Monday, February 1, 2016

Monday Mailbox - #RootsTech Advice: Run Like the Wind

RootsTech 2015 registration linesDear Ancestry Insider,

This is my 1st RootsTech. I am concerned about getting a seat in the classes I want. Would you recommend not taking any kind of break during the 30 minutes between classes and high tailing it to the next class to claim a seat? Several of my back-to-back classes are at completely different ends of the convention center and it looks to be about 400 yards from end-to-end. With 10k people attending, I'm visualizing a scene from Black Friday.... a bit ugly! Thank you for all your info, it’s much appreciated!

Lisa Brown

Dear Lisa,

I can't tell you about classes in general, but I report almost exclusively on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch and their classes fill extremely fast. I didn't get into Crista Cowan's class last year in a room that seats 780. I barely got into Ron Tanner's class in a room that seats 700.

Have a second, third, and fourth choices in mind.

Here are the maximum room capacities, according to the Salt Palace planners guide. I’m guessing that many rooms have been combined, so I am showing my guesses at combinations.

Crista Cowan's 2015 RootsTech filled within moments.Ballrooms

  • Ballroom A (and C?) – 400 (plus 400)
  • Ballroom B (and D?) – 400 (plus 400)
  • Ballroom E - 400
  • Ballroom G - 400
  • Ballroom I - 400
  • Ballroom J (and H?) – 380 (plus 400)

I don’t know about ballroom F. It is probably connected to B/D or J/H, boosting the capacity of one of those rooms by 400.

Meeting Rooms

  • 150 - 700
  • 151 - 700
  • 250 A (and B/C?) – 150 (plus 336)
  • 250 D (and E/F?) – 126 (plus 280)
  • 251 B, E (Labs) – Limited seating. Requires pre-registration.
  • 251 D - 180. (Might also include A – 126)

Hallway to the annex

  • 254 A (and B/C?) – 100 (plus 350)

North Annex

  • 155 A - 260
  • 155 B (and C?) – 340 (plus 320)
  • 155 D - 260
  • 155 E (and F?) – 340 (plus 320)
  • 255 B (and C?) – 340 (plus 320)

If my math is correct, then that all adds to 8,848. I don’t know if FamilySearch has other rooms somewhere that I’ve overlooked, but if all 10,000 people show up, over 1,000 people will be left standing each time the music stops. In any case, thousands of people will not be able to make it into the classes they desire. If there is a class you really, really want to get into, skip the class before and camp in front of the room. If a class you want is being broadcast, skip it live and watch it afterwards.

Short answer: Yes, hightail it.

Signed,
---The Ancestry Insider

1 comment:

  1. Unfortunately, I am an old fart, and while considered fairly technically savvy, all of this click this, click that, navigate here, there, wherever, is to me complicating a process that just shouldn't be that complicated. They can say all they want about going paperless, but at least I didn't have to spend time trying to figure out how to get the class notes. Sometimes, less tech is the better tech. I know some will disagree with me on this, but as a veteran of many, many, conferences in all kinds of areas, I don't need extra challenges to get the materials.

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