Midwest Family History Expo - Day 1

Wow! What can I say? Wow! What a day. My day began at 4 a.m., so don't expect either a long or coherent post this evening!

This was my first major genealogy conference and the Family History Expo folks really know how to do things up right! The conference facility offers great exhibition space and the session rooms are comfortable. Having planned some conferences myself, I know that the #1 thing people will complain about is the facilities - too hot, too cold, blah blah blah.

I did find myself opting for sessions that had tables in the rooms because I can actually type my notes into the computer a lot faster than I can write. And because of that, my typed notes tend to be in complete sentences. My handwritten notes are usually much more cryptic. This was also my first time taking a laptop to a conference. What I enjoyed about that was when a speaker was discussing a web site, I could go right to it and add it to my bookmarks immediately. Oh yeah,  my bookmarked pages grew a lot today! And I'll be sharing some of those recommend resources on this blog over the next few days.

The speakers are top-notch. Kudos to Gena Philibert Ortega who ended the day on a high note - she's an energetic speaker who did a fantastic job on her session about infusing American history into your family history. She presented some great ideas and resources.

While I really enjoyed all of the sessions, the best part, by far, was meeting in-person many of my Facebook and Geneablogger friends. Now we are real-life friends! I kept telling them it was so nice to see them somewhere other than in a 1" by 1" photo! None of these people seemed like strangers who I'd never met before. It was like seeing old friends. And what fun to be able to share the passion we all have about our hobby. Everyone has stories to tell - and they are all interesting. I'm not sure I want to go back to "real life."

Sweet dreams - of blogs, beads and barbeque.