The annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies opened this morning at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex In Birmingham, Alabama. Co-hosted by the the Alabama Genealogical Society, this will probably be one of the larger genealogy conferences of the year in North America.
Everyone who planned to attend the conference had nervously been watching the weather. However, Hurricane Isaac cooperated nicely and veered to the west. When I arrived about noon yesterday, the day before the conference opening, it was raining lightly. However, the rain stopped an hour or two later and I haven't seen any precipitation since then. This morning (Wednesday, the first day of the conference) is overcast with temperatures in the high seventies. I am no expert on Alabama weather, but I suspect the highs this afternoon will only be in the mid-eighties, much cooler than many days in August in Birmingham.
In other words, the weather turned out to be a non-issue.
Everyone who planned to attend the conference had nervously been watching the weather. However, Hurricane Isaac cooperated nicely and veered to the west. When I arrived about noon yesterday, the day before the conference opening, it was raining lightly. However, the rain stopped an hour or two later and I haven't seen any precipitation since then. This morning (Wednesday, the first day of the conference) is overcast with temperatures in the high seventies. I am no expert on Alabama weather, but I suspect the highs this afternoon will only be in the mid-eighties, much cooler than many days in August in Birmingham.
In other words, the weather turned out to be a non-issue.
Today is Librarians' Day at the conference with a special track of presentations and workshops for genealogy librarians. The other sessions for today are mostly topics of interest to officers and members of genealogy societies. The Plenary Session started at 8:00 AM with D. Joshua Taylor speaking on Transforming Your Society into a Dynamic 21st Century Destination.
A few general-purpose genealogy presentations aimed at all genealogists will be held today but most will be featured over the next three days. In short, there is something here for every genealogist.
You can learn a lot more about what is planned at http://www.fgsconference.org/. Also, take a look at the new FGS web site at http://www.fgs.org/.
I hope to attend several sessions this week and also spend some time in the exhibits hall (which opens tomorrow). A lot of announcements concerning new genealogy products and services are traditionally made at this conference and, assuming the same is true this year, I hope to write about them in this newsletter. Several such announcements were already released before the start of the sessions and can be found at http://goo.gl/wdvPDm, http://goo.gl/NM6oq, and at http://goo.gl/WFrKX.
My highlight will undoubtedly be the dinner for readers of this newsletter held on Saturday evening, shortly after the close of the conference. We will have a private dining room in the Sheraton Birmingham, host hotel for this conference. Some door prizes will be given away as well.
If you can be in Birmingham this week, even if only one day, I'd suggest you stop by this conference. I bet you will enjoy it. To learn more , go to http://www.fgsconference.org/.
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