If you are looking for a mid-winter getaway to a warm and sunny location, the U.S. National Genealogical Society may have the answer. A three-day genealogy conference will be held in downtown Phoenix on January 20 through 22. The event includes three in-depth workshops plus 54 presentations by many of the leading genealogy lecturers of today.
Thursday's one-day workshops will polish your genealogical software skills, your professional skills and your general genealogical knowledge. Thursday's topics include website design, scanning, writing, and a Board for Certification of Genealogists' Education Fund workshop: "How to Communicate with Yourself and Others." Bob Velke will present three seminars for The Master Genealogist, one each for beginners, intermediate and advanced users. Some of the Thursday events have extra fees.
Friday and Saturday will see five simultaneous tracks of presentations held all day. The speakers include: Alan Mann, Ann Carter Fleming, Barbara Vines Little, Beau Sharbrough, Bob Velke, Connie Lenzen, Craig R. Scott, Cyndi Howells, David Rencher, Dr. Thomas Shawker, Edward "Ted" Steele, Elizabeth Shown Mills, Helen Leary, Ilene Murray, J. Mark Lowe, Kay Haviland Freilich, Pamela Boyer Porter, Patricia O'Brien Shawker, Roger P. Minert, Sheila Benedict, Shirley J. Riemer and Tom Jones. All of the Friday and Saturday presentations are available at no extra cost above the conference registration fee.
The Friday evening banquet has in intriguing title: Coffins, Urns and Zip-Lock Bags. It should be interesting to see how Mark Lowe ties those subjects together.
NGS members who register before December 1 need to pay $150.00 for registration. The price jumps to $185.00 for registrations received in December and January. Non-NGS members need to pay 205.00 before December 1 and $240.00 after. It is interesting to note that the difference in price for members versus non-members is $55.00 and that a membership to NGS costs $55.00. You might as well join the society as you already are paying for a membership if you register as a non-member.
The "Warm Up Your Research" conference will be held in downtown Phoenix. The conference hotel will be the Wyndham Downtown Phoenix Hotel located at 50 East Adams Street, just a few steps from the convention center. The conference room rate is $148 plus tax per night for a room with one or two queen size beds, single or double occupancy. Suites are available for $178 per night and up. Be sure to mention NGS when registering in order to obtain these rates. The same hotel is listing rates of $170 to $189 on the Wyndham Web site for those dates. You may want to call the hotel at 602-333-0000 to make sure you receive the NGS rate. You can find more information about the hotel at http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/PHXHT/main.wnt.
NOTE: All U.S. Wyndham hotels have high-speed Internet access available for an extra fee. However, if you join the Wyndham By Request plan before making reservations, you can obtain the high-speed Internet access at no extra charge. Details are available at https://www.wyndham.com/wbr/join.wnt.
The NGS Web site at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/edutripsphoenix.htm has a bit of information about this event and undoubtedly will have more as the conference date approaches. For any questions, you can contact the NGS 2005 Phoenix Research Trip organizers at ngs@ngsgenealogy.org.
