Keynote Speakers at RootsTech 2016

Genealogy conferences are great because they give people the opportunity to network with other genealogists who live far away from them. The other reason why people enjoy conferences is because it is possible to learn a lot from the speakers. RootsTech 2016 has an exciting lineup of Keynote speakers.

There are three Keynote speakers scheduled for Thursday, February 4, 2016. Steve Rockwood is the managing director for the Family History Department, and President/CEO of FamilySearch International. FamilySearch is one of the sponsors of RootsTech 2016. Steve Rockwood has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Paula Madison is the Chairman and CEO of Madison Media Management, LLC, a Los Angeles based media consultancy company with global reach. She is the executive producer of Finding Samuel Lowe: From Harlem to China, a documentary that chronicles her journey to her maternal grandfather’s homeland in China and the reconnection of her family with his 300 descendants.

Bruce Feiler writes the “This Life” column for the Sunday New York Times and is the author of six consecutive New York Times bestsellers. He is also the writer and host of the PBS series Walking the Bible in which he describes his perilous, 10,000-mile journey retracing the five books of Moses through the desert.

There are also three Keynote speakers scheduled for February 5th, 2016. Two of them are Josh and Naomi Davis. Naomi is known by her online viewers as “Taza”, from her blog Love Taza which was started in 2007, shortly after she married Josh. The blog was her digital diary and an easy way to share newlywed life in NYC with her family out west. Today, the blog has become a digital destination where people find a feeling of inspiration and a guide for finding joy in their everyday experiences.

David Isay is the recipient of four Peabody Awards and a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. He is the founder of StoryCorps, which is an award-winning organization that provides people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve their life stories.

There are two Keynote speakers for February 6th, 2016. Michael Leavitt is the founder and chairman of Leavitt Partners, where he helps clients navigate the future as they transition to new and better models of care. He served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Secretary of Health and Human Services. He also was elected three times as the Governor of Utah.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. She worked with Stephen Spielberg on the movie Lincoln, which was based in part on Goodwin’s award-winning book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. You might recognize her because of her frequent television appearances.

Image by Jingles the Pirate on Flickr.

Related Articles at FamilyTree.com:

* You Are There – Roots Tech Conference

* RootsTech 2016 Why Attend?

* RootsTEch 2015 Video Archive Now Available