Time’s running!
Only two more days for the early-bird registration discount for this year’s Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) 2013 Professional Management Conference (PMC)!
Friday, February 15th, is the deadline for early-bird registration for this two-day event, held in Salt Lake City on March 19 and 20 — just before the RootsTech conference.
And despite its name, it’s not just for APG members, not just for professionals and not just about management. Anybody who’s serious about genealogy and who’s thinking about heading out to Salt Lake City for RootsTech needs to think about adding on a day or two for PMC. Here’s what’s being offered:
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
1:30-3:00 p.m. — Workshop: Overcoming Research Barriers — An Interactive Case Study
Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, one of our community’s most engaging speakers, kicks off the conference with a workshop where participants will provide suggestions for tracing the origin and genealogy of a German-speaking immigrant who settled in St. Louis and Southern Illinois. You’ll get to see where those suggestions lead (and don’t lead) and provide suggestions for successive research phases. The take-away is insight into research planning and execution, research barriers, sources (especially online), assembling evidence, and biographical reconstruction of long-forgotten lives and relationships.
3:30-5:00 p.m. — Variables in Professional Genealogists’ Approaches to Research
Dr. Jones continues his lead-off presentations with this fascinating look at how 27 experienced genealogists, nearly all APG members, attempted independently to solve the same set of challenging genealogical research problems under controlled conditions. You’ll have a chance to see their successful and unsuccessful approaches to the problems, and learn what their results tell you about developing your own efficient and effective research techniques.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
9:00-11:15 a.m. — Order in the Court: Hands-on with Court Records
Somebody who blogs as The Legal Genealogist is up next at PMC. And frankly I can’t wait for this session. This hands-on workshop is going to focus on milking every last detail from court records of all kinds — criminal, civil, probate and more. What do these records tell us — and how do we get the most out of them? I had a lot of fun choosing the documents we’ll be using — and I promise: I speak English, not legalese.
1:30-2:30 p.m. — Two sessions to choose from:
Launching an Effective Marketing Campaign with Thomas MacEntee
Have your past attempts at marketing your genealogy products or services been haphazard, disorganized and ineffective? Learn how to build an effective marketing campaign and measure the results for repeated success!
Client Reports: Dos, Don’t, and Maybes with Thomas W. Jones, Ph.D., CG, CGL, FASG, FUGA, FNGS
Participants will learn the essentials of preparing reports of genealogical research that meet clients’ needs and the profession’s standards. The session will include report formats, reporting issues, general writing skills, and time-saving tips for report preparation
2:45-3:45 p.m. — Two sessions to choose from:
Video Marketing: Killer YouTube Strategies with Lisa Louise Cooke
If you’re not on YouTube you are allowing the video revolution to pass you by. It is estimated that YouTube Mobile receives more than 100 million views a day. And YouTube is fast becoming the first place that many people turn to for answers to their questions. Including video content on your website can also drive traffic and improve your site’s SEO.
More Than the Begats: Using the Law to Spice up a Research Report with Judy G. Russell, JD, CG (yep, me again)
Sure, the client wants to know that John was the son of Samuel, who was the son of Richard. But more than that, the client wants to know how Richard lived, and what it would have been like growing up in Samuel’s time, and the conditions when John was raised. When no record talks about John and Samuel and Richard, learn how the law of the time and place can fill in the gaps and help produce a report that shines.
4:00-5:00 p.m. — Two sessions to choose from:
The Best Educational Plan for You: The Workshop with Elissa Scalise Powell, CG, CGL
Professionals must keep up their skills to be successful but are faced with the realities of time and budget constraints. Not updating our skills has a detrimental effect on our business. We tend to naturally gravitate to the topics we know and love, not need and stretch us, and waste time and money doing the familiar. This workshop will give attendees time to think about their learning style and help them self-identify where they are on the learning continuum (novice, intermediate, advanced) in order to look for appropriate levels of education. Budget, time availability and type of interaction will be personalized on an education plan chart that each attendee will be encouraged to fill in. They should walk away with a plan ready to execute for the next few years.
Organization for Genealogy Speakers with Jean Wilcox Hibben, PhD, MA, CG
Genealogical societies and other booking organizations expect and appreciate a well-organized presenter. Learn about beginning to create that impression from before you even talk to the program chair all the way through to the question/answer period following your presentation. Using an effective web presence, a worksheet to keep yourself from double-booking or misunderstanding, and a contract to avoid surprises will show those who book you that you are competent, organized, and worth hiring again. Promoting yourself via various methods will also be discussed briefly. From your mission statement to the thank you note, be the professional that you profess to be.
There’s also a reception and roundtable from 6:30–8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19th, open to members and non-members. You can attend one day or both days, and all the details on pricing and the conference sessions are on the APG website at http://www.apgen.org/conferences/index.html.
Again, it’s not just for APG members, not just for professionals and not just about management. So come on out and join Tom Jones and the other speakers — and me! — at this year’s PMC.
