RootsTech Carry Arounds - Fri, 31 Jan 2014

#RootsTech last minute organizing includes figuring out what you’re going to be carrying around with you. I’ve assembled the things I’ll be carrying with me.

Lets go clockwise starting from the left.

1. In addition, or maybe instead of the name tag that RootsTech will supply me, I’ll be wearing the custom name tag I made myself and wore at RootsTech 2012. I’ve added my 2014 speaker badge to the side of it. This was inspired by Kerry Scott’s January 2012 blog post: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges.
   
2. A stack of business cards to give to anyone who wants to know who I am.
   
3. My Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone, which will be the star of my Windows Phone for Genealogy talk on Thu, Feb 6, 10:30am, Ballroom F.
   
4. An extra battery pack for my Windows Phone. Even though my phone has a good 10 hours of normal-use life to it, heavy use as I expect to give it at the conference will likely use it up in a half a day. The battery pack is worth about one and a half recharges and will add 15 more hours of use.
5. This is the small connector to connect the battery pack to my phone. The phone, battery pack and connector are small enough to all fit in my pocket while connected and while recharging my phone. It takes about an hour for a full recharge and I can use the phone while its recharging.
   
6. This is a laser light pen, that puts a red dot on the wall that I’ll use during my presentation.
   
7. In the center of the picture are my blogger beads. I got these from Pat Richley-Erickson (Dear Myrtle) at RootsTech 2012. I’ll be wearing them. They allow GeneaBloggers to be recognized.
   
8. I forgot to put this in my picture, but a USB pen. It will have my lecture on it. I’ll also have the lecture on my phone and on my Sky Drive One Drive just in case. And maybe if at Innovators Summit, or a vendors booth, or at the Family History Library there’s some program or data I want to take home with me, I’ll have the means.

What is also notable is what I won’t be carrying this year:

1. My laptop. In fact, I expect to function quite nicely with just my Windows Phone, and I’m not even bringing my laptop with me. In 2012 I had an old-style Samsung flip-phone, my Canon PowerShot SD600 camera and an extra battery and an extra SD card in one pocket. Those as well are being replaced by my phone and its battery backup.
   
2. My binder full of my prepared information on the lectures I wanted to see, the syllabi for them, and other info about people, software, FSDN, BetterGEDCOM, Salt Lake City and more. This is all replaced by my phone with the information in Office documents instead. In 2012 I wrote notes about the lectures that I wanted to blog about that evening into the notebook. This year, I’ll see if I can get away with using One Note on my phone instead.

One I’m debating:

1. A pen. I don’t expect I’ll need to write anything on paper for myself, but its always handy if there’s a contest to enter, or some information you need to write down for someone else, say on the back of the business card. It doesn’t hurt to have it in one’s back pocket … unless you sit on it.

They are currently all piled up in a corner of my office waiting for Tuesday when I leave for Salt Lake City. (Except my phone, of course, which I carry all the time).

What will you be carrying at RootsTech?