Last week the 10th Annual Rootstech Conference took place in Salt Lake City. Rootstech is largest Family History Conference in the world! And it is INCREDIBLE!!! Nearly 30,000 people from more than 37 countries, 45 of the 50 states, along with several hundred thousand watching online were a part of this conference. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Story Of You”.
This amazing conference is hosted by Family Search International, the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven that offers free access to its entire database of genealogical records to anyone in the world! I am a HUGE fan of Family Search International! In addition to their incredible website and them giving free access to anyone, they also have the COOLEST app ever called Family Tree that allows you to search for your deceased relatives and when you select them it automatically pulls in your entire family tree going back super far with photos, journals, and all kinds of amazing things! It also has a feature in the app that lets you see how you are related to everyone around you also on the app and it shows you exactly how you are related to them. It is AWESOME!
Thursday at the conference the keynote speaker was Leigh Ann Tuohy, the mother the movie The Blind Side is inspired by. She spoke on the value of every individual person and the difference each person can make in the life of someone else.
Friday night stand-up comedian Ryan Hamilton performed. He was straight up HILARIOUS! We laughed so hard our faces hurt from smiling!! He is so funny and his comedy is totally clean. Not a single swear word in his entire show. And no inappropriate or off-color jokes either. I was so impressed by that – it takes far more talent to keep your comedy show clean. If any of you haven’t seen his comedy you really need to – and your kids of all ages would enjoy it as much as you will. I heard he just released a Netflix special called “Happy Face” so I am stoked to get to watch it!
On Saturday Superbowl Champion and Hall of Fame Running Back Emmett Smith spoke. He shared:
“Find out who you are, where you come from. Find out what makes you different than anyone else, find out what’s inside of you. That will give you the strength to not only go forward, but also embrace what your past is all about.”
He went on to say, “We are all clothed with a measure of talent. It is up to us to dig deep and find out who we are, to tap into those things and became passionate about whatever it is that you are passionate about. Then life itself is always fun.”
What great messages and what a great conference. The next Rootstech Conference will be held in London November 5-7, 2020. You can register for it at www.rootstech.org
~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )
