Family History Expo Afterglow

Crowne Plaza Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado

I look forward to the Family History Expos for so many months and the two days of the conference go so quickly that it all seems to be a blur. But I can still feel the "Afterglow"! The thing that draws me to the conferences as much as the opportunity to learn is the time I get to spend among others who share my passion and with whom I can discuss GENEALOGY! Nobody's face freezes over, nor do eyes roll when we mention our recent research successes while visiting with other attendees at this conference. It's a little bit of heaven on earth. 
More than 400 people attended this year's Expo at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Colorado Springs. We enjoyed a very upbeat opening address by Don Anderson, Senior Vice President of FamilySearch. Don discussed "the steady drumbeat of publishing by Family Search in the last two years". FamilySearch currently has 4 billion names on the site, has published 560.6 million images on the site, and has 1,164 collections online now. 400 million new records are published annually.

James Tanner, teaching the Google class

I attended the class taught by James Tanner titled "Using the Google Gold Mine for Genealogy". I was delightfully impressed by Mr. Tanner's congenial personality and friendliness with the class members. He gave a very thorough tour of the Google site and its many offerings to the students in the packed classroom.
Another of my favorite speakers at this Expo was Tim Cross, Product Manager at FamilySearch. He gave a great tour of all the new features at FamilySearch.org, which are quite abundant. 

Timothy G. Cross, Product Manager, FamilySearch

Other classes I attended and enjoyed were "Using Evernote for Genealogy" by Anna Hopkins-Arnold (all my notes at the Expo were taken using Evernote so I can email them to my friends and other Family History Consultants here in Canon City), "Census Research" by Amy Anderson, which my husband identified as his favorite class at the Expo, another Family Search class for Family History Center Consultants, taught by Steven Brey, "Ancestry.com for Experienced Users" by James Tanner (standing room only!), "The Naturalization Process" by Carol Cooke Darrow, "FamilySearch Tree in 2012" by Tim Cross.
Here are random photos that I captured throughout the Expo.

The view from our hotel room. Pretty inviting, huh? 

The "browsers" and buyers at the Family Roots Publishing area.

Family History Expo President, Holly Hansen at right.

My husband Larry Jamison at left visiting with an Expo attendee. 

FamilySearch staff assisted people with research throughout all the Expo hours.

Time out for a good relaxing massage by the staff of Heuser Chiropractic in Colorado Springs. 

A rare moment of rest for Expo Blogger and Speaker Ruby Coleman. 

Genealogy Wall Charts had a very large display of their chart offerings. 

My friends Judy Buchholz and Lureen Orchard, 2 of the 16 attendees from Canon City. 

Carol Cooke Darrow, visiting with her class prior to the start of her presentation on the Naturalization Process.

Ken and Lureen Orchard, Co-Directors of the Canon City Family History Center, with my husband Larry C. Jamison