InsideLegal: January 2017

InsideLegal’s 2017 Legaltech NY Word Cloud (along with 7 year flashback)

Next week, a few thousand people will convene at Legaltech New York (LTNY), part of an expanded Legalweek format, for three days of exhibitions, networking and legal technology sessions. To give an overview of what will be covered in those sessions, we have created our 7th annual LTNY agenda word cloud, visually displaying the words/themes included in the event's agenda of sessions. Based on the information from present/past word clouds and general event buzz , here are our initial observations:

eDiscovery ...no surprise: Over the years, LTNY has taken on a larger focus on eDiscovery as well as a larger group of eDiscovery exhibitors and the word cloud supports that. Unfortunately, this has caused a stream of established non-eDiscovery vendors to shelve their attendance at the show.
No such thing as a free lunch: The days of free LTNY exhibit/conference passes are now over. How will this impact attendance numbers and delegate quality? I feel this will really weed out the tire kickers/"what are you giving away?" visitors.
LegalCIO still picking up steam: Formerly the Law Firm Chief Information and Technology Officers Forum, the event aims to pack a punch with an intriguing 9 session, 6 roundtable agenda delivered by law firm C-levels, GCs and vendor sponsor executives. We have attended this event as well for the past 5 years and the sessions are impressive.
Investigations vs. AI: According to the 2017 word cloud, it's all about investigations (how do e-discovery, analytics, cross-border regulations and information governance impact them?!). What about artificial intelligence, one of the most popular, buzz-worthy term in late 2016? [Hint: It's to the left of eDiscovery]
What happened to the Codex start-up pavilion? Unfortunately, they were not invited in 2017. With startups rising up at unprecedented levels, these types of spotlights seem to make sense.

FYI ... the size of selected words dictates how often they have been mentioned or referenced within the agenda (aka, how popular they are). [Click on image to enlarge]

This is the seventh year we have used the event program to create a visual snapshot of the main content themes and discussion topics. How does this compare to previous years? What topics made headlines in our word clouds for 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011? Take a look and compare for yourself...