Susan Farrell Bankhead, Certified Genealogist (sm)
The Last Laugh: RootsTech 2012
A few months prior to RootsTech 2012, genealogy booksellers were informed by the conference staff that they would not be invited to have an exhibit booth in the RootsTech exhibit hall because, in the organizers’ opinion, books are not technology.
Excuse me? Books ARE technology! Paper is just an earlier version of the same things we can now download to our IPads, Kindles, Nooks, laptops, etc.
Of course this announcement upset the booksellers. They had already purchased inventory to sell at the conference, having been led to believe they would be invited. Plus, it’s the conference sales that sustain their livelihood.
As a result, the genealogy community was up in arms, after all, we love our books. Genealogists formally raised enough ruckus with RootsTech, that the conference staff relented and invited two booksellers to the exhibit hall.
Now for the sequel to the story. I checked the vendors every day of the conference. The booksellers had lots of books, really great ones I’d love to have.
Meitzler’s Family Roots Publishing surprised me, however. EVERY time I walked by, his booth had people LINED UP to purchase the Flip-Pal. A LINE! The Flip-Pal is a mobile handheld scanner. (You can read more about it from the link on my sidebar). They were selling like hotcakes and the price was $149 each!
I’m betting Meitzler had more sales than ANY OTHER VENDOR!
Meitzler taught us an important lesson: We need to change with the times, not forgetting or deleting past practices for those who need and want them, but by also embracing technology as it applies to us.
So here was a bookseller originally not invited to participate who it appeared did more business than the tech vendors. Kudos to Meitzler. He got the last laugh.
I’m living RootsTech vicariously through the blogs, and you are the first person to write about the book ruckus that had everyone so upset a few months ago. Thanks for keeping me updated on the book vendors. I’m so happy to hear that the book booth by Family Roots Publishing was so popular!
Thanks Heather! Hopefully you can rest assured that there is hope for genealogists in a tech world.
Ooooh… I’m so glad you wrote about this. I can’t imagine a conference without book vendors… and can’t imagine that book vendors won’t change with the times — adding and subtracting from their toolkits — as we’re all doing. Glad to hear this was such a success!
Thanks Judy! You seem to be on a roll as well with another mention on Randy’s list. Congrats!
I saw the Flip Pal banner at a booth, but didn’t realize it was connected to another vendor. Did Flip Pal have their own booth next door to Leland’s booth? And how did I never meet you??
Hi Jenna! The Flip Pal booth was three spots down from Family Roots Publishing. I’m sure Meitzler has a deal to sell the Flip-Pal, so Flip Pal was happy Meitzler was there. Either way, the Flip Pals were sold, so it was all good. I never met a lot of people because we all look different than our blogging or Facebook photo! Wish I had met you! Maybe next time we’ll add our photo to our name badge!