Follow along as we recap our RootsTech 2023 experience, and our three biggest takeaways from the experience.
One month ago today, we rolled up the carpet, packed our bags, and headed home from Salt Lake City after three days of connection, learning, and inspiration. And after three years of waiting, we were so excited to see everyone in person again. As an added bonus, this was the first time that the conference was held both in person and virtually.
According to FamilySearch:
- More than 500,000 participants have made over 5.2M common ancestor connections to other participants through Relatives at RootsTech 2023.
- Participants from 236 countries and territories.
- More than 3 million participants in person and online.
- Over 128,000 hours of livestream video and 70,000 hours of on-demand content watched.
- Over 4,000 young adults attended in person.
And we had our own milestones and lessons learned throughout the conference. Some of the lessons were quick tips from other speakers. Some of them came from inspirational keynote speakers.
Other, more important learning was done by listening to the people who came to our booth and really understanding the things they loved, didn’t love, and what they wanted more of. Through those conversations and observations, we had three very important takeaways.
Lesson #1: If we film it, they will come.
We were so excited to find out that both of the FamilyTreeDNA in-person sessions during RootsTech would be in Ballroom A and would be available online during the conference on the RootsTech website.
It also looks like our audience was pretty excited too. We are still receiving feedback from all three of our live sessions and the impact they’ve had. Most importantly, we’ve received feedback that attendees were excited that they could rewatch even after the conference through our virtual booth.
Y-DNA: An Overview of Your Results
Explore Y-DNA results with Katy Rowe as she breaks down each report into what it tells you and how it can help your genealogical research.
Let’s Play Connect the Forefathers!
Explore the recently released FamilyTreeDNA Discover™ reports in detail with Sherman McRae and learn how they can help you understand your ancestry.
Just In Time for Group Projects! Introducing the FamilyTreeDNA Discover Group Time Tree
Jim Brewster walks you through the most recent update to FamilyTreeDNA Discover™ and offers a Q&A for people who attended live.
(This session is currently available on YouTube and will be added to the virtual booth soon.)
Lesson #2: Bring more kits.
We underestimated you guys. We felt the love at the Salt Palace. So much so, we had to fly in more kits to make sure you guys could test with us. Overall, we sold over 250 kits.
Booth Talks
One of the perks of going in person is attending sessions inside the booth. We made sure there was content for attendees from the moment the expo hall opened until closing. This included small group talks with Janine Cloud, Sherman McRae, Katy Rowe, Roberta Estes, and our Research and Development Team.
Many attendees who stopped by to learn from a booth talk ended up strolling to the other side of our booth to purchase kits.
Lesson #3: We have a passionate audience.
We love how much our audience loves what we do. Our chat in our virtual booth was filled with experts, beginners, hobbyists, and genealogical professionals. No matter the varying degree of knowledge, there was always a great conversation going on.
What made these conversations even better was how open-minded everyone was. People were not afraid to ask questions, and equally, people were willing to share their experiences and what they knew to be true. There was some real learning happening in the chat rooms.
On-demand Sessions
Even though the chat rooms are still accessible, they are not being actively monitored by FamilyTreeDNA staff and volunteers. But you can still achieve the same level of learning with our classes and product demos in our virtual booth for the rest of 2023.
Classes
- Y-DNA Analysis: The Fault in Our STRs
- mtDNA: Mitochondrial DNA Mutations
- Examining Success in DNA Testing
Product Demos
Y-DNA
- Y-DNA: How SNPs Are Added to the Y-DNA haplotree
- Y-DNA: How To Read the Y-DNA haplotree
- Big Y: A Lifetime Analysis
mtDNA
- mtDNA: mtDNA Haplogroups and the mtDNA Haplotree
- Mitochondrial DNA: rCRS vs RSRS
- Mitochondrial DNA: mtDNA vs X DNA
Products
- DNA Group Projects: Why You Should Join and How They Help
- DNA Upload: How to Transfer Your Autosomal DNA Data
- Discover: Exploring the new beta feature from FamilyTreeDNA
You can also check out our Sponsor Highlight to see what we worked on in 2022 and what to expect from us in 2023.
RootsTech 2024
Unfortunately, one month ago today, we rolled up the carpet, packed our bags, and headed home to Houston. We learned a lot more than three lessons. We have notebooks filled, notes in our phones, emails, text messages, and sticky notes filled with little things we can learn from.
We’ll see you next year from February 29-March 2 for RootsTech 2024!
If you weren’t able to make it in person for RootsTech 2023, check out the recap from Family Search to see what you can expect in 2024.