Genealogy Conferences - Some Thoughts On “The Money Thing”, PR, and How “Free” Is Often An Illusion (Part Three)

[NOTE: THIS IS THE 3rd POST IN THE SERIES AND WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED PRIOR TO THE BLOGGER OUTAGE ON FRIDAY, APRIL 13th.  THE NEXT POST IS TITLED: MORE ON BIG CONFERENCES:]

In the last post, I asked (mostly rhetorically) “So, if it’s not the speakers who are making all the money that make these conferences seem to be “expensive”, who’s raking in all the dough?”

Generally, it’s being spent on overhead (including all that pre-conference advertising, printing, and other organizational stuff) AND on the private-sector venues where the actual conference events are being held. 

The Venue Doesn't Come Cheap

Conference centers and hotels have talented and skilled professionals on their staff whose sole job it is to negotiate prices with the volunteers/staff from the various groups planning conventions.  Remember: these conference and hotel folks are trained to get the best possible deal for the hotel/conference center, while at the same time make the group’s conference organizers who are considering the space think that THEY are getting the best possible deal.

 

Moreover, conference centers and hotels are not motivated in the slightest by charity.  They care not one whit about genealogy. They are motivated solely by profit.  Like I said last time, they do not care if your group is poor or rich, important or unknown ; space and food are their stock in trade, and they have prices based upon supply and demand.  

You can be sure that if anyone is going to take even the slightest loss at a large genealogy conference, it will not be the conference hotel or the conference center providing the space, meals, or anything else.  

A well-run hotel/conference center business is designed to make as money as possible, plain and simple.  That’s exactly what it’s supposed to do.  That’s one of the principal reasons that conferences are “expensive.”

"Profit" Is Not A Dirty Word

Also, a well-run conference should also make money for its organizing group.  It’s in the interest of NGS, FGS, NERGC and all other event organizers to make a profit with their conferences. In fact, that’s what conferences are supposed to do.  

If conference organizers say that all they want to do is bring in enough money to cover their expenses, they should be asked to step down by the governing board and relinquish their management positions, because they’re not doing anything good - either for their organization or for genealogy.   In fact, they’re putting the genealogy conference concept itself at risk. 

if conference organizers planned poorly and caused their event to lose money because they messed up on a few details and didn’t allow for enough of a financial cushion to cover unanticipated expenses, conferences would stop all together.

Then, there’s that “other thing” again - 

(b.) the “what genealogy should cost” perception. 

As I said in the last post, lots of genealogists think that everything in genealogy should be free and that making money in pursuit of genealogy is somehow tainted and dirty. 

Free, Free, FREE!!!!

Genealogists like “free” stuff.  Problem is, it’s hard to find really “free” stuff.  Sure, there’s some “free” stuff on the internet, like familysearch.org, for one, and then, there’s lots of stuff that looks “free”, until you figure out that the freight is being paid by somebody else - like advertisers. 

Guess what?  Lots of genealogists use Facebook.  Facebook is “free”, right? So - if it's free -  why did investment bank Goldman Sachs back in January 2011 value Facebook (the company) at 50 BILLION dollars?   

It’s because of all that advertising revenue – now and in the future.  The more users, the more Facebook can charge advertisers to push out their ads.  That’s why Facebook is seemingly “free” – not because the folks at Facebook think you’re deserving of a great social media deal.

So, that “free” thing being elusive, genealogists know that they often have to settle for “inexpensive” (i.e., almost free) stuff.  When it comes to conferences, it soon becomes obvious that even “inexpensive” is hard to come by, especially if “interesting location” AND “great speakers” are things to be considered.

Changing Genealogists' "Worldview"

Since things are not likely to get much cheaper real soon, what with the cost of food and fuel and taxes, it’s incumbent upon conference organizers to try and change the genealogical community’s perception of conference costs.  They need to be changed from “too expensive” to “a remarkably good value for your genealogy dollar.”  

 This means more public relations, and more cost comparisons with other similar things.  Trend lines that show the costs of genealogy conferences over time compared to, say, the cost of college tuition over time. Interviews with people who point out what they’ve learned at conferences and what a great value for their dollar spent that they received.  Also, more outreach to people who have never been to a conference, perhaps by having a special “one-day” beginner’s rate that gets you into a half-day of beginner talks along with a “how – to” program with ads placed by the vendors in the exhibit hall for very little money.

In other words, conference organizers need to work on public perception in the genealogy community, convincing folks that conferences are a really good deal, just like Mark Zuckerberg and his team have convinced their users that Facebook is “free.”

Conference "Sizzle"

Also, conference organizers need to remember to sell "the sizzle", because conferences are more than just “steak”.  In addition to being intellectually nutritious, genealogy conferences are supposed to be fun.  Hint: the current Disney World website shows me that three fun-filled days at the theme park will set me back about $243.00 in tickets per adult.  I can get a “moderate” room for $179.00 a night at the park itself.  

Now, this year’s NERGC admission was less than Disney World for even more fun-filled days.  The hotels were less expensive.  Of course, there were no real rides, but there was plenty to do all day, kind of like a genealogist’s “theme park”. 

So, maybe it wasn’t actually free, but compared to Disney World, it was a bargain.

[Yet more to come… about volunteers, the exhibitors and maybe a new model being used elsewhere, not in genealogy]

More on Big Conferences: Volunteers and The Exhibit Hall (Part the Fourth)

Volunteers - The Cast of Thousands

Back when I was a very young teenager, the best movies – or so I thought - were those grand, spectacularly huge historical costume dramas like “The Ten Commandments”, “Ben-Hur”, “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” and “The Vikings” (I can still hum the “Vikings” theme and visualize that funeral scene with the burning Viking ship drifting slowly out to sea.)

The “coming attractions” hype for those epic films sometimes included the line, “Featuring a Cast of Thousands” or some other bit of similar hyperbole.

A Cast of Thousands.  Actually, when it comes to large genealogy conferences, that same concept still applies.  Remember: multi-day genealogy conferences don’t just happen.   Even the ones that are formulaically “tried and true” and have been around for years don’t just happen. While it may not take a cast of thousands exactly to get everything done, there are still a thousand small things to do.  And the “someones” who get to do all those thousands of things are more often than not volunteers, not paid staff.

Who Does Everything?

Someone has to make sure that everything on the master list of chores is properly ticked off. Someone has to make sure that there are enough “someones” to introduce the speakers at the start of each session.  Someone has to make sure that there are “someones” to act as room monitors.  Someone has to coordinate the door prizes.  Someone has to handle publicity.  Someone has to deal with AV issues. Someone has to deal with printing. Someone has to order stuff.  Someone has handle the move-in and move-out of exhibitors.  And the decorating company.  And making sure the right numbers of meal choices get turned into the food providers. 

Lots of “someones” have to put things in registration packets. And so on.  And so forth. And that just scratches the surface of all the tasks that need doing in the months running up to the conference.

Without the hard work and dedication of volunteers, big genealogy conferences would collapse.  In fact, the one free thing about genealogy and genealogy conferences is the volunteer labor that goes on behind the scenes.  Even more than the speakers and the exhibitors, it’s the volunteers – from the big dogs on top to the little pups below - that make it all happen, almost seamlessly.

Again, a bit of “reality therapy”:  if all the “behind-the-scenes” volunteers at genealogy conferences decided to stay home and sit on their hands, the conference organizers would have only two alternatives.  The first would be to cancel the conference.  The second would be to hire people to replace the volunteers.

If Alternative Two were chosen, the cost of a conference registration would be so high that you’d think you were attending one of those late night TV “Make A Million In Foreclosed Real Estate” or Tony Robbins business seminars that are always being advertised.

The “Surgically Attached” Exhibit Hall – What’s That All About?

Then, there’s the issue of the Exhibit Hall, which I described a couple of posts ago as having been “surgically attached” to the “multiday, multitrack conference/annual meeting” model.  The reason I chose that “surgically attached” term was that in the early years of conferences, the Exhibit Hall was the conference’s “poor stepchild”, and, in some ways an afterthought – there to be tolerated, but not promoted.  

Some wags – including me – suggested that, in those early conference days, exhibitors were much like the medieval Jewish moneylenders who were allowed into European cities to do their lending by day, but were never granted full citizenship and were forced to return to their ghettos every night, lest they contaminate the non-Jewish population.  (Historical note: Jews in the Swiss city of Basel were granted full civil rights as citizens in – wait for it – 1874.)

Heaven forbid we should mix crass commerce with genealogy! The very thought!

At one national conference, the exhibit hall was located in one of the two downtown hotels designated as a “conference hotel.”  Nearly all of the lectures were scheduled at the other hotel more than a block away.   

At another national conference some years later, the organizers wanted to charge the non-registered general public five bucks to come into the vendor area.  I was a bit taken aback by this, since. for more than a quarter century, I’ve been encouraging conference organizers to consider the Exhibit Hall as the “bait” for those local non-genealogists who might want to explore what the rest of us find so fascinating.   

A “free” Exhibit Hall costs pretty much  -  NOTHING EXTRA and is great publicity for the field of genealogy in general. Plus, exhibitors love it. So why not promote it, with radio, TV and newspaper spots?  Up the price of exhibit space to cover the advertising costs.  Work like the dickens to get lots of local free publicity. (Thanks, Marian Pierre-Louis at NERGC, for your spot-on publicity work.)

So, why did the organizers back so many years ago even think that charging five bucks to get into the Exhibit Hall was a Good Idea?  The answer I got at the time was that the conference center was in what the locals considered a “bad” part of town and that the $5.00 admission would keep out the “riff-raff.”  

Go figure.  Plus, I've learned from years of exhibiting at antiquarian book fairs that lots of expensive rare books get sold to people who look like they sleep on park benches.  Lots of wealthy folks have no fashion sense, and vice versa.

Exhibitors – Much More Than Meets The Eye

More reality therapy:  More often than not, many of the folks staffing the booths in the Exhibit Hall are very good genealogists in their own right, not just hucksters who are there to sell you stuff you don’t need.  Some are even world-class genealogists.  These folks spend their conference days standing in the Exhibit Hall, smiling and answering questions – often the same questions – over and over again.  More often than not, those questions are the very same kinds of “where should I look” questions that attendees would like to ask a professional genealogist, were one available to proffer free advice. 

For example, while standing in my booth in the Exhibit Hall, I have been asked – in rapid succession and in a space of less than 20 minutes – (a.) how to find and get access to New York State prison records from the 1870s, (b.) where to find a map that would show the routes a person might have taken from central Bohemia to the port of Bremen in 1846 and (c.) what the main difference was between Burke’s and Debrett’s Peerage and which was the “better” book.  I was able to answer 'em all. After all, since I’m a bookseller /publisher /genealogist; therefore, I should be able to answer pretty much everything. Or so people think.

Do this for 8 hours a day for three days straight and you’ll feel ready to play “Genealogy Jeopardy” or something similar.

I have also been asked if I would let the Questioner borrow the $300 original edition genealogy printed in 1916 in an edition of 50 copies that was on display in my booth “just long enough to take it to Staples to copy the pages I need. I'll give ya five bucks, okay?”  Seriously.

I have also been told by a conferee visiting the booth that our reprint of Homann’s 1786 “Map of the Upper Rhine” was “too late and out of date” and would not be helpful because her ancestors had left the area in . . . 1784. 

Whatever.  (That reminds me: I think I need to refresh my talk on using historic maps for research…since lots of folks think it’s all online.)

Fortunately, the Exhibit Hall has grown to be more integrated into the conference itself. NERGC has taken a leading role in showcasing the Exhibit Hall by scheduling substantial blocks of “unopposed” Exhibit Hall time.  Several other national groups have held entertaining “Grand Opening” events in the Hall, all designed to encourage foot traffic.  

Still, grand openings are not quite enough. One of the things we’ve heard for years is that attendees want more time to spend in the Exhibit Hall because the things that you find there are hard to find anywhere else.  Exhibitors want to see more attendees and for longer periods, because it’s obvious that in a large exhibit hall at a national conference, it’s hard to see everything – even in three or so days.  

Is Exhibit Space at National Conferences Too Expensive or Too Cheap?

While I doubt that lots of other exhibitors would necessarily agree, I think that exhibit space is (a.) very inexpensive and (b.) should always be sold without any “complimentary” conference registration attached.  In fact, most exhibitors who’ve been doing this for a long time will agree (begrudgingly) that the booth fee is probably the smallest part of their exhibit costs.  

Most exhibitors commit to $2500 or more in expenses (minimum) prior to arriving at a national conference.  That’s no small amount.

Here’s how the exhibitor math works out:  

 If I had wanted to exhibit at the coming FGS- Springfield, Illinois conference in September, I could have rented a single 10’ X 10’ booth with one draped table. (Actually, we used to take three or four booths at national conferences, but that’s another story altogether.)  

That smallish space would have cost us $215.00 for the entire three-day conference.    That’s a little bit more than $70.00 a day.  As a point of information, I usually pay considerably more for much less space at a 5-hour antiquarian book fair in a backwater northeast town. (of course, folks coming to book fairs tend not to be surprised at $300 prices on rare books – especially when the book’s “street” value may be $500 or more; for some reason, genealogists think differently…it’s that “everything in genealogy should be free” issue again)

But that’s not the real issue.  The real issue is that, along with the booth, I would also get a “complimentary” conference registration. So, what’s that worth?  Well, at a minimum, $185.00.  That’s the “early bird” registration price.  

If I waited till the last minute, the price of admission would be $235.00.

As I said earlier, Do The Math: in reality, then, if I plan to attend a lot of the conference talks, the booth cost would only be an extra thirty bucks.  Or, looking at it another way, the conference itself would actually be “free” if I bought a booth for $215.00 and planned on selling a few things, like a small boxful of books.  Over the years, I’ve known a number of “exhibitors” who’ve purchased space in the Hall just so they could attend the conference, stash luggage and sell the occasional book or two. 

There’s nothing wrong with that.  That’s what the current “conference model” is, and anyone who doesn’t take full advantage of it isn’t thinking straight.  But still, it doesn’t generate more attendance at the conference itself and it doesn’t make money for the organizers.

If I could be assured that I’d have a three-day relatively “captive” audience of attendee-genealogists wanting to buy things AND I knew that the conference had heavily advertised the free exhibit hall to locals AND I knew that there would be a measurable, statistically significant block of “unopposed” vendor time AND if the organizers would “fess up” to the actual number of paid registrants who were not speakers and exhibitors a week or two before the conference, I would pay a whole lot more for exhibit space to cover the cost of additional local advertising BECAUSE I would sell a whole lot more stuff AND would make a whole lot more profit.

As it is now, exhibiting at a national conference takes a minimum of two or three weeks out of my life (depending on the location), and bluntly, the return on my time investment alone (150 – 200 hours minimum) – not counting the upfront cash expense - is at best “questionable.”

So, as Gertrude Stein said to her close friend Alice B. Toklas so many years ago, “Alice, what is the ANSWER?” 

[Hint: more to come]

Blogger's Back - Sorta

Google Engineer Ministering to Sickly Blogger

Word is out that Blogger is back up from its little "hiccup."  My last post - part three in the "conference series" - is still out somewhere having a very late lunch with the Google/Blogger tech crew, who promised me (and everybody else) that they'd bring it back soon.

Must be a heck of a party they're having.


Anyway, even though the next blog entry is done, I'll wait a bit, just to make sure that Blogger is finished having an upset tummy.  After all, it IS Friday the Thirteenth, in case you hadn't noticed.

More later!

The Genealogy Conference Model, The Speakers’ “Big Bucks”, And Maybe a Turducken?

Picking up where we left off a few days ago…

(Editorial aside:  I intended to get this out sooner but I had forgotten that 19 month old boys have different sleep schedules than their grandpas.  Apparently, there is something in their little owner’s manual that explains that 5:30 AM is when playtime is supposed to start. I must have missed that page, and in the words of the late Johnny Carson, “I did not know that.”  In fact, I had forgotten, as most grandpas do, that there actually was such a time as 5:30 AM.Now…on to the matter at hand.)

At first blush, large genealogy conferences may appear to be really expensive compared to the day-long events hosted by local societies, except, when compared to other kinds of conferences, they’re really not.  Part of the perception of “expensive” comes from the long-standing conference model itself (since surely, all those “name-brand” speakers must be expensive, right?)

The Conference Model

What is the “model” anyway? Let’s take a look.

Years ago, the current genealogy conference model of a multi-day & multi-track “educational/social experience” with a surgically-attached “trade show” was adopted because that’s what many of the “professional conference/annual meetings” were in the other areas that had them.  

Ask any librarian or practicing academic or accountant or physician.  The “professional conference/annual meeting/trade show” model was the norm, with its selection of topic-specific talks and acres of blue-curtained booths with sales reps in the exhibit hall, all hoping to sell stuff that cost thousands of dollars that would in turn be paid for not by the attendees, but by their universities. Or hospitals. Or corporations. 

Most important, this was the model that a lot of folks in the academic world already used.  In fact, as time went on, genealogy conferences and their program committees adopted another of the academic world’s hallmarks: the “call for papers.”  

You’ve seen those announcements.  “Such and such conference has announced its “call for papers.”  Deadline for abstracts is [insert date here].”  

Frankly, I still chuckle whenever I see them, probably because after all these years, I tend to view things through the eyes of a cynic. 

Papers, Please…

Think about it for a moment or two.  When was the last time you saw anyone at a genealogy conference actually “present” a “paper” in the “academic” sense?   Frankly, if people at genealogy conferences presented actual “papers” like those in other academic fields (such as spending 20 or so minutes reading an actual paper that summarized several years of laborious research on a series of interconnected families of weavers and flax spinners in Washington County, NY between 1815 and 1855, with lots of footnotes, for example), you can be sure that conference attendance would plummet.

People don’t go to genealogy conferences to hear about the minutiae of other people’s family research or even to learn about the Grand Unifying Theory of Prosopography, no matter how good the PowerPoint slides might be.  Genealogists are practical, mostly. They go to learn things they don’t know and learn things that they can use.  They also go to be inspired. And since they’re paying they want as much of learn and inspire as possible.

Even though academic-type “papers” aren’t really being called for, the “call for papers” concept gives genealogy conferences a nice “academical” gloss, and also a very pretty shine.  If they’re “calling for papers”, it must be “important.” 

Many Are Called, Then The Fun Begins  

A potential speaker submits a proposal to a largely anonymous program committee of volunteers and then several months or more later, learns whether or not the proposal was accepted.  

While many “papers” are “called for”, not all are chosen; submitters whose proposals are not accepted may get a “thanks, but no thanks” communication, but will rarely get feedback as to why their submittals were rejected.  Possibly the topic doesn’t mesh with the conference theme.  Maybe it’s a proposal very similar to somebody else’s, and that “somebody else” is much better known.  Then again, it might be that nobody on the committee thought the proposal was very interesting.  Perhaps nobody on the committee has ever heard of the proposer or heard the proposer actually speak.

Or, perhaps they have. 

Most of the time, the submitter never learns the actual reason that the proposal doesn’t get selected.

What about the selected proposals? If the submitter gets a “yes”, then it’s off to the speaker’s drawing board, to build lots of PowerPoint slides for a 50 minute talk and then to construct a 4 page handout for the syllabus. 

After all, conferees expect great slides and great handout materials; in turn, speakers usually try to please.

Time Is Money, Or Maybe Not

Let’s consider the time it takes to make the slides and write and polish the handout for a 50 minute talk:  Here’s what I suggest to new speakers:  for a good talk, with reasonably good visuals, you should plan on probably spending 50 hours minimum, not counting the actual topic research itself.  The big reward: a check, rarely exceeding $225, polite applause, increased name recognition and some “great talk” comments. Sometimes, there’s an additional payment to offset some of the speaker’s travel expenses.   

After the conference, there’s often a flurry of emails from attendees wanting additional information.  There are also usually a few requests to do the same talk(s) again for a smaller group, but only if the speaker is willing to accept a smaller “honorarium.”  

Speakers hear that a lot from local society program chairfolks, who are quick to point out that they don’t have a lot of money to pay speakers for “regular” meetings because their members already think their $30 a year dues are highway robbery anyway.  As you may know, there are a huge number of people who believe Everything in Genealogy should be free. 

 

Oh, yes, even at big conferences, you’ll usually have to provide your own LCD projector, which these days can cost $800 - $1200.  So, if you’re a “new” speaker on the national circuit, with not much of a track record, your first six or so speaking gigs at national conferences will help pay for your projector.

But you won’t mind because, after all, since we’re using the “academic” model, it’s an honor to be asked to speak in the first place, right?  Plus, in the academic world, speakers rarely get an honorarium. Plus, you’re building street cred.

It’s important to keep that “honor to be asked/academic model” going in genealogy, because nobody actually makes money by speaking at large conferences.  If anyone tells you that they do, please do NOT ask them for help with your taxes or other financial advice, because they obviously don’t understand basic finance or cost accounting. 

Maybe they have a book to promote; maybe they’re looking for more paying clients, maybe they’re… you name it.  No matter what their motivation for speaking, you can be sure it’s not for the big bucks. These days, the folks who teach tennis to little kids at summer camp make considerably more per hour than “nationally known” speakers at multi-day genealogy conferences.

Genealogy Conferences: The Turducken of Conferences

It’s important to remember that the genealogy conference model is actually a kind of hybrid affair, borrowing some ideas from the academic conference model and other ideas from the “proprietary school” adult skills education model, with a trade show thrown in on the side.

Reality check: ask the average academic if he or she presents papers at professional meetings.  Invariably, the answer will be “yes.”  Next, ask the same individual if he or she has (a.) ever received a check for speaking at a professional meeting or (b.) ever purchased a spare bulb for the LCD projector they use.  

 

Now, watch how they look at you funny, kinda like you have two heads.

“Are you crazy?”, they’re likely to say.  “I don’t “own” my LCD projector; it belongs to the department where I work/teach.  I sign it out when I give a talk/paper/presentation.  We have “people” who take care of that sort of thing.  Plus, nobody pays me extra to present papers; presenting papers is part of my job; it’s part of the “publish or perish” world that all of us academics live in. It’s how I get promoted.”

If they’re high enough up the academic food chain, they’ll have “people” who might actually make their PowerPoint slides as well.  Those “people” are called “graduate assistants.”

Very, very few speakers at genealogy conferences have “graduate assistants.” 

So, if it’s not the speakers who are making all the money that make these conferences seem to be “expensive”, who’s raking in all the dough?

For the answer to that and yet more questions, stay tuned . . .  at least until Grandpa gets a bit more sleep.

Genealogy Conferences, Long Time Passing. Okay, I'm In!

Early Conference

There’s been lots of discussion on the ‘net this week about genealogy conferences.

What’s good?  What’s not so good?  What works? What doesn’t?  What’s coming down the pike? NGS? FGS? NERGC? Rootstech? Webinars?  The head spins at the thought of all of them.

I hadn’t planned to blog about this, but then, the more I read this week, the more I said to Self, “what the hey, why not?”  In fact, I expect that I will likely spread this over several posts, because I think it’s an interesting topic.

First  -  the background (known in some parts as “the Appeal to Authority”, or, why I think I’m qualified to talk about the topic of genealogy conferences in the first place…)

I, along with Mrs. W., have been exhibiting as “Jonathan Sheppard Books” at genealogy conferences for a Very Long Time.  

So, how long is a “Very Long Time”, you ask?

Since the very first “real” national conference hosted by the National Genealogical Society in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981.  (Although we exhibited at book fairs prior to that, there were no large genealogy conferences with national vendors.  Really.  I'm not kidding.)

In The Beginning…

At that conference, we sold lots of maps and rare and out-of-print books to lots of newbie genealogists, experienced genealogists and also to genealogy giants like Milton Rubincam and John Coddington, who were Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists. 

Back in those early days, I would not stock books that weren’t bound in hard cover.  I'm still not fond of the paperback stuff (most of it's just Xerox copies in a perfect binding, not really a book) but that's what publishers seem to like these days.  It's cheap. And the market gravitates toward "cheap", generally.

Later that year, we exhibited at the Federation of Genealogical Societies event in Decatur, Illinois, where we were set up next to an exhibitor selling both family group sheets and bottles of jojoba oil and where I chatted for a very long time (under duress) with a woman who was interested in talking about (but not buying) books about vexillology (study of flags) and insisted on pointing out that she had inherited the title of “Grand Turtle of the Mohawks” from a remote Iroquois ancestor.

For years, we exhibited at almost every NGS and FGS conference in the United States, missing less than a handful because of scheduling conflicts.  We’ve been at every single NERGC and also have exhibited at the SoCal Jamboree, various Great Lakes conferences and a whole host of smaller events.  At one point, our exhibit schedule, with genealogy conferences and antiquarian book fairs together, had more than 30 scheduled events a year around the United States.  In some venues, we contracted for 400 or more square feet of exhibit space.

In addition to being a genealogy conference exhibitor, I’ve also been a speaker at NGS, FGS, NERGC, SoCal Jamboree and a whole lot of other events large and small since the 1980s.  (Point of information: before I was a bookseller, I was a genealogist who took paying clients.) 

Plus, I’ve planned large genealogy conference events, and I’ve served on conference program committees, the whole nine yards.

In short, I’ve been around a while and I’ve paid my dues, so to speak.  More important, I’ve spoken with literally thousands of genealogy conference attendees in my “exhibitor” capacity and have learned what they’re looking/hoping for and what ticks them off.

And, while I’m not saying that I have all (or even any) of the answers to the question of what makes conferences work, I am suggesting that when I say, “Been There, Done That” - - I really have.   For a Very Long Time.

While I don't have the T-shirts, I have the tote bags to prove it.

What I’ve Been Hearing

One of the perennial issues I hear about with regard to conferences is that they are Very Expensive, even Too Expensive.  First, there’s the conference registration.  Then there are the banquet meals, the cost of any one of which might feed a family of four for several days. And then there’s the conference hotel.  And the airport transportation and/or parking.  And all the little things that nobody thinks about in advance, like internet access, etc., etc.  

Pretty soon, it all starts to add up to “real money” for the folks who want to attend a major multi-day genealogy event.

Plus, folks who attend genealogy conferences want to come away feeling “Thanksgiving-Dinner” stuffed, intellectually.  At the lectures they choose to attend, they want to be (a.) educated and enlightened with something they can put to use in their own research and (b.) be entertained to some degree by a speaker who doesn’t put them to sleep.  They want door prizes from exhibitors.  They want to schmooze with friends and associates. They want a syllabus.  Some even want that syllabus so that they can crib info for lectures of their own…

In short, they want to have A Very Good Time.

Problem is, not much in life is free anymore, or even inexpensive.  In fact, I’m not sure it ever was.

Conference Costs.  What Does It All Mean?

So, here’s the question – as conferences go, how do genealogy conferences stack up, cost-wise?

Actually, they’re pretty cheap, overall, considering what attendees get for their money.

For example, you could be going in a few weeks’ time to the annual Society for Pediatric Sedation (SPS) conference which will take place at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Minneapolis.  (I picked the Pediatric Sedation conference, cuz I’ll be babysitting a couple of toddlers for the next several days and, frankly,  the idea of “pediatric sedation” sounded pretty appealing.)

According to their website, this conference will draw between 180 and 300 people, all “pediatric sedation” professionals.  There will be lectures.  There will be exhibitors.  It will take place over two days or thereabouts.  Generally, you’ll pay between $425 to $600 to attend, depending on what kind of “sedation” professional you are or whether you’re a member of SPS or not.  Exhibit space for vendors will cost about five times what it cost at NERGC for substantially fewer days and substantially fewer people.

You’ll get to go to your choice of six (count ‘em, SIX) lectures or panel discussions. You’ll also get a reception, a breakfast and a lunch included in the price, along with coffee breaks and a syllabus. 

NO! NO!, you say.  NOT FAIR! That’s a PROFESSIONAL conference, for people who can deduct the cost from their taxes as a business expense.  

We’re different.  We’re genealogists.  See, we don’t have oodles of money!

You’re absolutely right, of course.  

However, the good folks at the Radisson or at the XYZ Convention Center doesn’t give two shakes of a ram’s tail whether your group is made up of hobbyists living on pensions or Social Security or high-priced neurosurgeons.  Space is space.  You pays your money and you gets your space.

You want to conference with the big dogs, you’ll pay “big dog” prices.

If you expect to have a conference hosted in a world-class convenient space with easy access to transportation and decent hotels that don’t require you to keep a baseball bat next to your bed, it’s going to cost you.  And it’s not the conference planners fault, so stop blaming them.

So, let’s look at a “hobbyist” event, one where almost nobody gets to deduct the cost of attending.

I’m a member of the Manuscript Society, a bunch of people who are interested in and publish a scholarly journal about…, well…, manuscripts.  Some members are interested in autographs of famous people.  Others are interested in historic documents and archival materials.  Some are dealers.  Some are scholars.  Some are collectors.   We’re small and focused, kinda like genealogists.

Once a year, the Manuscript Society hosts a multi-day annual meeting.  This year it will be in Rhode Island in June. It stretches over several days.  There are no talks or lectures.  There are, however, “behind-the-scenes” repository tours – at least two a day.  That’s the “draw” for members.

There’s no Exhibit Hall.  There are no banquets with speakers.  There are, however, several lunches included in the registration price.  The registration price:  $500, hotel and transportation and dinners and breakfasts not included.

So . . ., tell me again how multi-day genealogy conferences that cost less than $200 for a comparatively huge selection of lectures by “name” speakers in the field, an exhibit hall, and a bunch of other extras are ... “expensive”.

Far as I know, Wal-Mart or Kmart are not hosting or underwriting genealogy conferences these days… Besides, try asking a Wal-Mart stock clerk for a copy of "Evidence Explained."

[To Be Continued…]

Good Genealogy = Attention To Detail, Analysis and …Timelines

Shortly, we’ll be heading off on a short out-of-state research/field trip, picking up where we left off a year or so ago on about a half-dozen particularly difficult family lines.  

The "Smith" Dilemma: Researching Those “Common” Names

What makes these lines especially difficult is that (a.) they’re all relatively common names, like Jackson, Ryan and Smith; (b.) they’re located in parts of states where there’s not much in the way of recorded vital records before the end of the 19^th century (and the problems waiting to be solved are all in the mid-18^th century) and (c.) there’s no evidence that any of these folks (all rural) ever set foot in a church, so there’s not much in the way of  church records either. 

Then, to make matters worse, there are several families living in the small geographic area all with the same surname, and all with a large number of children with the same very common first names.

Like John. And Mary. And William. And Sarah.

Oh, yeah. Most of these people lived on the fringes of the economy and signed things with an “X”.  No large estates.  Few land transactions.  Hardly any probate records.  They may all be related.  Or maybe not.  That’s the problem at hand. Sorting it all out is what we’re trying to do.

And in case you haven’t ever tried to do it, sorting out three or more landless, godless John Smiths all living in the same backwater area in 1780 ain’t easy, no matter how much experience you have.

So… What’s The Strategy???

So, aside from doing a review of all the known information that we’ve collected over the past dozen years or so, what else are we doing to get ready?  After all, we want to maximize our available research time.

One Word. . .  Timelines.

No, not the kind of timelines that show you what great historic events were happening when your Great Aunt Tillie got married, but the kind that sketch out exactly where your ancestor was during a particular point in time and in a particular place and what he or she was doing.

These are the kinds of timelines that you make yourself, from the body of small time-dated facts you've collected...even the ones that don't seem to be important at first.

If more genealogists spent more time constructing ancestral timelines for their “problem” ancestors, there would likely be considerably less garbage on those internet genealogy sites where anybody can upload a bejillion unsourced ancestors and then jigger the dates to fit the situation. 

Yeah, I know that some folks have no problem with their great-great grandmas being born in 1811 in New Hampshire and then having their first child in 1816 in Georgia and their last child in 1874 in Manitoba, but there’s something about that that doesn’t seem …quite right.

The Graphic Dimension of Timelines

So, why timelines? 

Simply because putting the facts of an ancestor’s life all down on paper (and preferably in some kind of spreadsheet, like Excel, for instance) in chronological order and also keyed to a specific geographic locality lets you see almost at a glance what’s logical/possible and what’s not.

Most important, it lets you see the massive time gaps – some of which are large enough that you could drive a whole fleet of covered wagons through them - that still need to be filled in with information.  The “missing” information could come from a variety of little-used sources, such as court records, jury lists, obscure tax lists, petitions for roads, ferries and taverns, newspaper accounts, you name it, all of which can be used to sort out folks with the same name.   

Tracking down your folks and noting where and when they serve as witnesses for other people on their property deeds and wills can provide substantive clues that can lead to discovering other relationships.  The minutiae of their daily life – when viewed critically in chronological order over a long period of time – can often reveal important patterns that less experienced researchers usually overlook entirely.

Just doing the task of filling in the timeline lets you better understand what you know and what you don’t know ... yet.  It’s all very Rumsfeldian:  there are known knowns, known unknowns and even unknown unknowns.  

Why You Should Try It

In a word, doing a timeline lets you see in a highly graphic way that there are lots of things that you don’t actually know about your ancestor’s life, things that may have gone unnoticed because you’ve been concentrating on the “born-married-died” facts to the exclusion of lots of the tiny details.

Genealogy is all about careful attention to detail and about the analysis of those seemingly unimportant bits of information that don’t appear – at first glance – to have much genealogical significance.

If you’ve never tried it, try constructing a timeline for your mother this week - just for practice; after all, Sunday is Mother’s Day, so nothing could be more appropriate.  I guarantee that you’ll find large and fascinating gaps that will be well worth exploring.

(Of course, your mom may not agree that you should be poking around in those gaps at all...)

A Jeremiad For May (and Maybe a Cautionary Tale...?)

The Prophet Jeremiah Tells It Like It Is...

One of my perennially recurring jeremiads* (see below)  has been that while most genealogists might be forward-thinking and also be early adapters when it comes to their own shiny playtoys (oh look, a new technology toy! Gee, is there a genealogy app for that?) when it comes to other things genealogical, the future is just that …the faraway distant future and nothing for them to be especially concerned about.

After all, not too many of us plan to be doing much research in May of 2111, so why worry, right?  After all, that can be someone else’s responsibility. 

In other words, insuring that all that neat old stuff gets digitized, indexed and made available RIGHT NOW AND FOR FREE is a “big deal” for today’s researchers.  Insuring that the genealogists and family historians who will not be born for at least another century or so have equally neat "stuff" from the early 21^st century to play around in – well, not so much.

Here’s the issue: for the most part, the folks who do genealogy today are the “Us” folks, not the “Them” folks.  Every society has people that get classed as “US” or “THEM.”  

The “Them” folks are never, it seems, like “Us.”  The “Us” folks are concerned (and rightly so) with their own ancestors’ Civil War pension files, their parents’ or grandparents’ 1940 census records (that will be available next April) and those neat old newspapers that record the comings and goings of their early 20^th century ancestors.  

 For people who “do” genealogy, it’s all about their own ancestors’ stuff.

The “Them” folks are concerned with learning to speak English well enough to get a steady job making beds in a Holiday Inn and are busy standing out in front of Home Depot in search of under-the-table day labor.  The “Them” folks are concerned with educating their children, not with looking up their great-grandparents. Besides, Cambodia or Cameroon didn’t even have a census a century ago.

Bluntly, “Thems” don’t do genealogy as a hobby. At least not yet.

However, until very recently on the genealogical timeline, a lot of our own ancestors were “Thems” and they didn’t do genealogy either.  They were the folks who did the dirty jobs, cleaned rich people’s houses and did their laundry, were often illiterate in any language and spoke with an accent or wore clothes that made them obviously Not One Of Us.  In fact, no matter how much money they might have amassed through hard work, there were still clubs, hotels, houses and restaurants that were “off-limits” to them. They were “different.”

More importantly, the evidence of their culture – especially their printed culture – was not considered “important enough” to preserve, at least not by those 19^th century “Us” institutions that did that sort of thing for the “Us” culture.  For example, try finding long runs of the non-English language newspapers that were printed in the United States at the end of the 19^th century.  While they exist, they’re very hard to locate and represent only a small sample of what was at one time available. These, of course, are the very newspapers that documented the daily lives of the “Thems” – who, at least in their own language and culture and neighborhood – were the “Us” folks.

So, look around.  

How many institutions are actively preserving the newspapers that are being published in Gujarati, in Hindi, in Korean, in Chinese or in Hmong?  What genealogical institution, group or club is looking around, seeing people in their own community who don’t look or talk like them and saying institutionally, “You know, maybe we should be doing something to help preserve the history of the local _________ community here.  Maybe we could do an oral history project of those who were first to arrive.  Maybe we should archive, microfilm and digitize their newspapers, even though we can’t read them ourselves.  Maybe we should reach out and encourage archival programs so that there will be stuff of value a hundred years from now documenting this culture.  You know, documenting the patterns of chain migration and all that.”

Frankly, we have the technology.  Frankly, the need is there.  And frankly, it takes more motivation than money, and more creativity than cash. But mostly, it’s not being done, at least not by folks in the genealogical community.

Why not?  Possibly, it’s because those “other, different” people are, well…, still “thems”, and right now many of “us” can’t conceive of “thems” ever becoming connected to one of “us”, any more than they 19^th century tycoons on Park Avenue or Beacon Hill could ever in their wildest dreams conceive of one of their descendants actually MARRYING the descendants of their chambermaids and coachmen.

Of course, a look at the boardrooms of today’s business, educational and philanthropic institutions underscores the fact that strange things do in fact happen all the time. Cultures blend over time. And, in the not too distant future, there will be folks doing genealogy with culturally-hybrid names like Brendan Kim-Patel or Bridget Musisi-Garcia looking for the evidence of their immigrant ancestors’ culture from 2020. 

I wonder what they’ll find?  Are we helping?

* Jeremiad (n.) – a bitter lamentation or prophecy of doom. A mournful complaint.  Derives from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah who did not routinely spread happy thoughts.