NERGC 2009 is a Success

I just spent three pleasant days at the New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) in Manchester, New Hampshire. I must say that this year's event was well organized, and most everything worked as planned. I never heard the final attendance count but am guessing it must have been close to 800 genealogists. The venue was great, just about the perfect size for an event of this type. Everyone I talked with seemed to enjoy the conference.

I could go on and write about the conference in detail, but you can already find lots of information in previous articles that I wrote at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/04/this-week-at-nergc.html and at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/02/new-england-regional-genealogical-conference.html as well as more information on NERGC's web site at http://nergc.org/2009/. Everything there talks about the "upcoming event," but I can report that most everything happened as planned.

I will share a few of my own observations about the conference, however.

First of all, I will point out that I have previously written complaining articles about the ever-growing expenses of attending many other national and regional conferences. (See http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/09/highway-robbery.html for my earlier article.) It seems to me that conference planners often ignore the fact that genealogy is a hobby or personal interest and that the majority of would-be attendees are working folks with strict budgets or retirees on fixed incomes, often with even tighter budgets. Holding a conference in a big-city convention center that caters to business conferences often places genealogy events beyond the financial reach of many who would like to attend.

I will suggest that the 2009 NERGC conference is an example of "how to do it right."

This year's NERGC conference was held in Manchester, New Hampshire, a small city with small-city prices. The cost of hotels, the convention center, and restaurant meals was much less than similar facilities in Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, or other big cities. Manchester has excellent airport service and is also easily reached by multiple super highways.

Being in the northeastern corner of the United States was inconvenient for a few who wished to travel from other parts of the country. However, this is the New England Conference, so the majority of would-be attendees live in or close to New England. This year's conference location was within a 3- or 4-hour drive for everyone in New England, except perhaps for those in northern Maine, an area with a low population anyway. In short, Manchester served as an excellent gathering place for the majority of genealogists who wished to attend.

The conference hotel was not cheap at $125 a night, but I have paid quite a bit more at genealogy conferences held in other cities. A nearby Hilton was available at roughly the same price, but there are perhaps a dozen or more discount hotels within 5 miles that were viable alternatives for anyone with an automobile. One conference attendee told me that he was paying $65 a night for a very nice hotel room about three miles away.

Parking at the hotel and convention center was $8.00 a day for guests of the hotel although I think it was higher for non-hotel guests. I would have preferred free parking, but $8.00 a day is still much cheaper than the $40 a day I had to pay for parking at another genealogy conference last year and the $10 to $25 a day I have paid at many other places. I once paid $55 to park for eight hours near a one-day genealogy conference in New York City, but of course, New York City is unlike any other place on earth. In any case, $8.00 a day seems modest.

When I checked in at the conference, I was delighted to find that the conference syllabus was given to me as a CD-ROM disk. This is one syllabus that I kept and took home with me! Why can't all the other conferences do the same?

High-speed Internet connectivity via Wi-Fi wireless networking was free in the conference hotel's rooms as well as in the hotel lobby, and it worked well. Unlike many other hotels, the Radisson in Manchester does not gouge its guests by making them pay extra fees for Internet access. I saw lots of conference attendees seated in a "conversation area" just off the hotel lobby, all with their laptops in use and presumably checking their e-mail messages.

Most Radisson and Radisson SAS hotels in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and Radisson Edwardian hotels in the United Kingdom offer free broadband access in guest rooms. The Manchester Radisson's business center was also available free of charge. I used the business center's printer to print a hard copy of a 30-page document I had written and was amazed to find that even my print-outs were free of charge. I am now a bigger fan of Radisson hotels than ever. Thanks to the free Internet access and other “perks,” I am now more likely to book a hotel room at a Radisson hotel on future trips to other cities.

While I was in the business center, I saw two other conference attendees printing out pages from the conference syllabus CD-ROM. That struck me as the perfect solution to the “syllabus on disk versus syllabus on paper” question: those who wanted it on paper were able to quickly and easily print out any and all the pages they wanted.

The convention center was connected directly to the conference hotel; attendees did not need to venture outside in the weather. As it happens, the weather wasn't a problem; it was gorgeous. Most of the presentations, luncheons, and banquets were held in the hotel's conference rooms, all within a short walk of the hotel's elevators. The exhibit hall and a few other events were held in the convention center, a two-minute (indoor) walk away.

The $135 conference registration fee also was not cheap but, again, was not as expensive as some past genealogy events. This conference attracted both well-known national presenters and many local, lesser-known experts. Of course, the local presenters often are great experts in their topic(s) of specialization.

Unlike most other conferences in recent years, I did not sponsor a newsletter booth in the exhibit hall at this year's NERGC event, nor did I make any presentations. I was there simply as an attendee, and I must say that I enjoyed it immensely. I even had time to attend a number of presentations!

I did get a chance to talk with many other attendees and can report that every person I asked said that they were enjoying the conference. The only complaint anyone mentioned was regarding the printed schedule of events that seemed to spread the information over many pages. Trying to identify the events being held and the names of the speakers, and then finding the room numbers where they were being held required a lot of page flipping!

Nothing is ever perfect, but this year's New England Regional Genealogical Conference came close. My hat is off to all those who labored so hard to make this year's event a success.

Roots Television was also at this year's NERGC conference and videotaped a number of interviews. If you were not able to attend this year's event, you will still be able to see some of the presenters in videos within the next few weeks at http://www.RootsTelevision.com.

The next New England Regional Genealogical Conference will be held in 2011, two years from now, in Springfield, Massachusetts. Details will be released as that date approaches. I suspect that information will first appear at http://www.nergc.org but don't look for anything new there for some months yet. The NERGC organizers are likely to take some well-deserved time off first!

Comments

[Jeanne O]

I second your comments that the NERGC was an excellent event. I'd like to add that though there were several unavoidable changes to presentations, the "last minute" speakers did a great job. It was a success. The hotel also helped by providing buffet salad and sandwich bars for those not attending the scheduled luncheons as well as delivered meals to the vendors, if requested.
Congratulations to the committee and the workers.

[Mick O'Halloran]

Dick, I also attended the conference but only paid $5 for parking in the hotel/center garage. Apparently you didn't see the little parking slips on the Registration desks.
The parking lady even charged me $5 on the first day when I didn't know about the conference rate. She saw my name tag and gave me the bargain.

That got me off to a good start to a very good conference. Sorry I didn't see you there.

[Mike Brophy]

Dick

It was good to see you at NERGC and I agree it was a great success. I learned a great deal from the other presenters at the conference and the space was well planned out. The speech on accessing Washington DC records from home was particularly good. No long walks for between the exhibit hall and lectures for my aching knee.

The organizers did a great job attracting over 800 attendees in a challenging economy is quite an accomplishment. I am looking forward to NERGC 2011.

Mike Brophy

[Steve Gauss]

Dick -
I was one of those who told you how much I was enjoying it. Kudos to whoever arranged that we could pay only $5 for all day parking (it was $8 for guests, but was for 24-hours of parking). There were several places to get a cheap lunch within the hotel, including a deli where I had a nice haddock chowder. The wi-fi was free for non-guests only from the lobby, not from the session rooms or the expo. Nevertheless, the hotel seemed to be very user friendly. The program planner that you mention was hard to use, but there were signs everywhere giving the room assignments. The organizers did a great job and I will be back in 2011. And, by the way, the Choice Hotel chain (where I stayed) also have free business centers.

[Lisa Rex]

Hello Dick,

I agree with you, NERGC was well-run. It was my first US conference and full of great speakers and nice people. I think having the syllabus on CD is a brilliant, eco-friendly solution. If I want, I can print of only the pages I need, but most likely will be reading it from my computer only.

I'd also say the only issue I had were finding which events I wanted to attend (there were some great ones to choose from) because the schedule and descriptions were separate in the guide.

There was free wi-fi in the tavern too. I ended up giving an impromptu Footnote demonstration to a few people around me.

And it was nice meeting you!

[Suzanne Groth]

One thing many of us attendees took advantage of was to utilize the free shuttle van provided by the Radisson to and from the airport. I also used it twice to get to the American-Canadian Genealogical Society, which is about one mile from the hotel, where I was successful in some research during the off hours.The driver arrived at the requested time to return us to the hotel. Some of my friends did not know about the free shuttle service, and paid cab fare of $23.one way from the airport to the hotel! Another bonus I had was that I did not have to check out by 11:00 a.m. Sunday. Instead of having to wait in the lobby or at the airport for many extra hours, the hotel staff allowed me to keep my room until 1:00 p.m. with no additional charge. I also did some walking in downtown Manchester, felt safe, and enjoyed the parks and unusual shops. Best of all, there was no sales tax, unlike NJ! This was my fourth New England Regional Conference, and I am planning to attend the next.

[Cindy Lupole Drage]

Hi Dick -

I was also one of the people who spoke with you about how much I was enjoying NERGC. It was my first conference and I loved it! I learned so much and except for a few glitches with equipment, every presentation I attended was great.

The hotel was lovely and I must comment that the hotel staff were wonderful - very friendly and helpful.

It was nice talking to you -

Cindy Lupole Drage

[Janine LaFleur PENFIELD]

The NERGC was my first conference as well and the organizers did a terrific job! I volunteered a little bit, but plan to do more in 2011. The speakers were outstanding and the topics were amazing - it was so hard to decide which ones to attend. The hotel bent over backwards to make us feel at home. Even though I only live an hour away, I wanted to attend the evening events and make the most of being with hundreds of genealogists.

Many people were sad not to have the hard copy syllabus, however, I was glad not to have to carry a huge book around and used the business center to print out only the pages I needed. Electronically speaking, the Radisson had the easiest wi-fi service I've ever seen.

I'm sorry I missed meeting you Dick!