Reaching out

This week's Irish Roots post by John Grenham has the title Back To Our Past  His topic is the success of the Dublin “Over 50s Show” because "the organisers mix in smaller shows that appeal to sub-groups of its main audience ... the biggest is “Back To Our Past”, a genealogy event started four years ago that has now grown to be the main public face of Irish family history."

In Canada the equivalent is the Zoomer Show. The Toronto event is coming up later this month, October 26-27, 2013. Events are also scheduled in Vancouver next February 22-23, and in Ottawa April 26-27.

As in Ireland, these are opportunities for the Zoomer organization, and family history organizations, to cooperate for mutual benefit. That doesn't mean not-for-profit family history societies paying to be a commercial exhibitor. It means partnership.  

What it would take is leadership, and just as the Zoomer shows have a lead sponsor, Sun Life, it would seem to need someone from the commerical side of family history to make this kind of cooperation happen.

Where are you Ancestry.ca, or Findmypast?