ILTACON 2015 -- Cultivating Creativity

Dispatches on creativity from the ILTA conference.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the best things about ILTACON is the educational conferences. It really is unlike any other conference I’ve ever attended. There are over 200 educational sessions covering about 30 topics with several subtopics. What makes the educational sessions here different from most other conferences is one of the themes of the conference — “peers helping peers.” What you have here are mostly practicing attorneys giving presentations, “here’s some helpful information that I have found in my practice and I want to pass it onto you” as opposed to most conferences, which are vendor driven, and the sessions are mostly, “here is a great product our company makes and here’s how you can buy two of them.”

Last week when I interviewed Randi Mayes (the Executive Director of ILTACON), and the two co-chairs, Tracy Elmblad and Rick Krzyminski, we talked about how legal technology is merging into practices to become the norm. Hopefully, soon, we won’t be talking about legal technology like we do today because it will be integrated into our everyday life. Just like no one talks about living room technology when referencing TVs or advanced transportation technology when talking about cars we use to drive to work, soon, technology will just be part of all businesses, including legal.

The Opening Keynote — Cultivating Creativity

From the wheel to the iPhone, technology is born when someone applies a creative solution to a problem. The main thing that sets us apart from every other species on the planet is that human beings have an imagination. That was the message from Sir Ken Robinson, the opening keynote speaker here at ILTACON in a presentation titled “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.” Side note: Sir Ken is one of the most widely watched TED speakers on creativity.

As someone who gets about 100 hours of CLE credits a year, I can say Sir Ken’s presentation was one of the best I’ve ever attended, probably because it wasn’t directly technology related, but people and culture related.

Lessons Learned from Kodak

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Kodak was the first company to invent the portable camera. The idea of documenting your life and day-to-day activities was a foreign and radical concept when it came out and soon grew to a household item. In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy, yet the number of photos that people have taken in just the first 6 months of 2012 is probably greater than the number of photos taken in the 100 years prior. The difference is that, as the world evolved to digital, Kodak did not. They went from one of the largest companies to a shell of what it previously was — a wakeup call to businesses and law firms.

What It Means to Live Right Now

In the history of the world, it has been estimated that there have lived a total of about 100 billion people. Right now there are a little less than 10 percent of the total population that has ever lived on planet Earth. We are faced with problems that people did not have 10 or 20 years ago. We have expectations that people did not have 10 years ago. I remember the first research report I ever wrote in 9th grade on the Balkans. It involved going to a library and reading newspaper clippings that had been indexed by the librarians. Now, we can all get access to 1,000 times more information — articles, videos, photos, news reports, etc. on our phones in a fraction of the time it takes to even get your shoes on to go to the library.

My generation (I’m 36) has seen tremendous advancements. Think about how far we’ve gone in the last 5 years. In 2010, you still had to explain to people what Dropbox was. Wearables were still science fiction. The iPad was still a rumor. What will people say in 2020 about 2015? Technology is making things easier, solving old problems, and creating new struggles for those who fail to adopt.

How We Can Be Better

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Technology=creativity. Creativity comes from questioning the obvious. Instead of doing everything the same way you’ve always done it, question yourself. Question whether a better way exists. Of course, the best way to find what new and creative ways your peers have solved problems is to go to ILTACON.


Jeff Bennion is Of Counsel at Estey & Bomberger LLP, a plaintiffs’ law firm specializing in mass torts and catastrophic injuries. Although he serves on the Executive Committee for the State Bar of California’s Law Practice Management and Technology section, the thoughts and opinions in this column are his own and are not made on behalf of the State Bar of California. Follow him on Twitter here or on Facebook here, or contact him by email at jeff@trial.technology.

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