RootsTech 2020 Salt Lake City is This Week; Live Stream Sessions begin Feb. 26

This week, from February 26 to February 29, 2020, is the 10th Anniversary of the annual genealogy and technology conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, RootsTech 2020 Salt Lake City.

This annual conference has just about something for everyone (see schedule) including those who can not attend. Select sessions will be live streamed so anyone around the world can participate for free from the comfort of wherever one is located. In addition, another select 30 sessions will be recorded (but not live-streamed) and available for viewing as a Virtual-Pass package for a fee of $129 for those not attending the conference in-person and $79 for those who are attending the conference in-person. A list of the sessions included in the Virtual-Pass are listed on the Virtual-Pass page.

Conference attendees -- those able to attend in person and those attending via LiveStream -- can access the 2020 class session syllabus handouts using the conference app or the app's browser page or from the RootsTech website schedule page. If a session does not have a syllabus check back later to see if one has been added but note that not all sessions will have a handout.

RootsTech App
Like in previous years you can use the RootsTech App to download or email yourself the session syllabus handouts from either the Apple App Store or GooglePlay. The RootsTech App is made for SmartPhones. Unlike 2017 when the app was just finicky on a tablet, one of our members found the App unusable the last couple years on that same tablet. It simply crashed with each attempt to open/use it. So usability may vary by non-smartphone device.

Please note that this is the same app as prior years. So if you made notes in the handouts thru the App and it is still on your device you will likely want to make sure you download the handouts to your computer or email them to yourself before loading the new 2020 conference information. Some users on other blogs have said it overwrites the prior year's information.

How do you find a session's handout? Search the conference schedule or search by speaker. To email a handout to yourself, you have to find the session you want, view the session, click on the PDF and you will be asked do you want to "open it, email it or take notes on the handout." By this route, you must do this individually for each session you desire a handout. The PDF file name will be a series of numbers and letters not the title of the session.

To download multiple session handouts at one time, click on the star next to the session in the conference schedule. Then go back to the App Home and then select the App's download and click the download icon. The files will que and be downloaded.

If you are able to get the App to run on your tablet, please note that some users have found the RootsTech App to be troublesome on a tablet so exercise some patience while using it. When you are done with the App you may want to remove it from your tablet. But if you initially downloaded the handout PDFs rather than email them, before you remove the RootsTech App be sure to email those PDFs to yourself. The downloaded PDFs are stored in the RootsTech App data and not in your device's download folder so if you delete the App you delete the PDFs.

Here's an example of where to find your downloaded session PDFs on an Android tablet: Prepare an email to yourself; click on attach files; go to My Files; go to the internal memory card (i.e. sdcard0) where apps store their data or that place on your device; go to Android folder; go to data folder; go to "com.coreapps. ...me.rootstech" folder (it will be named something like that); go to files folder; then check the select boxes and then done to attach your downloaded PDFs to the email; then send the email. Open the received email and save the attached files to your computer or another folder on your device. Now you will not lose the downloaded PDF files when you delete the RootsTech App.

RootsTech 2020 App Browser Page
For those without smartphones and for those who can't get the app to run on a tablet, don't despair. There is also a browser page for where you access the RootsTech 2020 App. If you view each session's handout individually you can download it without having to use a log-in id. Remember to rename the downloaded PDF file so you will know what it is later.

RootsTech Website Schedule Page
New this year for the 2020 conference, class session syllabus can also be found on the RootsTech website's schedule page for the 2020 Salt Lake City conference. Just select the session title to view not only a summary and speaker bio but also to access a link to that class session's syllabus if one is available. Selecting the syllabus will open a PDF file in your internet browser. Simply select download and save the PDF file. Most syllabus PDFs appear to be named by session number and title. This is a refreshingly simple way to locate the PDF of the class session one desires. 

Remember class times are listed in Mountain Time at the RootsTech website and in the RootsTech App. We are Eastern Time which is 2 hours ahead. So 8:30 am Mountain is 10:30 am Eastern. See our RootsTech 2020 LiveStream Schedule Post listing sessions in Eastern Time with the session codes.

See You Soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library! 
LE