DebN on Family Tree Circles

My partner and I have attended a number of genealogy conferences, mostly held in hotels or the premises of the genealogy groups. Sometimes the accommodation has been pretty basic. But then an organising group called "Unlock the past" came up with a conference cruise leaving Brisbane, Australia and taking in the Pacific islands (Fiji, New Caledonia, Vana Atu) over nine days. On days when there were shore excursions, we had no formal lectures although some special interest groups met. On ship-bound days, lectures and workshops were run by very professional genealogists, as well as peer-to-peer activities and other fun events such as genelogy trivia quizzes. Costs came to about $A300/day which is comparable with staying in an hotel, meals are provided on the ship and require absolutley no work, so we were able to really devoye ourselves to genealogy. Fluid arrangements in the dining room meant that special interest groups could extend their meetings into dinners and the "experts" were spread around dinner tables to answer questions. All this and fabulous pacific islands.
Since that inaugural cruise others have been held circumnavigating New Zealand, and next year circumnavigating Australia.
Conference organisers faced with ever increasing prices in city conference venues should really explore this option. Every participant had a fantastic, if tiring, cruise.
Deb N.