#RootsTech Amazing Presenter Lineup

I glanced through the RootsTech 2017 session schedule and it is amazing!

Presenters for the first session on Thursday include

Amy Slade, Angela McGhie, DearMYRTLE and Cousin Russ, FamilySearch’s Lynn Turner, FamilySearch’s Ron Tanner, Judy Russell, Karen Auman, Kip Sperry (FASG), Lisa Louise Cook, NEHGS’s David Lambert, Thomas MacEntee, and more for a total of 24 RootsTech labs and classes. And that’s just the first Thursday session!

Just a few of the speakers for the other three sessions on Thursday are

Amy Johnson Crow Angie Bush Bruce Durie C. Ann Staley Crista Cowan Daniel Horowitz Diahan Southard Dirk Weissleder Drew Smith Janet Hovorka Josh Taylor Juliana Szucs Kenyatta Berry Laurie Werner Castillo Lisa Alzo Mary Tedesco Peg Ivanyo Peggy Lauritzen Peter Drinkwater Schelly Talalay Dardashti Tom Jones and many more.

Come check out who is teaching Friday and Saturday. See the entire class schedule on the RootsTech website. Notice the ability at the top to filter classes to just Getting Started, regular RootsTech sessions, add-on labs, and Innovator Summit sessions.

I’ve probably overlooked some of your favorite RootsTech presenters. Leave a comment telling us whose classes you’ll be attending at RootsTech 2017.

LET THEM EAT—OR DECORATE, AT LEAST—CAKE

In other RootsTech news, RootsTech has announced a unique look to the conference this year: a cake decorating contest. Ancestral recipes have always been a mainstay of the wider family history experience. With “The Cake Boss” coming to the conference, RootsTech is taking the opportunity to appeal to potential family historians who have decorating skills.

According to RootsTech:

Announcing the first ever cake decorating competition with the artisan himself, Buddy Valastro, as celebrity guest judge!

To make things even sweeter, we have four different categories that you can enter:

• Wedding
• Birthday
• Holiday
• Graduation

Entries will be sifted into three finalists, and one Grand Prize Winner will be announced per category. Each dazzling creation will be on display on Saturday during RootsTech and Family Discovery Day, where over 10,000 attendees will view and have a chance to vote for a “People’s Choice” winner selected for each category at the end of the day.

Start brainstorming your ideas and get ready to trim, cut, frost, and assemble to your heart’s content.

You must fill out an application to enter the competition. The deadline is either December 1 or December 15, depending on which part of the rules you believe. Read the rules and submit an application at RootsTech.org/cake.

OPENING EVENING EVENT

On their blog, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has released more details about their RootsTech opening evening concert. “Music–It Runs in the Family” will be held Thursday, 9 February 2017, at 8:00 p.m. in the 21,000 seat Conference Center just North of Temple Square. The concert will feature music from Rodgers and Hammerstein and stories about the Hammerstein family narrated by Oscar (“Andy”) Hammerstein III, grandson of Oscar Hammerstein II. Special guest artist Dallyn Vail Bayles will also perform. Featured music will come from State Fair, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, Oklahoma, and The Sound of Music.

RootsTech attendees receive a ticket with their registration, but free tickets are available to the general public.