Another year, another ILTA Conference - this makes #13 for us. The quote in our blog title above is from a tweet from our friend and legal technology editor extraordinaire, Charles Christian of The Orange Rag and American Legal Technology Insider. We have been partners with ILTA for many years now and have always been impressed with the time and care they put into every factor of the conference planning. To put it clearly, they care about the experience that everyone at the conference has - all 2,654 attendees (including members, vendors, consultants, press, etc.). We took some time to reflect on what makes ILTA possibly "the Best Legal Tech Event in the Known Universe" and here is our top 10...
1. Bang for your buck: Attending a conference these days is not cheap and justifying the value and necessity of going to your boss, spouse, or colleague stuck with your work is often even harder. While these are the facts and conferences continue to take the ‘economy is bad so we must slash professional development and travel costs’ hit, ILTA deserves a round of applause for making annual ILTA conference attendance not only affordable but worthwhile. While ILTA member conference registration in 2011 totaled $1,025, we took a closer look at what this bought you: 200+ sessions (realistically attendees could pack in 16 of these, 4 each day); 4 notable keynote presentations; 2 meals each day (included!) plus numerous networking opportunities; and access to the vendor exhibit hall with 170+ legal technology and service providers who take this conference seriously and always have their management folks and C-levels on hand as well. While it is widely understood that this impressive ‘value proposition’ for attendees would not be possible without substantial vendor support, it is also a known fact that vendors realize tangible and measurable conference ROI as evidenced by the sold out exhibit hall each year. EVERY vendor we chatted with onsite called this the best ‘trafficked’ conference in years. Also, social media is still buzzing with post conference learnings, tips, tricks and attendee collaboration; conference materials including presentations and audio recordings are already available online for free for members, including folks who couldn’t make it to Nashville.
2. Shooting fish in a barrel, but in a good way: From a vendor perspective, where can you network with and sell to an audience that is 90+% involved in decision making (signs the checks) when it comes to legal technology purchases? On top of that, who can guarantee simultaneous access to IT leaders from the majority of Am Law 200 firms? Some legal technology events are a true exercise in booth qualifying and trying to find the few right prospects out of the entire group of attendees. From a firm IT perspective, where can you go to test-drive and demo any and every new legal technology innovation and have direct access to legal vendor leadership and decision makers? The bottom line - if legal IT is your target audience, then there is no more valuable, targeted event for legal technology suppliers than ILTA’s annual conference.
3. Reaping the benefits of volunteerism: We’ve been going to conference for 13 years and I’m always been impressed with how ILTA puts on such a massive event with a small(ish) staff, some of which don’t make the annual trek to conference? The answer is volunteers. Not only countless folks from local ILTA member firms and regions, but also many spouses, friends and family show up every year to help man the registration desks and work to make sure all conference goers get their money’s worth. The spirit of volunteerism runs deep and wide; ILTA was created by a group of volunteers, is led by volunteers, and still holds as its singular mission addressing the specific educational needs of its members through the voices of volunteer leadership. We tend to forget that all ILTA officers, regional vice presidents, city reps, peer group VPs, and others are volunteers who have day jobs, running law firm IT departments no less. If you have benefited from any of this ILTA volunteerism before, return the favor and give back via education, resources (human, technical or financial) or perhaps in a mentoring capacity.
4. Vendor sponsors…so much more than cash cows: We sometimes hear complaints that vendors' financial support is the only reason conferences including ILTA’s exist, and that on top of that, nobody appreciates exhibiting vendors, and basically treats them like second class citizens. Nothing could be further from the truth with ILTA. Yes, exhibiting at and sponsoring conference is not cheap, but there is so much value-add vendor sponsors can gain by getting involved. First off, beyond conference, ILTA support provides access to members and countless educational and networking opportunities throughout the year. Specific to conference, ILTA is one of the only (if not sole) legal technology event that urges vendors to:
- Speak: While roughly 70% of all 300+ 2011 conference speakers are ILTA members, the other 30% are comprised of legal technology vendors and consultants. ILTA recognizes vendor subject matter expertise and thought leadership and as such allows vendors to lead educational sessions and partner with ILTA members to present topics at conference. This ‘if you have something smart to say, we’ll consider you, regardless of title’ approach is refreshing and a far cry from the other legal events that have declared vendors can't speak, but oh wait, you can pay to speak. The only person that wins in that scenario is the event producers that are making the money off of it.
- Learn: ILTA is all about education and peer networking so it is no surprise that vendors are equally encouraged to attend conference sessions and educational tracks. After all, is there a better way to know what pains a CIO then to hear them, along with 3 other firm CIOs, directly address you.
- Author: Similar to speaking, ILTA encourages vendors to contribute content to various member publications, some specific to conference but many available throughout the year.
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Get recognition: ILTA’s Distinguished Peer Awards program honors the achievements of those ILTA members and vendor partners who are making technology work for the legal profession. The program recognizes those (including vendors) who have delivered great business value and transformational impact through their innovations and implementations or have been champions in specific areas of focus for their organizations. In 2011, vendors were eligible for 4 distinct awards including vendor thought leadership (awarded to Intelliteach's Lance Waagner); Consultant of the Year (awarded to Howard Russell at RBRO Solutions); Innovative Vendor (awarded to Handshake Software) and Vendor Implementation (awarded to Hubbard One).
5. Front row seats to breaking legal IT news: It’s been a while since so many high profile legal/tech-related announcements collided at one time, and we can’t think of a more appropriate venue than ILTA’s conference. As we recently mentioned in Attorney at Work’s Friday Five, recent legal market moves include Microsoft’s early August decision to shutter its legal market vertical division despite a major sponsorship and speaking line-up at ILTA 2011; HP’s $10 Billion acquisition of Autonomy; ADERANT’s acquisition of popular legal technology brands CompuLaw and Client Profiles; Apple-god Steve Job’s decision to resign as CEO; and Workshare’s patent infringement lawsuit of Litéra.
6. A technology conference using (shocker) technology: Is it too much to assume a base level of technological sophistication when attending a technology trade show or event (in our case, legal technology event)? Judging by what we have seen across various conferences over the years, the answer, sadly, seems to be yes. At past ILTA Conferences, this has not been an issue, but this year's ILTA raised the bar well above the basics (which often aren't covered). It was particularly refreshing to have access to the handy ILTA 2011 Mobile App which did everything we expected and much more. ILTA, which went paperless with its conference 3 or 4 years ago, provided the free app to all conference goers wanting to schedule sessions, navigate the vast Gaylord conference facility, connect with colleagues, clients and friends via twitter, check out new products and much more. Also, in contrast to other conference apps, this one is a true iTunes/Apple-approved app (not just a mobile website) and works very well on multiple devices. The ILTA Mobile App was installed an incredible 2,909 times - 1,024 iPad; 984 iPhone; 540 Blackberry; 361 Android - and 300+ unique visitors used the mobile website. In addition, the Mobile App enabled attendees to complete session evaluations (over 3,740 session evaluations submitted via the app) and to participate in session polls with 2,300 submissions. In addition to the nifty app (I wonder if it made it into the ’60 Apps in 60 minutes’ deck), ILTA set up an iPad rental program onsite at the Gaylord Opryland, enabling interested in a ‘test drive’ do so for a $50 week-long conference rental fee.
7. Evolving the wheel, not re-inventing it: New session formats: When you are offering 200 educational sessions and trying to somehow coordinate 300+ speakers (herding cats might be easier!) your best bet would be to keep things simple, stick to tried and true session formats, provide the same speaker tips, etc. Right? That's not what ILTA does. Led by TJ Johnson, Program Manager for ILTA Conferences, the 2011 event offered a variety of session formats all designed to educate, engage, and inform conference goers. As the Co-Producers (with Matt Homann) of Ignite Law (event with 6 minute, future-focused presentations) each year at ABA TECHSHOW, we were particularly pleased to count more than 5 different presentation formats including ILTA member case studies; panel discussions with multiple expert speakers; crowd-sourced content that came from attendees before and during the sessions; BarCamps that produce unstructured, attendee-driven content; and a few TED-style rapid fire presentations. We ourselves veered away from tradition and relied heavily on Twitter to share tips and advice ahead of our ‘Generating Media Exposure for IT Leadership’ panel discussion as well as include advice from industry editors not able to attend the conference as part of our session.
8. Law2020: It’s relatively easy to come up with a fancy marketing name or slogan for something and then just as easy to quickly abandon it once it has served its purpose or not caught on like the creative brain trust thought. Well, ILTA’s Law2020 initiative (launched in early 2010) is anything but that. What began with a forward-thinking future-themed issue of Peer to Peer in June 2010, has turned into a truly multi-platform (webinars, conference sessions, lunch and learns, publications) initiative with the goal of preparing the legal technology community for what is to come down the road. The Law2020 theme was integrated into the conference content including 9 sessions as well as daily keynotes covering specific aspects of the future of law practice and technology.
9. No "Scarlet Vs’: Anyone who follows InsideLegal or has talked with Jobst or me before, knows about our ongoing crusade in defense of vendors as subject matter experts and thought leaders. But, because of their status as software or service vendors they are more or less marked with what we refer to as the "Scarlet V’ for Vendor. For the last few years, we have focused on thought leadership and have 
been surprised how vendors are usually not included in that group. While there are definitely some vendors that we either wouldn’t consider thought leaders or wouldn’t trust to speak or write without promoting themselves, there absolutely are vendor experts that are unfairly excluded from opportunities just based on the 'Scarlet V’. This is becoming more and more prevalent with major industry publications and events denying vendors the chance to speak and/or write. ILTA is an absolute exception and we have spent many years collaborating with them on educational programs and content to reiterate this fact. ILTA not only realizes vendors are experts in their field but, as evidenced by publication and whitepaper content, and now a vendor thought leadership award, they are thought leaders. We applaud ILTA for embracing the complete legal community that includes vendors, firms, corporate, consultants, media and the like and hope that spreads within the community.
10. Community with a Capital ‘C’: For the past 8 years, InsideLegal has planned and orchestrated ILTA’s vendor education program, a 4 hour series of sessions and panels aimed to help vendors work more effectively with ILTA and ILTA member firms; better understand the legal trade media; and get the latest market research on large law firm technology purchasing patterns and trends. Every year, we seek out ILTA members and staff as well as legal vendors, consultants, and media to help us assemble the best sessions possible and every year the who’s who and subject matter expert crème de la crème steps forward to pitch in and pull off this mini-conference before the conference. What started with Program Director Peggy Wechsler’s mission to give back to the vendor community with valuable information and education has evolved into an invaluable tutorial for seasoned vendors and first-timers alike. Especially within the last 3 years, ILTA board members such as Joy Heath-Rush, past ILTA President, and outgoing President Scott Christensen have gone above and beyond to give vendors valuable tips on how best to sell to law firms and IT leaders. At the end of this years' program, incoming and now President, Michele Gossmeyer came up to us and said that she would love to be a part of the program and to help support the vendor partners. Just like your local community, the ILTA extended family just keeps expanding, welcoming those new to the profession and conference while acknowledging icons like Randi Mayes who have been on board since conference #1, 34 years ago.
Thanks to the ILTA Gang (pictured below) and the ILTA conference committee for all your hard work on 2011 and the fact that they are already working on 2012's conference. We'll next be at ILTA's European event, INSIGHT that will take place in London in May 2012. If you haven't attended INSIGHT yet, we recommend you try it out. See you back at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor, MD for the 35th Annual ILTA Conference, August 26–30, 2012.
[L-R] Peggy Wechsler; Judy Couvillion; Clay Gibney; Gaynor Senyszyn; Kristy Costello; Cristin Gaffney; Kristy Cole; TJ Johnson; Jeanne Martinez; Deb Himsel; Randi Mayes. {We'd also like to mention Ken Hansen who was unable to attend this year, but is always a huge part of conference!}
