Packing for FGS: Version 2.0

I know I'm a tad late on the FGS2013 ambassador prompts, but I didn't know I was heading there until fairly recently. Besides, the packing prompt was an issue I had been struggling with, and until just a few minutes ago, I wasn't quite ready to list what I was bringing.

As usual, my technology list is growing! Yes, I'll be bringing a camera and my iPad....I plan on packing light since portability is key when hopping from session to session while taking notes on the fly. As ever, my Evernote app will be my go-to choice for taking notes throughout the conference. One thing I still have not decided upon - which bag for best portability. I'm leaning towards backpack, but it might be too bulky. My backpack is great when manning a booth with all of the responsibilities, but JUST attending means I can down-size in the bag area - wish me luck!

Now, on to my dilemma, which involves technology, but not in the hardware department. I'm sure most of you will relate to my problem: My online/social media presence has become....well....complicated. I'm not so sure it is a good complexity, but it's there none the less. Here's why:

I have a day-job career that is multi-faceted. I'm a genealogy librarian at a state historical society, which means I speak, write, tweet, blog, photograph, plan events, and socialize, all for my institution - both as myself and as the institution, depending on which account I am signed in to at the time. On the personal side, I own 2 companies - one of which is related to the genealogy/history field. Which means I also speak, write, tweet, blog, photograph, and socialize for these companies as well. Plus, I volunteer for other organizations, I am a board member for a local heritage council trying to save a historic home.....the list is pretty endless these days. However, recently, when making a new connection via introduction, I'm having a hard time just introducing MYSELF. How do I introduce myself in a way that is simple, yet connects people to my pertinent professional information - regardless of which ME they are looking for?

For this year's FGS conference, I have decided to downsize and streamline ME. I took a serious look at what I do via social media, and which social media tools I want people to focus on when they meet me for the first time. I admit to using MANY social media tools, but I have a few main ones that I use more prolifically than others....and I use some tools in a more private manner, thereby not meeting my criteria for publicizing purposes. For example: Facebook and FourSquare are a tad more personal - in fact, FourSquare is off limits unless I know the person very well - even though I don't jump on the privacy paranoia bandwagon, real-time location check-ins are not for the masses! Facebook began as a professional activity years ago while working for the University of Kentucky, so despite its personal vibe, I still watch what I put up there - nothing too crazy since there are MANY former and current colleagues connected through Facebook. However, it's still more personal than I would like, so I don't publicize it as a main connection tool. The Social Media tools I do like to use more for public/professional purposes are: Blogger, Twitter, Linked-in, Google+, Pinterest.

While conducting this internal review, I stumbled upon a site that has been around for years, but has not had a lot of attention: About.me  It is a free place holder for your Social Media presence. After performing a quick exploration of the site, I was hooked on the concept. I was able to place a picture (either small profile or large background), a bio, contact info, educational background....all followed by a series of apps that represented the various Social Media tools I felt best represented me. You can then include links below this section if you feel so inclined. The apps are cool in that visitors can click on one to see recent activity for that tool without navigating away unless they really want to visit the Social Media site directly. Plus, a wonderfully short URL: about.me/cheridaniels (Oh, and no log-in necessary to see my page!)

So....as I said, the site has been around for a long time, but has recently been bought back by the original creators who are trying to bring it back to a more robust life. Here is where the about.me site really helped with my conference planning. I am already bringing my official day-job business cards because, not only is that a requirement, but also, I will be talking with many potential speakers and experts that may want to participate in our programming, so the professional cards are a must. But....for the informal social/genealogy meetings I have decided to switch from multiple business cards to one Calling Card.

I decided to try Moo out to see how their mini cards looked - and as an experiment - I am taking mini-Moo cards to FGS as a networking debut. Each card will have a lovely photo from my personal collection (rotating about 6 designs) - usually historical in nature - and on the flip-side, I will only have my name, my about.me URL, my Twitter handle, and my e-mail address. It looks rather simple, but should accomplish what I need, in a bright, colorful way. Goodbye busy business cards - hello cheerful calling cards! (Yes, I do understand the irony of calling a card cheerful when the image is that of a cemetery - but seriously - we genealogists must wear our twisted sense of humor with pride!)

Another area of experimentation is happening in the Twitter realm. My library colleague and I were discussing the need for a Twitter handle on the conference badges - especially since many conferences are utilizing hash-tags for social interaction (#FGS2013). That way, when I meet someone new, I can not only see their name, but also their Twitter handle for a quick follow (or recognize them via Twitter handle, which has happened before!). So, as another experiment, I am bringing two options: a card to attach under the badge (same size as a ribbon - custom made ribbons were just too expensive for me), or a sticker to attach to the badge itself. After all, I know I'll be wearing blogger beads - might as well wear something to signify my Twitter use. For my card and sticker, I just made some quick in VistaPrint by using their templates and uploading the official bird logo from Twitter - easy peasy! 

To wrap up my conference packing I will also be bringing: pre-printed return address labels with e-mail and phone listed for easy contact/contest participation in the exhibit hall, beefier iPad case that can be wiped off after heavy conference use, multiple sets of charging chords, gedcom loaded into free genealogy app for research at ACPL (sorry, no endorsements yet, still experimenting with the free family tree apps), paper and digital conference program, and lots of my favorite tea bags with maybe a few travel mugs since I'm driving up and have room to spare - I know tea is not technology related, but it is the juice that keeps my circuits running! See you all soon! Don't forget: #FGS2013

NGS2012 Reflections: Part 2 "Review"

I am going to use the word "Review" a bit loosely here as I've only been to a handful of genealogy conferences, and NGS2012 was only my second NGS conference. However, once everyone returns home, there are always moments or features/events that stick out in your mind - both good and bad. Here are some of my observations about this year's NGS:

1. Syllabus on a Stick! Yes please! Love this current trend/move in a future direction! CDs are nice, but flash drives are just more practical these days, especially with so many people traveling the conference circuit with their tablets. Most smaller devices, either tablets or netbooks don't come with CD-ROM drives, so this move to the flash drive concept is very attendee friendly! As you can see from my photo above, I did actually opt for buying the print syllabus as an additional perk, but there was really only one reason I did this - ok, maybe two - First, it was my first conference as a speaker, and I wanted something to pass down in tangible form to remember the event by - and Second, Cincinnati is within driving distance of my home, so I DID NOT have to get it home on a plane! This is probably the only time I will ever opt for the print version. As for syllabus access prior to the start of the conference, I did hear some complaints from my tech-savy friends who were wanting to download the syllabus and open it up to take notes while sitting in the session. Since everything came as pdf, this was not possible - but I think they found some work-arounds. Personally, this was not a problem for me as I am a stream of consciousness note taker. I open a new note on the tablet (in Evernote), title it to match the session I'm in and jot down what I want to remember. Sadly, I am not organized enough to later match my notes to the syllabus page, but someday....

2. 1940 Census - I finally got one of those darned t-shirts!! Ever since RootsTech, the Family Search folks have been walking around, wearing these cute advertisements for the census release - just taunting us and not offering the ability to actually get one! They had even said they might offer us the opportunity to purchase one from their web site, but they never got around to that option....Grrrrr! So, finally, the t-shirts were free for the taking at NGS2012 - one catch though, you had to sit and index TWO batches of the census! Two was a great idea in theory, but after watching the backlog of people trying to use one of the computer terminals, ONE batch per t-shirt would have been a much better arrangement! Oh - one other amazing memory - I got to meet the 1940 Census lady from NARA - Connie Potter - she is one of my genealogy heroes, and she was just as sweet in person!

3. Overall session offerings - Very nicely done! I liked the local track that was implemented (otherwise I would not have spoken this year) which catered to those who might research in the area further. The hardcore certification and citation sessions were here plus a very nice technology track to balance everything out.

4. Exhibit Hall - The space itself was a bit dated with the enormous concrete arena from the 1970s, but the offerings seemed pretty well balanced. I did notice a strong representation from the local groups which was awesome! I also noticed some major vendor players who were missing this year. The freebie swag was greatly lacking, but with this economy, I'm not at all surprised. The demo areas seemed to have an abundance of space, but the acoustics were terrible, and almost everyone was drowned out by the microphone on that side of the hall. I did like the upper deck view from the second floor which allowed you to stand at a window and gaze upon the exhibit hall floor. Pretty neat and a great reminder to those hopping between sessions, that the floor of fun was just waiting below!

5. Yep, There's an App for That! - Ever since RootsTech's introduction of the conference app, folks have been a bit giddy over the convenience something like that provided! For the NGS2012, they opted to use a company that was already in existence instead of creating one from scratch. They chose "Guidebook", which is free to download via smartphones and tablets. Once you have this app downloaded, you just search for the applicable conference that is coming up and save it to your list. While no one considered the RootsTech app to be perfect, we suddenly appreciated it more after using Guidebook. The NGS2012 app was decent and easy to use, but it was not inclusive. For the "my schedule" portion, I was only allowed to add things that were from the official schedule. Sadly, the official schedule did not include any extra events, such as evening events or pre-conference events. I was disappointed in the lack of this feature. Especially since the extra events were listed in the conference literature as NGS organized events. The luncheons were also paid options, but they were included in the app schedules. Even if they didn't want to include these evening events, the option to manually add events in my schedule would have made up for the oversight. The conference experience is fluid. You may know which sessions you want to attend before you get there, but break-out sessions or special, small group events pop up, and the ability to change with the event flow is a must for conference apps. Also, I was not getting any notifications from this app about upcoming events on my schedule. I eventually just switched to using my calendar on the iPhone to keep up with what was coming up.

6. Ribbons/Pins - Confession time - I am a blingy girly girl. I like colorful and shiny things, and I confess to liking the whole ribbon ensemble that goes with conference attendance. Not only is it fun to add more ribbons as you connect with your memberships and groups, but if you watch closely, you can make new friends within the groups you belong to! Plus, I confess to being just plain curious. I watch for the most recurrent ribbons to get a mental snapshot of some of the most popular member groups. There is even a ribbon for "librarians" and this made for a great connection on the professional level that I used more than once during the conference! As a side note, the pins are quite fun to watch as well! I usually buy the official pin for each conference that I attend, but alas, I have not been brave enough to wear any, nor have I really figured out how to wear them. I see all sorts of applications for this fashion perk, but, not yet ready to go out on that limb. Tip: Waiting in line for something? Use someone's ribbon as a conversation starter!

7. Complimentary wi-fi, provided by Family Search! This was such an amazing gift to conference goers! I remember the pain of the Charleston Conference when signals were blocked and even some cell phone services were blocked to the point of having to step outside to make a phone call! This 2012 change was wonderful and served to promote the whole idea of the social experience. Folks were able to tweet and blog to their hearts content without a stutter! I had heard the capacity was a bit small, but the connection issues were not that problematic, and most people were getting online in their turn. Bravo Family Search!

8. Wrap Up - Favorite Memories of NGS2012: Sharing the Barton Papers with my fellow researchers - and the wonderful Pendleton County Historical Society ladies that helped out with my lecture! (I hope to post about this lecture topic as it is a vital resource for Northern Kentucky researchers!) Meeting up with more bloggers - I seriously love this group of people, and am already excited about the next time we get to meet up! Getting to meet the 1940 census queen, Connie Potter (see #2). Having so many local groups as booth neighbors especially the fun Kentucky folks (KHS, KGS, KDLA, AAGGKY)! Meat and potatoes of sessions this year - lots to sink my teeth into, and still absorbing my notes! Having the whole family working the Pastology booth with Chris and I this year - and the moment my Dad was unceremoniously introduced to the "Cloud" - I had to explain it to him after someone asked him about our relation to said "Cloud" - priceless! Having some old friends make the trip and help out with the booth (and wander around buying cupcakes)- Thanks Peggy! Getting a glimpse into where some of the major vendor players are heading in our field! Sharing some of my hometown with the national community!
Toodles from the Queen City!