Technology

10 Elements Of A Great Legal Tech Conference

There are a lot of events out there, how to make the best one.

By  
on

This week brings two major legal technology conferences: Relativity Fest in Chicago and the Clio Cloud Conference in New Orleans. If I knew how to be in two places at once, I would attend both. Since I don’t, you’ll find me in the Big Easy.

This will be the sixth Clio Cloud Conference and the sixth I’ve attended. I’ve been an unabashed fan of this conference since its start, adhering to my 2014 assessment of it as consistently one of the best legal technology conferences I attend. (See also my post-mortems on the conference in 2015 and 2016.) After last year’s conference, I was inspired to write a post about what makes a legal tech conference great.

But that post last year was a bit abstract. My conclusion boiled down to the idea that what makes a legal tech conference great is the people, “the sum total of those who attend.” But that only begs the question of what gets them there in the first place and motivates them to return the next year and the next.

So I thought I’d share my thoughts on the tangible and practical elements that make a conference stand out. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and invite you to share them with me via @bobambrogi on Twitter or by email to be at ambrogi-at-gmail.com.

1. The programming. No question, programming is the hardest part of planning a conference. For a legal tech conference, the programming should be a mix of practical and provocative, relevant and leading edge. Legal professionals want to know how they can use this stuff in their practices today, but also what they’ll want to be using a year from now. Conference organizers need to constantly keep their ears to the ground and imbue programming with an understanding of what’s trending, what’s coming and what matters.

2. The speakers. The best of programming falls flat if the speakers don’t deliver. Fearing that, conferences often fall back on the usual suspects — tried-and-true presenters from the past. But some of the best conferences I’ve been at have been ones where the speakers have surprised me — where people I’d never heard of proved to have unique and compelling insights and experiences to share. Avoid the usual suspects. Seek diversity in every way — not just in gender and ethnicity, but also in professional and life experiences. Beat the bushes for speakers who have practical, hands-on experience based on their own work.

It’s OK to use vendors as speakers. Some conferences avoid this. In the legal tech world, vendors are often the most-qualified experts. That said, it is not OK to require vendors to pay to speak. If you invite them to speak, it should be on the merit of what they have to say, not what they have to pay.

Sponsored

Speaking of pay, it is perfectly OK to pay the speakers. Conference organizers seem to think of speaking gigs as one-hour commitments. But preparing a speech or presentation can take days. If you want speakers your attendees will value, then you, as well, should value them and their time. Believe it or not, some conferences do not even cover speakers’ registration fees, let alone pay them for their time.

3. The keynotes. The key to a keynote is the message the speaker will deliver. It should be relevant, compelling and inspiring to the audience. Some of the worst keynotes I’ve seen have been Big Names selected, no doubt, for their celebrity, who had no clue who their audience was or what mattered to them. For that reason, it can be a mistake to have a keynoter who is from outside the legal industry or who has no familiarity with it. But even an outsider can be a killer keynoter if the message is right. Clio proved that last year when attendees seemed unanimous that one of the best keynotes they’d ever witnessed was the one delivered by Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield.

4. The venue. The city in which a conference is held is important to attracting attendance. But even more important is the physical space of the conference itself. I, for one, hate conferences held in cavernous convention centers or sprawling resorts, where finding and getting to events becomes a test of wits and stamina. I also hate, hate, hate conferences where there is nowhere to sit for conversations or meetings. (I’m looking at you, Legalweek, and the New York Hilton, where the impossibility of finding somewhere to sit has killed or short-circuited many a meet-up.)

The number one reason people attend conferences is to network, I believe, and the venue should foster this. For larger conferences, set aside comfortable seating areas in the exhibit hall, maybe even with charging stations. Throughout the programming areas, create nooks where people can sit and talk. Set aside rooms for attendees to plug in and share screens or collaborate. Make it easy, comfortable and relaxed to network.

5. The food. Ever try to find a healthy snack at a conference? I’m talking something as basic as a banana. At some conferences, the only food options are those godawful concessions that seem to specialize in crappy food or prowling the exhibit hall to dip into bowls of Hershey’s Kisses. Of course, some conferences do better — providing snack breaks and boxed lunches. But even then, the tendency seems to be to serve trays of sticky pastries or stainless steel tubs of fried anythings. All I ask are a few fruits, vegetables, and nuts.

Sponsored

6. The exhibit area. See #4 and #5 above. Make the exhibit area a destination for reasons other than the exhibitors. Provide seating and charging stations. Offer food and snacks. Put on programs there.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but the physical area of the exhibit hall is important. The closer the exhibit hall can be to the programs, the better. The hall itself should encourage a natural flow. For years, before finally moving to a better venue, ABA Techshow was cursed with an exhibit hall that extended into a separate, back-room section. For vendors, being placed there was like being banished to Siberia.

Clio does something with its exhibitors that I really like but that isn’t for every conference — it democratizes them. Every exhibitor gets a standard booth and a standard space. None of those expansive mega-vendor displays. Every vendor is on a more-or-less equal footing. Other conferences, including ABA Techshow, have adopted this format on a limited scale in special sections of their exhibit halls designed to highlight startups.

7. The staff. Consistently, a stand-out feature of the Clio conference is the staff. Clio brings battalions of its employees to its conference. Last year, of the 240 people it then employed, roughly half were at the conference. They are everywhere, eager and available to answer whatever question one may have, from finding an event room to understanding a product feature. I was similarly struck by the helpfulness and availability of the staff at this year’s ILTA conference. While staffers were not as abundant as at Clio, they were strategically placed throughout the somewhat sprawling (see #4) venue, and graciously helped me multiple times as I raced to find my next meeting.

8. The networking. In my opinion, networking, more than anything else, is the raison d’etre of a conference. For that reason, conference organizers should do everything they can to promote it. As I’ve discussed above, that ties into the design of the physical space. But it also ties into the design of the programs. Make programs as interactive as possible. Involve the audience to the extent possible. Offer programs that are intimate in size and format. Offer food breaks (see #5) in settings that encourage mingling. Have off-grid events, such as yoga classes and group runs.

9. Breathing room. There are two bad extremes of conference planning: those that are so tightly scheduled that there is no time for networking or meetings or anything else, and those that are so loosely scheduled that attendees find themselves staring at their phones in hallways to kill the time. Getting the balance right isn’t easy, but programming should err on the side of breathing room, so that attendees can mingle and network and have time to think and process what they’re learning.

10. Fun. Here’s something else Clio does well — it makes its conference fun. I mean, this is a conference that traditionally starts with a dancing, hand-clapping, rousing parade of staffers encouraging a roomful of legal professionals to get up on their feet and cheer. Of course, all conferences have parties and plenty of opportunities to have fun, but too often the conference proper takes itself too seriously and creates an air that seems sober and stilted. Even serious subjects can be tackled in fun and creative ways.

And one final tip: Try not to schedule your legal tech conference at the same time as another legal tech conference. After all, we want to get to as many as we can.

Robert Ambrogi Bob AmbrogiRobert Ambrogi is a Massachusetts lawyer and journalist who has been covering legal technology and the web for more than 20 years, primarily through his blog LawSites.com. Former editor-in-chief of several legal newspapers, he is a fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and an inaugural Fastcase 50 honoree. He can be reached by email at ambrogi@gmail.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@BobAmbrogi).

CRM Banner

Topics

, ,