Congress 2015 – Counting the Days
With less than two weeks until the ‘14th Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry‘ conference (which is generally known as simply “Congress”), you might be forgiven for thinking that I wasn’t going to it, or didn’t know about it.
But the reality is that I am counting down the days to it.
There’s eleven days until the Congress opening ceremony that is being held at the Australian War Memorial. However I won’t be attending that, as I’ll only be flying in to Canberra on Thursday night … in time to be there for Friday, the first day of the event.
Held on 26-30 March 2015, this is the big once-every-three-years event. The biggest in Australia and New Zealand. The one that attracts speakers and attendees from around the country and overseas. OK, this is no RootsTech, but still for anyone with an interest in learning more about genealogy, THIS is the one to go to. Held over four days, there’s 35 speakers, and over 70 talks to choose from covering a wide variety of genealogy topics, so who wouldn’t want to go?
As per usual, my experience at this event is likely to be different from most attendees (or as they call them here, delegates), in that I am going as an exhibitor. You’ll find me helping out on the combined Gould Genealogy / Unlock the Past / Unlock the Past Cruises / Genealogy Ebooks stands, so if you are attending please do stop by and say hello.
But I have still printed out the talks schedule, and hope to make it to a few talks, if they’re not already booked out. But we’ll see.
This year’s Congress has a heap of geneabloggers attending, which Jill Ball (aka Geniaus) has been keeping up with, as we’ll be continuing the tradition of geneablogger beads which she introduced to Australia, and hopefully a we’ll also have a geneablogger group photo too. Here’s the one from 2012’s Congress.
With so many bloggers, I’m not going to repeat stuff they they have written, but simply direct you to their posts.
If you are attending please take a read of Fran Kitto’s AFFHO Congress Briefing, which gives you a lot of information. Judy Webster’s Top 3 Things to do Before a Genealogy Conference also contains great tips.And as there are some do’s and dont’s at genie events, I suggest you read Judy G. Russell’s Copyright and the Genealogy Lecture post. Also I suggest watching Jill Ball’s recent Hangout on Air on Congress which covers a range of topics.
And as an added bonus, this years event is in being held in Canberra. The heart of all the Australia’s major archives! So take a week off, head to Congress, and take a few days to research at the National Archives of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the Australian War Memorial and any number of other museums and archives the city boasts.
For more information about Congress 2015, visit the Congress website. And for those using social media, remember that the official hashtag for the conference is #AFFHO.
And if you’re interested in the history of Congress, check out the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) website.
If you’ve been thinking about going, but haven’t yet booked, don’t worry you’re not too late. There’s still time to book, Just head to the Registration page. And trust me you won’t regret it – with so many absolutely fabulous speakers, it’ll be a learning experience of a lifetime.
I hope to see you there!
5 Responses to “Congress 2015 – Counting the Days”
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It will be great to catch up Alona ! 🙂
Absolutely Alex, I look forward to seeing you again.
It’s gonna be good!
I must remember to register my surname interests before I go.
I’m sure I’ll find something to sepnd my pennies on at your stand, Alona.
And if any geneabloggers who aren’t on my list for blogger beads read this please email me at jillballau@gmail.com.
Isn’t it great we can meet up again so soon after Roots Tech?!