Reviewing RootsTech

 

For some people, once is enough. For others, it's never enough. 

That's the perennial argument at our book-lovers' home. On my part, as much as I love to absorb every word of the books I read, once I've passed that way, I don't want to squander my time by re-reading what I've already conquered. So many books, so little time.

On the other hand, both my husband and my daughter savor the experience of fiction, and can thrill at the author's craft by revisiting the same pages over and over. Once is never enough for them. When it comes to movies and other visual formats, "reruns" is no despised phrase; the second—and third, and fourth—time is just as good as the first. Maybe even better.

Perhaps that is why I was ambivalent about attending this year's RootsTech Connect. I knew I'd never be able to sit through the entire proceedings online; I do, after all, have a life which cannot easily be put on hold. That, for example, is why SLIG in person at their hotel enclave in Salt Lake City works for me—it's the hideaway factor—but by video conference was a less than stellar week.

Still, for this year's RootsTech, there was one tempting offer: the RootsTech Connect videos would continue to be available to watch. Any of them. Any time I wished. Knowing that, I changed my mind and registered.

And then, a funny thing happened: I found myself wanting to watch some of those videos again. Don't get me wrong; I'm still a one-take person. I took voluminous notes on the sessions I did watch during the conference. But then, setting the session aside, later, I'd find my mind wandering back to the topics which were discussed by those presenters. And wanting to revisit the topic.

Maybe it's the dialog that launched in my head, thanks to the inspiration of the very usable material at RootsTech. Now I'm glad it will be there for me to go back and review, whenever I wish, for the next year. Not only that, but when I share with others what I've heard in specific presentations, I can refer them to the specific link, and they can register for a free account and watch the same session, too. It makes for wonderful dialog with others I know here at home who are working on the same research issues.

I'm not sure whether collaboration was what the RootsTech planners had in mind by making those hundreds of sessions available for the rest of the year, but that's what I call a beneficial unintended consequence.