The Expo Hall was huge! I am still not sure I covered the entire breadth of it during the conference. As an Ambassador we got to go into the Expo Hall for a tour before the Keynote Sessions on Thursday. The Expo Hall was still under construction and they only had a few hours left but when 10 o’clock rolled around they were ready to open!
It was nice to see the Expo Hall before the people arrived. It allowed for an uninterrupted view of the space. We didn’t get to spend long but were able to take some pictures. There were some lovely displays.
The Sponsors were all front and centre. You had Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage and of course FamilySearch. FamilySearch had booths throughout the Expo Hall. The front booths were the ones that had seating and talks about using the websites. They were always busy. Ancestry had a big sale on DNA kits and you saw a lot of folks wandering around with large bags filled with kits. I would think there are a lot of requests going out right now to family members to take a test. Mine have done theirs and I have received notification that they have been received by Ancestry. Now we wait. Cue the Final Jeopardy theme.
FamilySearch had different booths around the Expo Hall. A unique one was the “We Hear You” booth. There was a car and you got into it and recorded a story or whatever you wanted. The theme was “the best conversations happen in the car.” It was a unique way to get people to share information.
Call My Relative was another FamilySearch booth. Here you could record a quick conversation with a loved one. I never found out if it was for anywhere in the world but you went into a green call box to make the call.
Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems booth was all set up and ready for the demos. You didn’t have to be an attendee as Lisa streamed most of them live via Periscope. You can watch some of them on her website.
The Demo Theatre is a great place to sit down and rest your feet while learning something new. Even better if you could get one of the comfy seats. There were a wide variety of speakers promoting their products during the conference.
They brought a little bit of the Antiques Roadshow to RootsTech. You could bring a family heirloom or photo and have an expert look at it.
This was a wonderful display set up by Kindex the winner of the People’s Choice in the Innovators Showdown. Rescue your records!
There were small and large booths around the expo hall.
This was the display for Pictures & Stories Inc. They will help you create a book of your life. It made me think of the big red book they used on the television show This is Your Life. This was a stop for many photographs and selfies.
The world’s largest genealogy chart was on display and attracted a lot of attention. It was in an area where you could have your genealogy chart printed off.
The Expo Hall was usually busy. You had to pick your times to speak to vendors. Family Discovery Day, Saturday, was the busiest.
I am not sure I made it all the way around the Expo Hall but I did meet a lot of vendors and learned something new so that is a good thing. The Expo Hall is something you need to go around several times a day to make sure you have covered it. I would take different turns out of the media hub to make sure I covered as much as I could. The Innovator Alley was interesting as all the entrants had booths where they were explaining their ideas. While in this area I also found WordPress which is a format a lot of bloggers use, me included, and it was nice to get the chance to talk to someone about the software.
The Expo Hall is something I plan out every time I have gone to RootsTech or any conference for that matter. I go through the RootsTech app and read the vendor descriptions. I star the familiar ones I want to visit first. Then I go back and learn more about the other vendors and choose the ones I want to visit. It was fun and everyone was having a good time.
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