Today’s blog post about the conference seems, well, empty. I made it down to the conference level in time for the two last sessions, but I ended up not attending any. I picked up the recording of my second lab, and learned they were supposed to record the other lab instead of mine. I could have turned off the recorder, but I let it go. So now I can listen to how it went.

Daniel bolted out of the IAJGS board meeting and I walked him to registration, I had lunch with Schelly, and returned to my room, curious when Elise was leaving. She walked into the room only minutes after I got there, and I walked her down too.

After she was gone, I headed out to see the city. I’m here until Sunday, so I have some time. I was last in Washington, D.C. in 1994.

This has been the most unusual IAJGS conference that I’ve been to in that I barely attended any sessions. I spent my time either in meetings or socializing. And I don’t feel like I missed very much. I seem to spend less time in lectures each year. I guess it’s good preparation for 2014, when I won’t have time for such things.

I was interested in an 8am session, but didn’t stand a chance to get there. I was a little late to the 9:30am, but noticed the other twitterer was there, so I skipped it figuring I could read the highlights in my Twitter feed.

So the morning was pretty much just for socializing. I visited Todd and John at FamilySearch for a little while, and Daniel, Laurence, and Schelly at MyHeritage. I then went and messed with the MyHeritage web site for a little while waiting until it was time to give my other presentation. Also, we finally received the Geneabloggers ribbons, so Schelly sent me to the business office to pick them up for her just in time to teach my workshop.

I arrived at the Mac lab to present “Start Blogging Your Family History”. Like my first, I was a little unprepared. Actually, I had agreed to cover the other lab for someone who couldn’t make it in exchange for not giving this one. But it was left in the schedule and had a few more sign-ups. But using the Mac was a challenge in itself; the Mac laptops have changed since the last time I used Mac, in high school, in 1990. Elias Savada showed up at just the right moment (or a bit after, but not too late) to help get someone’s keyboard working and help me figure out how to use the Mac. I finished my checklist at about the half way point. I was thankful that one person had lots of questions, and because I had seven people, I had plenty of time to help each one with each issue and answer their questions. I was glad when I hit two hours so I didn’t have to try to fill time anymore.

We headed down a bit early to the gala and I saw Daniel Horowitz and Garri Regev, who invited me to the “cool” table. It included those two, Laurence Harris, Schelly Dardashti (so all the MyHeritage folks), Elise Friedman found us, Michael Hoffman of JGS Great Britain, and Susan Goldsmith, who came with questions for Elise. We had a great time, enjoying the food, joking about the long lines at the buffet tables, and spilling food on each other. OK, so that last part was just me, but it made the night even more fun.

The keynote was given by the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero. He told the story about the Swiss bank accounts that were abandoned after the war and how a single person sifting through boxes of records at NARA found the first evidence of how much money of Jewish victims was still unclaimed.

Another night hanging out at the sports bar, and we headed back to our rooms. One more short day to go.

My first stop this morning was the Professional Genealogists BOF meeting. It was a mostly productive meeting. We had most of the conversation the evening before while planning it. Maybe the discussion group will be used more after that, though some people are having trouble with the group.

I skipped the standing room only lecture, which I found out the best part was just the very end, and went to Daniel Horowitz’s lecture on Mobile Applications. He reviewed a few of them, and found some more interesting ones. When he got to detailed instructions about MyHeritage’s app, I went for a walk.

For lunch, I went to the Konference Kafe, where I was confronted by Bob Kosovsky. He and I are the main tweeters for this conference, and we both were at the Philly conference as well. We finally met. Daniel had asked me earlier who he was, so I brought Bob down to meet him before the next session.

And that was the Presidents’ Meeting. My computer battery died completely without warning and I didn’t snoop around enough to find electric. I was tweeting a lot and took notes which I typed up afterwards.

I returned after dinner for an evening lecture but instead hung out with the MyHeritage folks for the most part.

And that was the day. There are a lot of conversations going on that fill in the time that I’m not writing about. I may or may not make it to any lectures again tomorrow either. My other computer lab is in the afternoon and a little more preparation would be a good thing.