As a member of the National Genealogical Society, I received the conference program in the mail that details the offerings for the 2018 Family History Conference, to be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, May 2 to 5. I attended the 2015 NGS conference, which was held near me in St. Charles, Missouri, but I haven’t traveled to an NGS conference due mostly to scheduling conflicts.

I pored over the session offerings, placing stars by the sessions I might want to attend. There are 10 different choices per breakout session time slot, five time slots per day, except for the first day, when there is a keynote opening session. It is four days chock full of opportunities to learn. I’m a little exhausted just reading the schedule!

I starred at least three offerings per session, which I think is a good indicator that I ought to attend the conference. Registration opened yesterday, and the early bird registration fee for members (postmarked by 20 March 2018) is $215. (Early bird non-members pay $250.) To me that is a huge bargain, but I’m accustomed to organizers’ conferences where I pay over $700 registration fee.

Ten of the 180 lectures will be live streamed, for those not able to go. NGS will announce details of that next year. Some of the lectures will be recorded and the recordings available for purchase.

If you’re interested in more information or registering, visit the NGS conference website. You can see the full conference program here , though, weirdly, I have to admit I found the paper program (here’s a pdf) a little easier to take in.

If you decide to go, let me know and maybe we can meet up!