RootsTech Days 2 & 3

Thursday:
We started off the day bright and early with a tour of the expo hall. It was super cool to see the final touches going up.




After an amazing tour we headed over to the keynote. The property brothers did an amazing job! I loved hearing them speak about their family.




Another cool thing that RootsTech has is innovators alley in the expo hall. I went and visited the vendors there, they have a lot of cool ideas!



That night, after a wonderful dinner at the Nauvoo cafe, I attended the Hammerstein Mormon tab concert with my grandparents. At the concert Forever announced their partnership with family search.

Friday:
I started off the day crazy!! I slept through my alarm and so my dad woke me right as we were supposed to leave. I'm pretty sure I got ready in record time. We made it right before the keynote was going to start. It was amazing! Levar Burton gave a stirring address and there wasn't a dry eye in the room! After him Kenyatta Berry, Sheri Camp, and, Melvin Collier spoke.

At the end of the keynote, they had a choir come and sing, It was awesome!


As everyone left to go to their various classes we stayed put and watched the innovators showdown. Remember how I said I left in a rush? Well as the showdown was starting I looked down to see my shirt inside out!! Some days your on top of your game, and other days you wander around RootsTech with an inside out shirt. After I got over that shock :), I turned my attention toward the showdown. It was intense! After some deliberation, the judges decided to choose OldNews USA as the innovators showdown winner.




I didn't attend the cultural night, but I'm sure it was amazing! Hope to see you at family discovery day tomorrow! 

RootsTech Day 1: Innovators Summit

This was my 1st year attending innovators summit, and it was aweome! We started off the day with a great keynote by Liz Wiseman.

She taught us about "Rookie Smarts" Some of my takeaways were:
-Beginners often can solve impossible problems just because they don't know that it's impossible.
-Put in the work and take the risk
-When we become comfortable we begin to expect things and we will sometimes miss the obvious solution.
-Always push yourself!
She is such a great speaker and I highly reccomend reading one of her books, especilaly if you didn't get to see her speak.

Another big part of the day was watching the semi-finaliats pitch their ideas to the judges.

Later that night we attended the 80's party, it was a blast!

Towards the end of the party they annoced the innovators summit finalists were announced. 

They are: 

-Kindex

-Emberall

-Double Match Triangulator

-OldNews USA

I had a great time today, and I can't wait until tomorrow!

RootsTech: T-10 days

 What's in my bag (and other necessity's):

With RootsTech right around the corner I've been packing my bags! Here's whats inside:

Folder: I always bring either a folder or a binder to keep all my papers and handouts from the conference. I also bring my notebook/journal to keep notes in.

Writing utensil: To go along with my notebook I bring pens and pencils. I've found it's easier to read my notes later if I alternate colors when I write them. 

Water bottle: This one is kinda obvious but it's nice to have water when you've been walking all day.

Snacks: As a high school student I know that, one of the only ways to make through the day is to have snacks between classes.

Umbrella: Generally I would only bring this if the forecast shows snow or rain but, that being said the weather can be rather sporadic and unpredictable.

Warmth (Gloves, jacket/coat): Seeing as we have such awesome weather in Utah, a jacket is a must! If you're going to be doing a lot of walking outside gloves are also pretty awesome. I live an hour south of Salt Lake and every morning it's between 14 and 25 degrees.

Shoes: The Salt Palace center is huge! Every year the conference expands, so, as a result the distance we walk becomes longer and longer. Make sure to bring good shoes or by the end of the day your feet will be cursing you! 😩

Phone : It is a tech conference after all! Make sure to post plenty of picture using the hashtag #rootstech

See you in 10 days!

Innovators Summit

I hope everyone is getting excited for RootsTech! It is coming up so fast, 2017 is literally around the corner. Just recently the semi finalists  for innovators summit have been announced, they are as follows:

Champollion 2.0: 

This is an amazing tool for reading old documents! It can help see through the wear and tear that documents gather over time. 

OldNews USA:

This app allows you to access old newspapers, it has potential to be a great resource.

QromaTag:

This lets you share stories behind old photos, I think its pretty cool!

CSI: Crowd Sourced Indexing:

This is all about making indexing better.

Double Match Triangulator:

I absolutely love this one! It was created to help your DNA results make more sense. It's perfect for newbies like me :)

Emberall:

This is all about storing photos and stories in the cloud. It has quite a bit of competition with plenty of other programs like it.

JoyFLIPS:

This app is connected to familysearch and allows you to scan in photos and such.

Kindex:

This combines CSI and Emberall, it has CSI and cloud storage. 

Cuzins:

This app helps you find people you're related to.

RootsFinder:

This is geared toward youth like myself, I especially appreciate how it is engaging my generation!

 To learn more check out Rootstech's website:

 https://www.rootstech.org/innovator-summit-2017?cid=RT17_AMB_RBAIRD

or watch my instagram (@genealogyrambler) I will be featuring one of these every week. 

Happy new year!

Coloring Pictures

A year ago, I was teaching a class on genealogy to families in my ward. It was really fun and a great experience, but first we had to find ways for everyone to be involved. Kids generally don't enjoy the usual things genealogy includes. We ended up using one of the most basic things kids like to do. Color. I found this awesome Photoshop website that allows you to change photos into coloring pages. Its called iPiccy. Here's how you use it:
1. Go to ipiccy.com
2. From the home page click start editing
3. Upload the photo from your computer
4. Go to the magic wand section

5.Click on pencil sketch

6. You can adjust how strong the lines are, depending on the quality of the photo

7. After that simply click on the save button and save it to your computer

*I've been selected to be a 2017 RootsTech ambassador, because of that I've been given a free pass to giveaway, checkout my Instagram @genealogyrambler for more information on the giveaway!

Fathers Day

Happy fathers day everyone!  The church made this fun video about dads. I really liked it so I'd thought I'd post it today. 

I love you dad!

#TheWorldsRecords

FamilySearch has announced the dates for the world wide indexing event. Their goal this time is to have 72,000 people participate. As of right now 10,086 have joined.

So spread the word using #TheWorldsRecords and join us for this record breaking event July 15-17!