We’re just about to get underway. Dick Eastman’s blog is being projected on the screen to the panelists’ right. Will the panelists be walking us through their respective blogs one by one? Since I access the genealogy blogs I read almost exclusively via RSS, I don’t tend to see the latest ads and other content on the blogs themselves. Feedburner isn’t yet to the point where it offers me genealogy-related ads in my genealogy-related feeds.

OK, Dick Eastman has taken his seat. Paula of SCGS is offering a quick intro. She thinks this is the premier session at their Jamboree. Shelly asks the bloggers in the audience to raise their hand. I tentatively raise mine (do four posts make me a blogger?)

Leland’s discussing his deafness problem, and gets lots of laughs about how he may say some odd things based on how he’s able to interpret what the panelists and audience members will be saying. He wants to make this a fun exercise. Blogging is addictive, stressful and stress-relieving, he comments, but it can also be a lot of fun. Of 25 posts we would make a day early on, most were simply news items he ran across.

Dick starts. Apologizes for the ads at the top of his site. He started a weekly newsletter, now it’s daily. Began writing about blogs, it dawned on him that he had been writing one himself. When he began talking about them, got a lot of blank stares. Typically posts 1-3 times per day. What’s different about his? Free and per-pay section.

Megan’s next. She blogs in several forms. Started about April 2006. Hers is “utterly random”. Hard to keep it going. Very irregular: 2x per day to once per week. She views Roots TV as a kind of blogging on steroids.
Also mentions Facebook. Even easier than blogging. Genealogists are joining Facebook. Already, someone has blogged about her talk last night. Microphone dropped down her pants. She was quoted as saying “that was an interesting sensation.” Randy’s comment “but was that a geneagasm”. Laughter all around.

George Morgan takes the microphone. Started “Along These Lines”. Had to stop because he just didn’t have the time, with all the other stuff he’s been doing. His local society has gone to a blog format, ditching paper newsletters. Only two members objected. Co-hosts Genealogy Guys podcast. Makes some money from sponsorships.

I’m in my seat for the Blogger Summit here at the SCGS Jamboree. There’s room for 75, and with about ten minutes before things get underway there are about 30 in attendance. Other sessions at the Jamboree have been SRO… wonder what that says about the popularity of genealogy blogs?

At the panelists’ table (left to right) are Dick Eastman, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, George Morgan, Stephen Danko, Shelly Talalay Dardashti, and Randy Seaver. Leland Meitzler of Everton will be the moderator. There’s a projector and screen set up, so perhaps the panelists will be sharing examples of posts from their blogs?

So far, there’s lots of joshing back and forth between the panelists, including comments on the re-enactor types wandering the halls of the Jamboree in medieval garb holding “sharp pointy things”. Wish I had a camera!

One of coolest things I get to do as founder (and thus chief evangelist) at Genlighten is man our exhibit booth at various genealogy conferences. Today I’m at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, put on by — who else — the Southern California Genealogical Society. The exhibit area is jammed, and quite a few people are stopping by the booth. (Of course, the bowl of Dove chocolates probably doesn’t hurt traffic any.)

My mood at these events tends to vary not so much according to the level of booth traffic per se, but with the number of people who read our flyers and seem to “get it” — who understand the value we can offer to both lookup clients and providers. By that measure, we’re doing pretty well today.

Since I’m manning the booth alone this time, it’s going to be difficult to get away and attend any of the conference sessions. But I definitely plan on attending tomorrow’s Genealogy Blogger Summit. I hope to learn lots about how to make a genealogy blog interesting, relevant and personal. I need help with all three!