Follow Friday - Virtual Conferences! WHAT? NO WAY!

Editor's note: Today's post was written by Sandra Gardner-Benward

Virtual Conferences!  

Virtual Conferences?  Yes, What a new concept. OR is it? We all have attended conferences that are away from home, with hotel, airlines, food, car rental expenses along with the cost of registration to the conference. Was it worth it? Yes, because that was all there was avaiable at that time, but things are changing. You have already experienced some of it by taking live streaming sessions from home on your own computer. Remember the live streaming sessions that you had an opportunity to watch from the last two RootsTech Conferences and from Southern California Jamboree for a couple of years and from the National Genealogical Society Conferences. ..... So you see  it is already being done in a smaller scale, but still virtual.

Now there are Vitual Conferences......  US National Archives & Record Administration (NARA) has been doing this very thing for a couple of years and it is working. Imagine a government entity thinking outside the box and saving money too. They just completed one on September 3 & 4, 2013. NARA Virtual Fair  They must be doing something right since attendance more than tripled.

Lectures are designed for experienced genealogy professionals and novices alike. Some of the topics included Civil War pensions, immigration,Native American and African American history, U.S. Colored Troops and more.

Read more about  Virtual Conferences at NEXTGOV  , check out the two articles about this particular Virtual Conference at Eastman' s Online Genealogical Newsletter pt 1 & pt 2   , another Virtual Conference available would be Family Tree University,  and check out Lisa Louise Cooks birds eye look at a Virtual Conference

Keep your mind open to new and fun opportunities and from your living room. What a great concept,. Although I can imagine a group of people getting together and view some of the sessions together.......  helping those that are more techie challenged. Making a fun event in itself.

I am going to consider this option next time it comes up. (not too much different from attending a Webinar just on a larger scale and of course it is not free but far less than going to the conference)


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