The third and final day of the Genealogy Jamboree was held today in Burbank under cloudy skies. In fact, it even rained for a few minutes but not many people noticed. Everyone I saw was inside, dry, and smiling.
There is little that I can write to describe the Jamboree that hasn't already been written. In short, it was a great event and it drew praises from all the attendees I met. Attendance was about 1,500 people, a bit less than last year but still a very large crowd. That's a great number for what is essentially a regional conference.
The Marriott Los Angeles Burbank Airport Hotel and Convention Center is an excellent location for a conference of this size. It is conveniently located and is confortable as well. As I mentioned in an earlier article, the convention center is now about full. Two tents were brought in to provide space needed for all the presentations. I was surprised how well the tents worked. They were airconditioned and comfortable. Even better, the acoustics were surprisingly good.
The vendors generally were pleased with sales and most reported this year's sales equalled or exceeded those of last year's Jamboree. One vendor reported his sales were down a bit but all the others I talked with said their sales were equal to or exceeded last year's sales. Admittedly, I did not talk to every vendor, so there may have been a few other exceptions.
About 37 more presentations were made today and most went well, although with one exception. I had planned to attend the session on "The Effect of the Founders: Why You Need to DNA Test People Outside the USA." Chris Pomery, a well-known DNA expert who also contributes articles to this newsletter occasionally (see http://goo.gl/7xy2N) was scheduled to address the crowd in Burbank. That's a nifty trick as Chris spent the day in London, England. He was scheduled to appear electronically as the presenter in a "webcast." That is, Chris was to sit in front of a video camera in London and live video of his face would appear on a projection screen about 6,000 miles away in California and his voice would be heard over the room's public address sound system. It was to be a two-way session with Chris taking questions from the audience as well.
I don't know what happened although I think a fellow named Murphy was involved, in the form of Murphy's Law. Last-minute technical glitches arose and the video connection did not work over the hotel's wireless wi-fi network. Whatever the reason, the session had to be canceled after audience members had already arrived.
Hey Chris: next year, schedule a trip! You'll love California.
In fact, that was the only major problem I heard of with the presentations. There were a few minor glitches with sound systems or video projectors, but those were minor problems that are found at most any conference. I believe all the other presentations were held as scheduled.
The list of presenters at the Jamboree was impressive. While it may be a regional event, the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree offers national presenters and even a few international speakers. A complete list of presenters may be found at http://goo.gl/CEJfa and a description of their presentations may be found at http://goo.gl/WwFlr.
Did you miss this year's event? If so, you might want to know that most of the lectures were recorded by Conference Resource LLC and are available not only as CD disks but also on flash drives and as downloadble MP3 files. It's great to see technology being used to make these lectures available easily worldwide. The lectures offered as MP3 files can be played on your computer or copied to an iPod or most any other MP3 player and enjoyed later anywhere, even in the automobile or while riding a commuter train.
In fact, ordering a downloadable audio file saves a bit of money in purchase price plus there are no charges for postage or shipping. Almost all the lectures were recorded, with a few exceptions at the request of the speakers. A few lectures were recorded on video.
Conference Resource LLC sells the DVDs of the lectures that were recorded as videos for $15. The audio CDs are $12 and downloadable audio MP3 files are $11. Discounts are available if you purchase ten or more audio files. You can also purchase a jumpdrive containing all the audio files for $149.
When I last saw the employees of Conference Resource LLC on Sunday afternoon, they were looking a bit tired after working long hours for three straight days. They now have to return to their offices, place the audio files on their servers, and update their catalog pages on their web site. I suspect they might squeeze a few nights' sleep as well. In other words, don't look for these recordings to become available in the next two or three days! However, they will soon be available at http://www.myconferenceresource.com.
All in all, the 2011 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree was a great event. I'm glad I had an opportunity to attend.
You might think about attending next year's event. It will be held at the same location on June 8-10, 2012. I assume that further information will start to appear later this year on the Southern California Genealogical Society's web site at http://scgsgenealogy.com/.
In the meantime, I invite you to enjoy the pictures below and those from the articles of the past two days. The pictures will show you what to expect at next year's Southern California Genealogy Jamboree.
(Click on any image to see a larger picture.)
Lunch time. Even with cloudy skies, eating outside was pleasant. The hotel/convention center provided a snack bar.
I am a big fan of the charts produced by Fmily ChartMasters.
I'd love a chart like this!
This wall chart is more than thirty feet long! I could only squeeze a portion of it into this picture.
I love this necktie! It shows an entire "family" of black sheep but with one white sheep in the middle. The ties were available for sale in the exhibits hall from Ron Arons at http://www.ronarons.com/store.php.
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