{"id":590,"date":"2011-09-14T16:26:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T21:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/fgs-2011-my-overall-experience\/"},"modified":"2013-07-06T18:55:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-06T23:55:41","slug":"fgs-2011-my-overall-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogy.julietarr.com\/blog\/fgs-2011-my-overall-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"FGS 2011 \u2013 My Overall Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FGS 2011 Conference was a whirlwind of activities, and as exhausted as I am (even after being home for a few days), it was well worth it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ribbons\"Ribbons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since this was my first national genealogy conference, I had to of course see how many ribbons I could amass.\u00a0 By the time I left on Sunday, I had 28 ribbons, which reached my ankles.\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t have the longest tail, I\u2019m sure I was a close second.\u00a0 Sadly, it reminds me how much I spend on genealogy (albeit, for me, well worth it) since all of the membership ribbons are legit (I didn\u2019t take anything that I didn\u2019t belong to).<\/p>\n

Exhibit Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t typically spend much time in the exhibit hall at conferences.\u00a0 I usually take in as many sessions as I can, but this conference was a different experience for me.\u00a0 I found the exhibit hall to be my networking hub and spent more time there then I would\u2019ve bet on one week earlier.<\/p>\n

I visited about 75% of the vendors over three days.\u00a0 I learned about a variety of new products and services that I was previously unaware of, and learned about new offerings from familiar vendors.\u00a0 Look for blog posts later this week about some of my favorite vendors and interesting news items.<\/p>\n

Since I normally don\u2019t find myself in the exhibit hall, I don\u2019t usually come home with much more than I left with, but I found some great goodies and memberships that I just had to have:<\/p>\n

Books<\/em><\/p>\n