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RootsTech Session Signup and My Sessions

Roberta Estes

It’s hard to believe we’re t-minus two weeks now for RootsTech.

For me, this is going to be the busiest RootsTech EVER.

This article is about signing up for both in-person and virtual sessions – and about my sessions. I hope to see you there.

Another article will follow next week about my booth talks (I think there are 7 now), book signings, and more.

A cautionary note – if you want to attend my sessions at RootsTech, you need to indicate your interest by the “add” to schedule button. I’ll show you how in a minute. If there are a lot of people indicating interest in a particular session, and the room is too small, RootsTech may rearrange things a bit. I don’t want anyone who wants to attend to be unable to find a seat.

One of my sessions is the DNA Academy, which covers soup to nuts for a full afternoon – and I don’t want you to miss this opportunity. This is a first for RootsTech and for me as well. We will discuss all four major vendors, their best tools, third-party tools, and research techniques. There are some real goodies in this session, including maybe an announcement. Just sayin’!

I have two primary sessions plus a third where I’m a panel member.

Session Day/Time (Mountain Time) Session Type
Genetic Genealogy Turns 25: DNA Experts Tell Their Stories (Panelist in Diahan Southard’s session) Thursday, February 29, 12:15-1:00 MST, Ballroom B In Person, Livestreamed and Recorded
DNA Academy: Pulling It All Together – Tests, Vendors, Tools and You Friday, March 1, 1:30-4:00 MST (*Please note this class is 2.5 hours – all afternoon*) In Person Only, not recorded or Livestreamed
Highways of History – Flesh Out Your Ancestors Using Discover Case Studies Saturday, March 2, 1:30-2:30 MST In Person Only, not recorded or livestreamed

Registration and Signup

Virtual RootsTech sessions are free, including pre-recorded webinars, recorded vendor sessions found in their virtual booths, and livestreams. Livestreams will be recorded for your viewing pleasure later.

In-person RootsTech is not free, although it’s very reasonably priced at $99 for all three days.

Most of the sessions are not recorded. Of course, every presenter hoped that their session would be selected for one of the three ballrooms equipped for broadcasting – but there are only 3 lucky sessions in each timeslot. Clearly, another good reason to attend in person.

However, in my opinion, the best reason to attend in person is the camaraderie with fellow genealogists.

Time Zone Cautions

Caution – when viewing the RootsTech session schedule WITHOUT signing in, the session time will revert to your local time on your computer. This was very confusing to me because I know my session takes place at 1:30 at the conference, but it showed my session at 3:30.

However, after I registered and SIGNED IN, the time displayed for the sessions was correct – 1:30 MST, the Salt Lake City timezone.

This is a great feature for people attending in person, but be aware if you’re trying to view something live-streamed, the time shown may be a challenge. Just be aware. Even if you miss a live session, the recorded version will be available later for viewing.

Sessions

If you haven’t signed up yet, click here.

You’ll see information about the In-Person event and the Online event, which is free. Scroll down for more info.

To view speakers and create your schedule, click on the appropriate button.

On-Demand and Timeless Events

RootsTech On-Demand sessions are available near the bottom of the main page.

There are multiple ways to search for or browse sessions and speakers.

If you just want to search for everything, broadly, across all years, without registering, click on the little magnifying icon on the top right.

You can search or browse using a variety of filters.

However, let’s look at just the events for this year.

2024 RootsTech Events

If you want to search for 2024 sessions only, click on RootsTech Event, then Speakers.

To find my sessions, search by name and then select me.

You’ll see all of my RootsTech sessions available in the library, plus my two scheduled for this year.

Please note that viewing sessions BEFORE YOU SIGN IN results in the sessions defaulting to your system time zone. For me, these are showing as beginning at 3:30 because I’m EST, but the classes are scheduled at 1:30 MST and will be reflected as such AFTER you sign up AND sign in.

Also, if you use more than one email address, don’t forget which one you used. Don’t ask how I know this!

Here are my two classes, one of which is 2+ hours. I’m VERY excited about this opportunity to share with you how to get the most out of available tools. A lot has changed recently in this industry, and there’s something here for everyone, including organizational techniques.

Three Days of Great Sessions

RootsTech will be held over a three-day period.

Sign up for in person attendance, here.

Sign up for the free online event, here.

After you sign in, you’ll be able to filter and create your own schedule of conference events.

After Signup

You can filter for classes in a variety of ways.

Unfortunately, when you are viewing the sessions, you can’t see who is speaking. However, click on the title to view additional information.

In addition to my own presentations, I’m a panelist in Diahan Southard’s session.

I really hope you can attend. I don’t want to give too much away, but Diahan has invited a panel of founders and pioneers to celebrate a quarter century of genetic genealogy. You won’t want to miss this!

Diahan and I were both there in the beginning, although we didn’t meet for another year or two. Preparing for this session has been fun.

Another session I’d really encourage you to attend is Genealogy’s Secret Weapon: How mtDNA Can Solve Family Mysteries with Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, Product Manager with FamilyTreeDNA.

I’m excited about Katy’s session, and I’m planning to attend. She has some really good information to share, including success stories.

Add sessions to your schedule by clicking on the add button.

Unfortunately, you can’t add personal appointments or vendor booth talks to your schedule.

View Your Schedule

You can view your schedule by clicking on the little calendar icon at the top.

Are you excited yet?

Get yourself signed up if you haven’t already.

Next week, I’ll publish a list of my talks in vendors’ booths, book signings, and their relevant times for people attending in person.

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