to additional innovation by Family History Expos and expect that other conferences will soon define their own policies on the use of social networking.

This has been an interesting expo in the fact that I have seen it from a number of new perspectives that I hadn’t from the last time the expo was here.  The Scouting Heritage booth has allowed me to see things from a vendor’s perspective as I have had to split my time between presenting, attending presentations, blogger, helping at the Ask to Experts booth, and greeting people at the booth.  As a Blogger of Honor, I have spent time blogger and tweeting to help others get a feel for the conference.

The keynote was insightful.  Tim Sullivan from Ancestry.com talked about computerized genealogy predictions made 25 years about by Andereck and Pence in their book, Computer Genealogy:

“The marriage of technology and genealogical method is ripe & most promising…”

The predictions then went on to outline what is the reality of online genealogy today.

The first class I attended was by Lisa Louise Cooke about using Google for genealogy.  I only watched the first 10 minutes but was able to get a flavor for the fun, personable way the Lisa presents.  There were so many people in the class and more were coming in, so I let someone else have my seat.  I then attended the last part of a class on how to use your mobile phone for genealogy. Curtis Tirrell works for AppTime the company that makes MobileTree.

I spent much of the rest of the day in the Scouting Heritage booth that I setup.  My presentation on doing professional quality research was well attended and received great comments.  This was the first time that my inlaws got to see me present which was fun.

The remaining part of the day was spent in the booth talking with a friend from Woodbadge training.  It was great to speak with him again.

The highlight of the day had to be the banquet.  I sat at the best table.  We had a great time talking about blogging.  There was a live recording of the Genealogy Gems podcast that will be out on the site in a few weeks.  It was an absolutely great time! I was exhausted by the end of the day, but what a wonderful way to get exhausted.

Keynote:

Booths:

Mobile Genealogy class:

Document Scanning with Ancestry.com:

Genealogy Bloggers:

Sons of the American Revolution:

There were many other booths I stopped by, but I forgot to take pictures.

It is a wet and windy Thursday night in Mesa, Arizona.  I was able to get the Scouting Heritage booth setup at the Family History Expo.  A big thanks to all those who helped this idea become reality.

The Story

About a month ago I got the idea of doing a Scouting booth at the Arizona Family History Expo.  After all, it is Scouting’s 100th anniversary and I couldn’t think of a better group of people to share it with than those attending the expo.

The first contact I tried to make with the Boy Scouts was the Grand Canyon Council.  I mistakenly thought that there was already a group at council that would be interested in such an event and would already have the resources to make it happen. Now it was already the first week in January. 

I next tried the Mesa District since the expo falls within their boundaries and it would be easier to get local volunteers.  The timing must have been bad as they couldn’t offer any assistance.

I was about to give up on the whole idea, but couldn’t let it go.  I live in North Phoenix which is 40 minutes from where the expo would be held.  I decided to contact the Thunderbird district executive, Carol Chacon, to see if there was anything she could do.

This week started and I had to make the go/no go decision.  I decided to go ahead with the booth even if I had to do everything myself.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to.  My wonderful wife was there with a huge vote of support.  She outlined the 10’ x 10’ booth space in our living room and helped me gather items from our family & troop.  I can honestly say that without her, this would have never happened.  Thank you!

There were still 3 things that we needed: a “Boy Scouts of America” banner, posters, & brochures.  Carol was able to gather some brochures and we stopped by the Scout shop to buy some posters.  There was a great 100th anniversary banner that cost $70 that would have been perfect.  As a thrify Scout, I couldn’t justify paying for it for this one event.  Too bad there wasn’t one available from council that they could rent out for $10 to any district that needed it.  I ended up in a storage room looking through old banners to see if I could find one that would work.  I finally found the one that I ended up using, but the bottom half of the banner said “POW WOW”.  Being resourceful, I folded it in half and shortened one end so that it would fit in the booth.

This is what an empty booth looks like:

Early this week I called Holly Hansen, President of Family History Expos, Inc. to ask if there was any way the Boy Scouts could get some help with the booth fee.  She said that she would make it happen.  When I arrived tonight, I found that Scott Wilson from OneGreatFamily.com had a booth next to mine and that he paid the full cost of booth space for the Scouts.  What a wonderful thing to do.  I can’t thank him enough.

I also contacted some staff and attendees from the Woodbadge course I took about 4 years ago to see if they could volunteer at the booth.  Thank you to those who will be coming to help.

So one guy with a crazy idea and a wonderful wife and a small group of supporters can pull together a Scouting Heritage booth for a family history conference in less than 1 week.

The Tour

The back of the booth has a banner, Scouting shirts, and posters:

Along the right side is a table with various Scouting books including a reprint of the original Boy Scout handbook, a book of Norman Rockwell Scouting illustrations, current Scout handbook, Fieldbook, and a book about dating Scout memorabilia.  At the end of the table and on the floor are Pinewood Derby cars.  There are also pamphlets to visitors can take.

Starting on the left side in the back is a camp table showing knots & lashings.  It also contains various patches I’ve collected.  On this table is another reprint of the original Scout handbook that will be one of two prizes given out on Saturday.  This is where the visitor fills out an entry form.

Next to it is a Dutch oven hanging from a tripod.  This is where the entry forms will be put.  Completing the booth are two camp chairs and a small peach tree.  The tree is the 2nd prize and is there to symbolize the outdoors as well as the centennial tree-planting campaign.

Video

It is going to be a very busy next two days.  I am excited to see how the Scouting Heritage booth is received at the conference.  Maybe if it successful enough, someone else will take the challenge to have a Scouting Heritage booth at each of the Family History Expos in 2010.

What have you done that is similar to this?  What do you think of Scouting heritage booths at family history conferences?  Any ideas on how to make these more successful and more of a team effort?  What is something that you learned as a Scout or because of the Scouting values?

Here is a photo of Holly Hansen, President of Family History Expos, Inc. directing the volunteers as they stuff bags.  She doesn’t know I took this.

There was quite the assembly line putting the bags together:

Thank you to all the volunteers that make this happen.

See you at the expo tomorrow!

I would like to thank those who entered the contest to win free entrance to the Arizona Family History Expo on January 22-23, 2010 at the Mesa Convention Center.  I enjoyed all the contest entries.  Thank you for all the great photos!

I put the numbers 1-7 on slips of paper and mixed them up in the official Land O Lakes whipped butter container.  The two numbers drawn from the container were entries 4 & 5 both submitted by Nancy Hill.

Join me in offering Nancy congratulations!  I know you and your companion will have a wonderful experience.

Each Blogger of Honor at the 2nd Annual Arizona Family History Expo to be held January 22-23, 2010 was given two tickets to the Expo.  Some have chosen to hold contests to give the tickets away.  Each contest is different and each has a different deadline.

To increase your chances at winning free tickets, I encourage you to enter as many contests as possible.

Here is a list of the contests with deadlines:

• Amy Coffin (December 30, 2009)
• Donna Messerly-Brown (January 2, 2010)
• Joan Miller (January 10, 2010)
• Thomas MacEntee (January 10, 2010)
• Mark Tucker (January 10, 2010)
• Anna Dalhaimer Bartkowski (January 15, 2010)

Bookmark this post as I will keep it updated as other contests start.  If a contest for the Arizona Expo isn’t listed here and you know about it, leave a comment so that everyone has a chance to enter.

The Family History Expo is coming to Mesa, AZ on Friday, January 22 and Saturday, January 23, 2010.  The cost of registration is very affordable:

Single Day: $40

Two Days: $75 ($65 if registered by January 1, 2010)

Single Class: $12

But here is your chance at winning a free ticket to attend both days of the conference.  And as an old family friend always says: “You can’t beat free!”

I have 2 tickets available for the contest which starts today and ends Sunday, January 10, 2010 with a random drawing of all contest entries.

To enter, pick ONE of the following ways to enter:

1. In 300 words or less write about one of the following:
   • How you got started in genealogy or family history
   • How technology can be used to better support genealogy
   • How you have used social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr in your family history
   • What features that don’t exist today would you like to see in your genealogy software
   • How the Genealogical Proof Standard has helped you in your research
   • What you hope to gain by attending the Family History Expo
2. Submit a photo and caption about one of the following:
   • You holding a copy of the Genealogical Research Process map
   • A favorite ancestor photo
   • You or an ancestor as a Boy Scout
3. Submit an entry for the ThinkGenealogy Innovator award

Submit your entries via e-mail to: contest@thinkgenealogy.com

You are allowed to enter as many times as you want but send each entry as a separate e-mail.

All contest submissions will be posted on the ThinkGenealogy blog.  By entering, you state that you own the copyright to the content and you give permission for that content to be published on the ThinkGenealogy blog.

I am looking forward to all the submissions and wish each of you luck in the contest.  The winners will be announced on the blog during the week of January 11 – 17, 2010.

Just over a year ago I attended my first Family History Expos held in Mesa, Arizona.  On January 22-23, 2010 the expo will return to Mesa and I am very excited.

Today, FHExpos announced 13 conference attendees as Bloggers of Honor.  They will share their expo experience via blogs and/or Twitter. Whether you are able to attend the expo or not (and I highly recommend attending if you can) you can follow the news and excitement.  I am honored to be included in this group in addition to presenting two sessions.

You can learn more about the innovative way that FHExpos is taking genealogy conferences into the future and see a list of the Bloggers of Honor.

For Those Who Attended My Class

1. Was there too much material to cover in the alotted time? 
2. What content should I consider cutting?
3. What specific content that should definately be kept in?
4. How do you feel differently about the presentation a few months later than you did right after it was presented?
5. How have you found the presentation practical and useful?
6. What concepts could have been explained better?
7. If there were a follow-on presentation, what would it be about?
8. What ways do you think I can make the presentation better?
9. What can I do better as a presenter?

For Those Who Have Viewed The Slides Online

1. Can the slides stand on thier own?
2. What concepts are unclear by just reading the slides?
3. What concepts did you expect to see in the presentation that were missing?
4. How effective are the visuals at improving understanding?
5. How effective is the case study?
6. How have you found the presentation practical and useful?
7. What ways do you think I can make the presentation better?

Thank you very much for your kindness in helping me improve this presentation.  When updated, I will be post the new slides online.

Please provide your feedback as a comment to this post or you can e-mail me directly at: 

mail at thinkgenealogy dot com

Thanks,

Mark

Last November I presented a class titled: Navigating Research with the Genealogical Proof Standard.  The slides for this presentation are now available on SlideShare.  You can catch this presentation if you will be attending the 5th Annual St. George Family History Expo 2009 held February 27-28.

This is an exciting week for family historians and genealogists in the Phoenix area as the 1st annual Mesa Arizona Family History Expo will start this Friday, November 14th.  As a resident of Phoenix, I’ve thought for a long time that Arizona would be a great place to hold a family history conference (especially in the fall and winter months) and I am happy to see that one is coming.  If all goes well this year, then we can look forward to the sponsors, Family History Expos.com, returning again for many years to come.

On Friday and Saturday I will be attending classes and visiting the booths in the exhibit hall.  On Saturday at 2:30pm in the Palo Verde II room, I will be presenting:

Navigating Research with the Genealogical Proof Standard
(Beginner – Experienced) This class discusses the Genealogical Proof Standard and walks the student through the process by way of a visualization called the Genealogy Research Process map. Each step is explored through case study and uses traditional and online resources.

I hope that you can make it to the presentation.  If any blog readers are attending the conference and you happen to see me, then come say “hello.”

Until then, I will be counting down the days.

I will be presenting at the Family History Expo 2008 held in Mesa, Arizona on November 14-15.  The Expo is organized by My Ancestors Found.  My presentation is currently scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. and is titled: Navigating Research with the Genealogical Proof Standard.

Here is the short course description:

(Beginner – Experienced) This class discusses the Genealogical Proof Standard and walks the student through the process by way of a visualization called the Genealogy Research Process map. Each step is explored through case study and uses traditional and online resources.

This is the first time that a conference by My Ancestors Found is being held in Arizona.  This is exciting as it will be about an hour drive from where I live.  It is a bonus that I get to present.

I encourage all that can to attend this conference.  If you are interested, attend my presentation.  At the very least, say hello if you see me.