The buzz around the FGS exhibit hall today is that this year’s registered attendance is down to around 700.  That would evidently represent a big drop from recent years, which saw perhaps closer to 1,200 or more attendees.  Speculation for the cause of the drop (if indeed it turns out to be real) seems to be running along two basic lines:

1. The economy’s down, and the price of gas is up, so genealogy enthusiasts are cutting down on their discretionary conference travel spending.
2. The speakers were selected so far in advance that there’s not a whole lot of new talks on offer to attract attendees, particularly coming so soon after the NGS Meeting.

I don’t have much basis for a response to explanation #2, but from my brief scan of the presentations at FGS this year, they look plenty interesting to me.  (I unfortunately may not be able to get away from the booth to see many of them.)

Explanation #2 has a common-sense plausibility to it that makes it hard to argue with.  From a business standpoint, the relatively low exhibit area traffic calls into question the ROI of our renting a booth here.

Ever the optimist, however, I take the glass-half-full view:  if genealogists are finding it too expensive to travel to conferences, they may also be looking for low-cost alternatives to long-distance trips in search of genealogical documents.  Genlighten should meet that need quite nicely!

After a month with almost no genealogy-related travel, the Genlighten outreach team (my wife and me) will be manning our exhibit booth at several genealogical conferences in August:

Midwestern Roots, August 15-16

This conference is sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society and will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Speakers will include Dick Eastman, Susan Kaufman, David Lifferth, Stephen Morse, Beau Sharbrough, and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, among others.  Several local archives and repositories, including The Indiana State Archives, the Indiana State Library Genealogy Division and the Indiana Historical Society’s William Henry Smith Memorial Library will extend their hours and offer special workshops before and during the conference.

International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, August 17-22

We couldn’t miss this one, seeing as it’s being held right in downtown Chicago (almost in our backyard, if you don’t count the drive down the Edens or on the Outer Drive.)  From reading the program, JewishGen 2008 appears to offer an unusually wide variety of presentations (including an extensive film festival!) and a strong emphasis on learning to use local resources.  In particular, a large number of cemetery visits and excursions to local libraries and museums in the Chicagoland area are planned.  Sources and techniques specific to Jewish genealogical research are of course given extensive coverage (with a significant emphasis on Eastern European resources).  Advance registration is still available.

Stop by and see us!

I’d like to extend a special invitation to readers of this blog to stop by our exhibit booth at either of these two conferences coming up in August.  Feel free to grab a chocolate or two from our bowl and say hi.  We’d love to meet you!