Unlike Miriam Margolyes, I did not have any trouble with mobile phones at the Chicago conference. However, I did think it was very parochial - International being taken to mean USA in a lot of cases. I went to two sessions which made me cringe - one a session on a new Polish ancestry (non Jewish) website- given by an American whose accent was difficult to understand and who constantly talked by making analogies to American football or baseball that Europeans would not understand. I also attended another session about so called Forensic Genealogy, again not to do with Jewish genealogy - which seemed to consist of nothing but a talk on US lawsuits - and which to me had nothing to do with what I understand by forensic genealogy. I thought the biggest problem with the conference was bad programming - too many similar things put on at the same time. I went to Chicago to research my Chicago family who had gone there from Liverpool in 1905 (after 30 years in the UK). A session on Cook County legal records (where again the speaker made analogies with American sports) was put on at the same time as one on the Newberry Library. If you wanted to use both resources, this was not very helpful. Another session on Chicago resources was put on at 7 (seven) am and did not provide me with any information on this - it was merely a question and answer session. Yet again, two sessions were put on at the same time on DNA - I went to the Jon Entine one (author of The legacy of Abraham's Children) which was badly attended compared to the Steve Morse one on at the same time. What surprised me the most was that so many similar sessions were put on in 2008 that I had already seen in London in 2001, seven years before. Surely the programme should be updated? I thought the 2001 London conference was better organised/programmed than the Chicago one. I gather a number of US delegates have made suggestions for change in 2009 to be more relevant. However, in spite of this, I thought some of the sessions were really, really good, it is just a pity that some sessions spoilt the overall impact of the conference. It would be better if there were fewer but better quality sessions, with some of the more obscure ones removed. But please could Americans remember that not all Jews live in America, and that not all conference delegates are American. I understand that Paris and Australia may be on the cards for future years - about time too. Jill Whitehead Researching Marks, Max, Maxwell and Silverman in Chicago/Detroit and Sirvan/Serviansky in Pittsburgh/California