Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:02:06 -0230 (NDT)
From: David Pike 
To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Subject: News from the FTDNA Conference



Hi everybody.

On Monday evening I got home from spending the weekend at a conference in 
Houston that FamilyTreeDNA organised for project administrators.  As in 
previous years, I was able to redeem frequent flyer miles to enable me to 
travel to this, their fifth, conference.

In total, about 200 project administrators for various surname, 
geographical, and haplogroup projects were present, and we all chatted at 
length about various aspects of our projects.  We also were addressed by a 
number of speakers that FamilyTreeDNA had arranged for us, including Dr. 
Spencer Wells (he's the leader of National Geographic's Genographic 
Project).  It was a good conference, and there were various news items, 
etc., that I want to share with you.

First of all, about a week or two earlier, several representatives from 
FamilyTreeDNA had attended the "Who Do You Think You Are?" family history 
fair held in London, England.  This annual event draws about 10,000 people 
over the two or three days that it is held.  This was FTDNA's first time 
at WDYTYA, and by all accounts the response they received was 
overwhelmingly positive.  I believe they have already decided to return to 
next year's event (and to arrange for more space for their workshops, 
which were filled beyond capacity this year).  One item that I 
particularly enjoyed hearing about from somebody who attended WDYTYA was 
that our Pike project was listed among the handful of projects that FTDNA 
chose to put in the brochures distributed at WDYTYA (although I'm not 
aware that our project picked up any new members as a result, at least not 
yet).

News regarding the UK gets even better though.  Within minutes of the 
start of the FTDNA conference, it was announced that FTDNA has made a 
strategic decision to go strongly after the UK market.  As a next step in 
this regard, FTDNA announced that they will be sponsoring the 
International Clan Gathering that will be taking place in Edinburgh in 
July.  Moreover, they have signed an agreement so that they will be the 
exclusive DNA company present there.

There was some speculation about whether FTDNA would establish a permanent 
presence in the UK, and I was left with the impression that they are (or 
soon will be) negotiating with somebody in the UK to establish an 
affiliate there.

I view these developments as extremely positive, both for the future of 
genetic genealogy, but also for our Pike project since the vast majority 
of all Pike lines hail from the UK, including those still living there! 
That FTDNA is taking some very proactive steps to promote genetic 
genealogy within the UK is welcome news indeed.

The presentation that was given to us about the Genographic Project by 
Spencer Wells offered news of a big promotion that National Geographic 
will be undertaking later this year.  Sometime around September, a movie 
or TV mini-series involving the Genographic Project will be coming out. 
Expect lots of publicity and media attention at the time, and hopefully 
also lots of new-found interest among people who haven't yet gotten 
involved in genealogical or ancestral DNA testing.

Something else for us all to look forward to is the availability of more 
markers.  Currently FTDNA offers 67 standard markers plus some additional 
ones in their "Advanced" DNA tests.  No timelines were stated, but we did 
see that there are plans to introduce two new panels of markers that 
combined would allow us to go from 67 up to 92 markers.

There were lots of other behind-the-scenes developments mentioned too, 
such as a much improved web interface for me and Stu to use when 
performing the administrative stuff that we do for our project.  We also 
got to see some photos of the damage that Hurricane Ike did to the FTDNA 
offices.  Suffice it say that their office space was rendered 
uninhabitable and that they've endured some frustrations while working in 
temporary space and getting their office and equipment renovated, or 
re-constructed as the case may be.  Not to worry though, FTDNA's standard 
DNA tests are performed at lab facilities at the University of Arizona and 
so FTDNA's core business operations have kept right on going.  Probably 
only a few people would have taken note of it, but while Houston faced the 
wrath of Hurricane Ike last fall, the FTDNA website experienced no 
down-time at all, thanks in large part to previously made 
disaster-planning contingencies.

In addition to being able to meet with the scientists and employees of 
FTDNA, one of the benefits of being able to attend the conference and chat 
with other project leaders is that we get to share and hear about each 
other's experiences, including our interactions with FTDNA.  One commonly 
expressed observation that I'll echo is that the people at FTDNA are 
consistently approachable and responsive.  I look forward to seeing them 
again at future conferences, although the next one might not occur until 
late 2010.

Now that I'm home from this conference (as well as another conference in 
the USA that I attended a week earlier), I need to get caught up on 
various things.  Several new DNA results have come back from the lab in 
recent weeks, so expect to hear something about them once I get a chance 
to get settled and then write up a few details.

- David.