Since registration opened for RootsTech Connect 2021 last month, more than 111,000 people from 168 countries have signed up for the virtual event. And 86% of them have never attended RootsTech before.
RootsTech Connect — a free, global family history conference with classes, keynote speakers and virtual expo hall — will be held Feb. 25-27, 2021. For the first time in RootsTech’s 10-year history, classes will be completely virtual and offered in multiple languages. Presenters will teach from international locations.
The more than 111,000 registrants so far include “nearly 10,000 in Europe, over 10,000 in Latin America, almost 90,000 in North America and nearly 5,000 in the Pacific,” said Tyler Stahle, RootsTech marketing manager. And there is still more international marketing to do in several languages.
“We’re humbled. We’re excited. And it’s just been really fun to see the growth that takes place when you can remove the barrier of time and location,” Stahle said.
Throughout the three-day event, livestream and on-demand content will be offered to accommodate participants’ time zones. Sessions will also be available to watch on-demand after the event concludes. Live chats and question and answer sessions will allow attendees to interact with presents, exhibitors and other attendees.
Stahle said RootsTech organizers have received submissions of class ideas and speakers from around the world. He emphasized that the approach to this virtual conference is localization, not translation.
“We’re not creating all the content here at headquarters, and then just translating all of it,” he said. “But we’re really trying to work with people throughout the world and area offices to help them create their own localized content. And then we’re just giving a place for it to live and be distributed through RootsTech.”
Though RootsTech has widely been known as a genealogy and technology conference, “it’s so much more,” Stahle said. “It’s about learning and gaining strength from our ancestors.”
“Everybody has a story. When we look to our stories, when we look to the past, that’s when we gain strength to face the challenges that we face today in our own lives,” he added.
Register for RootsTech Connect at RootsTech.org.
