Ambassador Perk

One thing I love about being a Rootstech Ambassador (or Official Blogger) is the opportunity I am given to conduct interviews in the video studio in the media hub. At the very first Rootstech back in 2011 I was too shy to take up the offer but once I was blooded at the second Rootstech in 2012 I was hooked.

In earlier years when there were fewer Ambassadors/Bloggers there were many opportunities to avail oneself of this perk but these days it is harder to gain access. I am delighted that, this year, I have four slots in the video studio. I will be interviewing Ron Tanner from Familysearch, Myko Clelland from FindMyPast,  Steve Rockwood CEO of Familysearch and Canadian Genealogist and software developer Louis Kessler who is an Innovator Summit Semi-finalist. I will upload the videos here and to my Youtube Channel as soon as I can. 

In the meantime you can view my video interviews from earlier years via this link.

Here is my interview with keynote, David Pogue in 2013.

A Good Online Computer Dictionary

Remember David Pogue from Rootstech?

I certainly can't forget my Rootstech interview with David.

This week David has posted a review of an Online Computer Dictionary in which he says "ComputerLanguage.com is the very definition of concise, a user-friendly, up-to-date technical dictionary."

You can read David's review here: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/a-technical-dictionary-that-fits-the-definition-of-user-friendly/

A Steinway at Rootstech

Thank goodness that I didn't ignore my alarm yesterday morning.

I dragged myself out of bed, conducted my ablutions, had a quick brekkie with a group of genealogists from rural Alberta, Canada and moseyed through the snow to the entrance of the Salt Palace, site of Rootstech 2013. Arriving early I was able to get an aisle seat with a great view towards the back of the main hall. While I waited for the keynote presentation from David Pogue I fired up my tablet and checked my social media accounts.

Shipley Munson, Director of Marketing for Familysearch, introduced David, the first keynote speaker for the morning.  I was looking forward to hearing David because I have followed his blog and tweets for a couple of years. What I didn't know was that David was a talented, engaging and humorous presenter who has many strings to his bow.

David's talk was amusing, inspiring and instructive; during the course of his presentation complimentary tweets were flying around the twitterverse. As a finale to his presentation David sat at the grand piano and performed a couple of parodies on the Steinway; the audience was agog. It was such a masterful performance that the audience rose to give David a standing ovation.

I was on a high when I returned to the media hub to drop off my gear and prepare for a day of networking and classes. I was discussing my video times with a Rootstech organiser when he said "Jill, you've got 15 minutes with David Pogue".

PANIC STATIONS - I wasn't prepared for an interview, I hadn't done any homework on the subject but I wasn't going to miss out on the opportunity so I introduced myself,  ushered David into the video studio and set sail. Thanks to David for being such a charming and gracious interviewee. You can view the interview below.