RootsTech 2016 Swag

I had such a great time at RootsTech 2016. This was my first time attending in person and my first time attending as an Ambassador. What an amazing experience!

I left the conference with some fun RootsTech swag and I thought I would share photos of those items with you today.

One of the items I received is the very nice RootsTech bag in the middle of the photo below.

Here are some close-up views of other items.

In the photo below is my RootsTech lanyard. I collected a few buttons during the week. And of course, I collected some ribbons during the week too. In addition to the ribbons collected in the Expo Hall, Thomas MacEntee, founder of GeneaBloggers, shared some fun ones with me too. He had a lot of ribbons to choose from. The "GeneaBloggers," "i tweet," and "My Brain Hurts" ribbons were from him. Thank you Thomas!

Those pretty blue and gold beads were given to me by Thomas MacEntee because I'm a member of GeneaBloggers. The smaller ruby-colored beads were given to me by Eric Jelle, Founder of Genedocs. Thanks again Thomas! And thank you Eric!

See the little green selfie stick to the left of my lanyard? RootsTech gave each of the Ambassadors a selfie stick at the Media Dinner. What a fun gift! I didn't have a selfie stick before. Thanks RootsTech!

Close-up of the lanyard buttons.

My husband and I attended the MyHeritage RootsTech After-Party on Friday, February 6. What a fun evening! I'll share more about it in a future post. We had our pictures taken in their photo booth. Each attendee was given a blanket as a parting gift too. The photo is propped up against the blanket. Thank you MyHeritage!

Looking at these items from RootsTech 2016 reminded me of how much fun I had at the conference. I would love to attend next year too.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2016 ~ Ken Krogue: "Don't think the word blog, think the word newspaper or magazine."

My day 1 of RootsTech 2016 began with the Innovator Summit General Session, which was held on Wednesday, February 3, 2016. One of the keynote speakers was Ken Krogue - co-founder of InsideSales.com.

Ken Krogue

Ken Krogue's keynote address was wonderful. I especially loved what he said about blogging. He shared the chart below that showed the results of a research study by a business magazine. The study asked "Which medias are most important?" The answer was blogging.

Here are some quotes by Ken Krogue about blogging that I really liked:

• "Don't think the word blog, think the word newspaper or magazine. It's a digital magazine for you. Your voice can be heard around the world if you blog. Forbes.com is nothing but a big Wordpress blog." ~ Ken Krogue

• "I would recommend that you get a blog. Tell your own story." ~ Ken Krogue

• "So, start your own blog. It's got some horsepower." ~ Ken Krogue

What Ken Krogue said about blogging really resonated with me. I especially love that he advised us bloggers to think of our blog as a newspaper or magazine. Blogging is important and powerful. As he said, "Your voice can be heard around the world if you blog."

I know firsthand how beneficial blogging can be. I wrote a blog post about the benefits of writing a family history blog in my post The Benefits of Genealogy Blogging.

I have also taught a class about the benefits of genealogy blogging at various family history events.

You can watch Ken Krogue's full keynote address in the video below.

If you don't have a blog yet, begin one now. Through your blog, you will be able to tell your own story, as well as the story of your ancestors.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2016 ~ Meetups With Fellow Genealogy Bloggers and RootsTech Ambassadors

Official GeneaBloggers at RootsTech 2016
Photo Courtesy of Michelle Goodrum

While I was at RootsTech last month, I had the wonderful opportunity to finally meet fellow genealogy bloggers and RootsTech Ambassadors in person that I've only known online. I had already met a few of these lovely people at last year's BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy. It was great to see them again.

Here are some photos from our meetups at this year's RootsTech.

These first two photos were taken at the Blue Lemon restaurant on Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

Here's a photo of Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings, Michelle Goodrum, author of The Turning Of Generations, and Michelle Taggart, author of A Southern Sleuth.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Randy Seaver, Michelle Goodrum, Michelle Taggart

This lovely group photo includes Gordon Erickson, husband of Pat Richley-Erickson, author of the popular DearMYRTLE blog, Lana Porter, Barry Kline, and Audrey Collins.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Gordon Erickson, Lana Porter, Pat Richley-Erickson, Barry Kline, and Audrey Collins

On Wednesday morning, I met up with True Lewis and Caroline Pointer at registration. True Lewis is the author of Notes to Myself and Caroline writes at 4YourFamilyStory.com.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Left to Right: True Lewis, Caroline Pointer, Jana Last (me)

I also had the pleasure of meeting Bernice Bennet, family historian, author, and host of Blogtalkradio's Research at the National Archives and Beyond.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Bernice Bennett and Jana Last (me)

On Wednesday evening, RootsTech Ambassadors were invited to attend the Media Dinner. These next three photos are from that fun event.

This lovely blogger is the other RootsTech Ambassador named Jana. Yes, there were two of us Jana's serving as Ambassadors at RootsTech. Jana isn't a very common name, so it was really fun to meet Jana Greenhalgh in person.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Jana Last (me) and Jana Greenhalgh

She has a great blog called The Genealogy Kids and a YouTube channel that you can find at The Genealogy Kids YouTube Channel.

Not only do Jana and I share the same first name, and have genealogy blogs, and served as RootsTech Ambassadors this year, and have brown curly hair, there's something else we have in common. Our husbands also share the same first name. Yep! Jana's husband is named Brent and so is mine. Jana and Brent Last and Jana and Brent Greenhalgh! How fun is that!?

Sorry this picture is a bit blurry, but here's a photo of Jill Ball and myself at the Media Dinner.  Jill is from Australia and blogs at GeniAus. It was wonderful to finally meet her!

Photo Above (Left to Right): Jill Ball and Jana Last (me)

It was such a pleasure to meet fellow RootsTech Ambassadors Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes, founders of Sistas in Zion.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Tamu Smith, Jana Last (me), Zandra Vranes

And here I am with Thomas MacEntee, founder of GeneaBloggers. It was so great to finally meet Thomas! I've been online friends with him for several years. He's been a great blogging mentor and kind friend.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Jana Last (me) and Thomas MacEntee

These next two photos were taken inside the Media Hub.

Sorry for another blurry photo. This is yours truly with Amie Tennant, fellow blogger and RootsTech Ambassador. She is the author of My Kith N Kin. It was wonderful to meet her at RootsTech. We had a great time at the RootsTech opening social and at dinner afterwards.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Amie Tennant and Jana Last (me)

Selfie stick time! Each of the RootsTech Ambassadors received a cool selfie stick. I've never owned one before. Pretty fun stuff once you get the hang of it.

This is fellow blogger and RootsTech Ambassador, Amy Archibald and me in the Media Hub. Amy is the author of Revealing Roots and Branches.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Amy Archibald and Jana Last (me)

Another selfie stick photo. This was taken outside the Media Hub. I first met Michelle Taggart in person at the Blue Lemon restaurant earlier in the week. She's a sweet friend and fellow GeneaBloggers "May I Introduce To You" (MIITY) team member.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Jana Last (me) and Michelle Taggart

Here's another photo of me with Tamu Smith, co-founder of Sistas in Zion. It was so great to meet Tamu. She and I share a family connection. We both share the same sister-in-law. Her husband's sister is married to my brother. So, her sister-in-law is also my sister-in-law. What a small world! I knew about this fun fact before RootsTech and was hoping I would meet Tamu.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Tamu Smith and Jana Last (me)

It really was so fun to meet so many of my fellow genealogy bloggers and RootsTech Ambassadors at RootsTech last month.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2016 ~ My Interview with the Co-Founders of Twile

Kelly Marsden and Paul Brooks
Co-Founders of Twile.com
at RootsTech 2016

On Friday, February 5, 2016, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Kelly Marsden and Paul Brooks, the co-founders of Twile.com.

Twile is an award-winning company based in Sheffield, England. At the RootsTech 2016 Innovator Showdown, Twile won the following awards:

• People's Choice Award ($10,000 cash)
• 3rd Place Judges Choice Award ($6,000 cash, $10,000 in-kind)

What is Twile? The "About Twile" section of their website includes the following:

"With Twile, you can create a rich, visual timeline of your family history, made up of milestones and photos, which everyone in your family can explore and contribute to."

Twile's mission according to their website:

"Make family history exciting and engaging for the whole family and preserve as many memories as possible for the future generations."

Here are some highlights from my interview with Paul Brooks and Kelly Marsden:

Jana Last: Tell me about how you got started.

Paul Brooks: We started Twile in 2013 in Sheffield in England and we launched our full product in April 2015, so a year ago. We spent a year and a half trying to work out how to build a timeline that would solve all the problems in genealogy. And we launched it last year. We spent a year trialing, experimenting, and where we are today is a pretty popular product.

Jana Last: Ya, I think it looks excellent. I was intrigued that you're talking about getting it FamilySearch compatible.

Kelly Marsden: Conversations will take place following this conference. Everybody's really excited.

Jana Last: I am so excited about that!

Paul Brooks: And the beauty is you will pull in your FamilySearch in a click and it will instantly create your timeline. Because otherwise, at the moment you have to import a GEDCOM file, which is okay, but a slow process, whereas if you can just push a button, then that's amazing. We've been here a few days and they've convinced us to get working on that as quickly as possible.

Jana Last: We'll look forward to the press release on that. So, you've talked about Who Do You Think You Are? Live, that you're going to that in April? Are you presenting? What are you going to do there?

Kelly Marsden: We'll have a stand there. We do have someone presenting on our behalf.

Jana Last: Anything else you want to tell us about Twile?

Paul Brooks: Just that we'd love everyone to give it a go and try it. Since we launched it the number one data that we've used to build the product has been feedback from customers.

Kelly Marsden: We want to encourage everyone to start recording their lives today, because today is tomorrow's history. So, let's not just think about Twile as being a tool for the past, but a tool for today as well.

Jana Last: I love that.

 ***end of interview***

I'm looking forward to when Twile will be compatible with FamilySearch. It will be wonderful to instantly create my Twile timeline using my FamilySearch Family Tree.

In addition to their website, Twile.com, Twile can also be found on the following social media sites:

Family History with Twile Facebook Group

Twile's Facebook Page

Twile on Twitter

Twile's YouTube Channel

Want to see what a Twile timeline looks like? Please check out the "Introducing Twile's Family History Timeline" video from their YouTube channel.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2016 ~ Photos of Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah

In a previous post, I shared photos from our genealogy bloggers meetup lunch at the Blue Lemon restaurant.

After lunch, I went across the street and took pictures at Temple Square. It's so beautiful there!

The gorgeous and historic Salt Lake Temple behind some trees. This beautiful temple took 40 years to complete.

Snow on the tree branches.

The Salt Lake Temple.

The Assembly Hall. This beautiful Gothic-style building was built between 1877 and 1882.

I took this picture because the Assembly Hall's reflection is on the Deseret Book Company building across the street.

The Handcart Pioneer Monument. It's near the Assembly Hall. You can see where it is on Temple Square in the photo above.

The Tabernacle. This beautiful building has amazing acoustics. A pin dropped at the pulpit can be heard in the back of the hall.

The Salt Lake Temple behind the reflecting pool.

I went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and took some pictures inside. This gorgeous building used to be known as the Hotel Utah. It served as a hotel for 76 years.

The beautiful lobby.

The stunning chandelier and stained glass ceiling in the lobby.

 A statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith on Temple Square.

Pictures of snow around Temple Square.

I hope you enjoyed these photos of Temple Square. It truly is a beautiful place.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

RootsTech 2016 ~ Lunch at the Blue Lemon

I arrived in Salt Lake City for my RootsTech 2016 trip on Monday, February 1st in the afternoon. The next morning I went on a group tour of the LDS Church History Library. Later that day, I had lunch with fellow genealogy bloggers at the Blue Lemon, which is a restaurant in the City Creek Shopping Center. Thank you Pat Richley-Erickson, author of the DearMyrtle blog, for organizing this lunch!

This was my first of many genealogy blogger meetups throughout RootsTech. It was wonderful to meet fellow genealogy bloggers that I've only known online. It was also great to see genealogy blogger friends that I've met before.

Here are some photos from our genealogy blogger lunch meetup.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Randy Seaver, Michelle Goodrum, and Michelle Taggart.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Jana Last (Me), True Lewis and Michelle Taggart.

Photo Above (Left to Right): Gordon Erickson, Lana Porter, Pat Richley-Erickson, Barry Kline, and Audrey Collins.

Getting together with fellow genealogy bloggers at RootsTech really was awesome!

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2016 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved