Friday 15 June 2012

Update on History / Genealogy Expo, Queensland, 25-27 Jun 2012

An interesting development in regard to the History and Genealogy Expo in Queensland, 25-27 June 2012, has prompted me to write this update.

The Expo will be held at the Centenary State High School, 1 Moolanda Street, Jindalee, Brisbane. There is free parking nearby, and the school is accessible by bus, and by car from most directions via motorways and main highways. Expo hours (note the Monday evening session) are:

Mon. 25 Jun: 12 noon - 9:15pm
Tues. 26 Jun: 9am - 5pm
Wed. 27 Jun: 9am - 4pm

There will be 39 main talks by 18 presenters from five states and the UK, plus 28 free presentations. The featured visiting presenter is Audrey Collins from the United Kingdom's National Archives. Audrey is always good value, as are Dan Lynch (author of the brilliant book Google Your Family Tree), Shauna Hicks and many other speakers at this event.

My talk on 'Black Sheep and Vanishing Relatives' is at 3:30pm on Tuesday 26th. I will be an exhibitor on all three days - but not all the time, because I am going to the talks by Audrey Collins, Dan Lynch and perhaps one or two others. If you want to ask my advice about Queensland research, please note that my booth will be unattended on Tuesday afternoon, and for up to an hour at various other times.

Admission to the Expo is cheaper if you book online by June 20th. An Expo admission ticket gives you access to:

* Research Help Zone. (If you need help with dead ends in your research, come prepared with copies of your certificates plus family group sheets or charts showing names and, most importantly, dates and places.)

* Free lookups in FindMyPast, GenesReunited, ScotlandsPeople and The British Newspaper Archive.

* At least 55 exhibitors from five States (libraries, archives, museums, family and local history societies, special interest groups, ethnic and cultural organisations, professional researchers, course presenters, antiquarian booksellers, online data services, printers, publishers and resellers of books, magazines, CDs and maps, etc.)

* 28 free presentations (short introductions to research, product demonstrations etc).

In addition to those free talks, the 39 main presentations (in two streams) will run almost continuously. It is now possible to save money by pre-purchasing tickets to those 39 main talks.

If you buy them on the day, tickets to most of the main talks will be $5 each, or $10 each for talks by Audrey Collins from the UK National Archives. Tickets for individual talks can be purchased at the Expo, but you can also buy an 'all you can attend' Gold Ticket. That gives you unlimited admission to the main talks, and costs just $50 if you buy it online by June 20th.

On the Web page where you buy your Expo admission tickets, scroll down to 'Presentations - Gold Ticket' and follow the instructions.

When you are considering the cost of Expo admission plus multiple talks (which, if booked in advance, is just $70 for three days), bear in mind that at the recent Australasian Congress on Genealogy and Heraldry in Adelaide we had to pay $450 to choose from about the same number of talks and interact with only a handful of exhibitors compared to 55+ at the Expo.

It may be a long time before another event on this scale is held in Queensland, so I do hope you can come.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the great post. :)
    And to others, I'm sorry for the confusion :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Expo range of talks is fantastic (and yes I am one of the
    speakers).

    Judy is so very right regarding the Expo's value for money. We paid $450 for the talks and on top of that was the flights and accommodation. A number of the Expo speakers also presented at Congress. However this is the first time Audrey Collins has spoken in Australia and she is a great speaker.

    The wide range of exhibitors also makes it very worthwhile. So many brick-walls can be dissolved by speaking with exhibitors as they know their specialist topics which may be just the clue you need.

    ReplyDelete

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