Southern California Genealogy Jamboree is a Huge Success

I just returned from a two-and-a-half-day genealogy conference in Burbank, California. The Southern California Genealogical Society held their annual Genealogy Jamboree this weekend, and it was a blow-out success. About 1,500 genealogists attended this year's Jamboree, making it one of the larger genealogy conferences of the year in North America. In fact, the attendance at this annual event has grown so much that it now meets or exceeds the attendance at some of the national events.

I first attended the Genealogy Jamboree five years ago and found it to be a pleasant event with about 400 attendees. Then I missed a few years but went back last year and I was amazed how much it had grown. Last year's Jamboree featured many more speakers than before and drew a much larger group of vendors. I enjoyed the event so much that I decided to return again this year. Indeed, the 2009 event even exceeded last year: even more attendees, a longer list of more than 100 lectures given over the three days, and an even larger group of exhibitors from all over the United States and Canada plus one from Northern Ireland.

The result was obviously successful.

The list of presenters included many of the better-known genealogy lecturers of today. You can find a complete list of all the speakers at http://genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com/2009/02/announcing-speakers-for-2009-genealogy.html and the complete conference brochure may be found at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~socalobituaries/program%20brochure%202009-03color.pdf.

The keynote address at the Friday night banquet was delivered by Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, one of the stars of PBS's series, History Detectives. I had a chance to interview Dr. Zuberi on Friday for a Roots Television video and found him to be a delightful person. Indeed, he delighted a lot more people a few hours later at the banquet.

One item that differentiates the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree from other conferences is the annual Blogger Summit. At least, I think it is annual. It was held for the first time last year and was such a success that it was repeated in 2009.  It was again well attended and I suspect the organizers will repeat it next year (That's my guess, not a promise from the organizers!). This year's "Blogger Summit 2: Son of Blogger" was a workshop presented by many of the leading information leaders in the geneablogging community today:  Lisa Louise Cooke; DearMYRTLE; Leland Meitzler; TheAncestryInsider; Craig Manson; George G. Morgan; Stephen Danko, Ph.D.; Schelly Talalay Dardashti; and myself.

I always thought of the Genealogy Jamboree as a regional conference and, indeed, probably 90% of the attendees do live in southern California. What  impressed me, however, was the number of national and even international presenters and exhibitors. Schelly Talalay Dardashti, author of the popular "Tracing the Tribe" Jewish Genealogy Blog traveled from Tel Aviv to Burbank to attend and present. Feargal O'Donnell, Vice Chair of the Irish Family History Foundation, Manager of Armagh Ancestry and Managing Director of Genealogy Ireland, traveled from Northern Ireland just for this conference and talked to many at the booth in the exhibitors hall. Louise St. Denis of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies traveled from Toronto, Ontario and had a booth in the exhibit hall. I was but one of more than a dozen people or more who traveled from the East Coast of the United States to be at this conference in Burbank.

I talked with quite a few of the vendors in the closing hours on Sunday afternoon. Every single vendor I talked to reported excellent sales; they sold as much or more than what they normally sell at national conferences. One vendor had to run out to a nearby Staples store on Saturday to purchase more receipts and credit card slips. Another reported that he normally places new orders into a large envelope and this weekend, for the first time, he had to obtain a second envelope. I didn't get the numbers, but the New England Historic Genealogical Society reported that they signed up lots of new members at the Jamboree. I suspect that all of this year's vendors will be back next year.

I spent quite a bit of the time in the exhibit hall, manning a table that I shared with George G. Morgan and Drew Smith of the “Genealogy Guys.” The table was next to Family Tree DNA's booth. I'm not sure if that placement was a good thing or a bad thing: the Family Tree DNA booth was crowded most all the time! The good news was that being next to a popular booth generated a lot of traffic in front of our display. The bad news is that all those people were interested in DNA, not in us! Indeed, presentations about DNA seemed to be everywhere. DNA is a hot topic in genealogy.” I have no idea how much business Family Tree DNA generated at this conference but I can report that I watched a LOT of people swabbing their cheeks this weekend in the adjacent booth!

Holding a conference of this magnitude requires the coordinated efforts of many people. There are many people I should thank for this year's successful Jamboree but I do not have the entire list. However, I certainly have to single out the efforts of Jamboree Co-Chairs Paula Hinkel and Leo Myers. Their performance was outstanding.

I want to thank Paula and Leo and all the others who worked so hard to make this year's Genealogy Jamboree a success. I appreciate their efforts and I imagine about 1,500 other genealogists do the same.

Will there be a repeat performance next year? I'm not certain, but I suspect the answer is “yes.” You probably won't see any new information for a while, but I would suggest keeping an eye on this newsletter and especially on the Southern California Genealogical Society's web site at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com.

Comments

[Carol Neilson]

I was there for the first time ever, and it was a great event for me. It was well attended---so much so that my husband could not get into one of his selected classes (we preregistered a month and a half in advance) and his next was standing room only and he did not want to stand, so left. So Saturday was a bit of a bust for him. But his Fri afternoon and Sunday were better. I attended three classes that were standing room only also (all on Saturday), and did stand for two of them. I came from about 4 hours away in the Fresno area of California. Not sure if I'll return again next year, but will return in the future. :) Carol

[George G. Morgan]

This conference, Dick, is one of THE premiere conferences in the United States. I cannot communicate how excellent is is on so many levels. The presentation list was comprehensive for attendees' interests, and every one appeared to be crisp and concise. The vendor hall was chock-full of great resources on every level -- books, software, services, and so much more. Breakfasts and dinners provided fascinating insights, especially the one on Victorian death traditions. Better yet, as you know, the Blogger Summit (Son of Blogger) was terrific AND the Geneabloggers' Dinner was the most exciting, raucous, and informative event at the entire Jamboree!

From Our perspective as "The Genealogy Guys Podcast," we had a fabulous time and interviewed THIRTEEN people (including a great one with you) for upcoming editions of the podcast -- on audio AND video!

I will always remember this Jamboree!

[Margaret Rutledge]

This was my third Jamboree and it was the best yet. Every time block had two or three sessions that appealed to me, so it was difficult to choose each time. But I could buy the cd's of sessions that were too crowded, so I was actually able to be in two places at once. And the syllabus will be a useful tool for a long time because so many of the speakers provided excellent outlines of their programs.
Leo, Paula and Charlotte, and all the other committee members and volunteers put on a wonderful conference.

[Stephen J. Danko]

I agree with Margaret. This was also my third Jamboree and it certainly was a spectacular event. I was amazed at how smoothly everything ran. Many kudos to Leo, Paula, Charlotte and all the volunteers. They did a great job and always had a smile ready for the participants.

[Dae Powell]

I was unable to attend this time, but I look forward excitedly to George's and Lisa's podcasts. They are wonderfully produced and give us the next best thing to being there. Thanks!

Happy Dae·
http://ShoeStringGenealogy.com

[Charlie Murphy]

Even though I was visiting our daughter in Sherman Oaks last week, I was unable to make the Conference; is there any way to obtain the printed syllabus that was available to attendees? I was very interested in the two sessions given Sunday on the various research help using Google. I'd even settle for excerpt copy of that portion of the syllabus if someone can make it available (glad to pay for copying & mailing, etc). Hopefully I might be able to attend a future conference if held near Burbank again. Charlie Murphy from Olympia, WA navlawcfm@comcast.net

[Elaine Zamansky]

Another great upcoming conference is the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy August 2-7 in Philadelphia. For information, visit www.Philly2009.com.